I really relate to what you are going through, Jamie. I have had 13 sports and dance related surgeries that all started in 1973. And I need at least 5 more because I am sick of surgeries and often the pain medication doesn’t work after the surgeries and it is HELL!! I have a connective tissue disease called Ehlers Danlos and it affects everything like your veins, skin, arteries, blood vessels, colon, heart, etc. I started throwing clots 6 months ago and they lodged right near my heart. But I had symptoms and they caught it before I croaked. I guess There is big things they have to keep an eye on like changes in the aorta ( John Ritter died in his 40’s of a ruptured aorta.. he had ED) and I recently had a ruptured colon and had to have a colostomy.. Yuk… and that bag for 5 months.. Almost Died.. was in the ICU for 8 days. Hospital for a month. Any surgery that involves soft tissue… like the rotator cuff surgery that I really need because my shoulder dislocates almost monthly.. has been for at least 10 years and after going to the ER in the beginning for them to fix it, I have become an expert at popping it back in. Takes hours of pain.. maneuvering.. praying and yelling!! But most of the time I avoid the ER.. They have told me that I only have a 50 percent chance it will take!! I know how painful that surgery is because I have had it on my right shoulder but that one didn’t dislocate. 🤷‍♀️I am sick of having surgery. With this disease you just don’t know if it’s going to work. They diagnosed me after a surgery on my foot, a simple bunionectomy turned my whole foot all splayed out and gross.
I have been on some form of pain medication on and off LOL, I am SO SORRY for the rambling NOVELA you had to read.. 🤦‍♀️ .. Um since high school.. I was always really achy.. living on my heating pad after cheerleading practice. My mom used to rub DEEP HEAT cream on my back before school in first grade and kids bullied me cause I smelled like menthol!! I didn’t care.. Helped my back pain. I guess it’s genetic Born with it.. my mom was diagnosed with it when I was. I am 67 now and I have always been very “bendy and klutzy “. 2 sure signs 😂My opioid needs we’re off and on but when I was having SO many surgeries back to back and eventually pain became chronic I began pretty much taking them daily!! 10/325 I am allowed to take 6 a day but on an average day 4-5. The judgment you get from family, is terrible.. at least my siblings.. who because of that I don’t hang with. People who don’t understand living with chronic pain and have no empathy are just hard for me. I have been to pain Docs and got 2 different treatments!! Mind you that I have had 2 spinal fusion’s L-3-4toL-5-S-1 I think. One pain doctor just wanted to give me epidurals all the time and I am allergic to Cortisone. He also did all these nerve tests on my spine and wanted to give me morphine and Norco as well!! There were always a ton of people in the waiting room!! I live in a smaller town. Then I read in the paper they were shut down for pushing too many meaningless tests on older people.
So I found another “pain” Dr and as soon as I walked in he told me that if I was looking for opioids for a solution for my pain forget about!! He only orders epidurals and PT. My nurse practitioner that I see monthly because I check in for clinical depression, fibromyalgia, Hashimotos Thyroid disease and others that requires meds said that SHE would take over my pain management and muscle relaxer medication, but she told me she was nervous about it because the DEA is breathing down DR’s throats because it got out of hand in the past and Drs are losing their licenses over minor precautions. My Dr who I loved had his license suspended probably 10 years ago because a family had a son who he treated for pain from a broken bone and the kid got addicted and got some off the street and OD’d. Norco.
My stepson had addiction issues since he was a freshman. I caught him stealing my Norco once and had to buy a lock box. I got divorced from his dad and his alcoholic and mild issues with pills I guess finally killed him. A year ago this last January he bought a “Norco” from someone selling on the street or a friend, to party with his best friend In Arizona who he had not seen in a couple years. Guess it was laced with Fentanyl, and his best friends wife found him face down on the kitchen floor after they had come home from the Casino… He was 29. His father, and sister and grandparents are devastated. I am as well since I raised him ( half custody) since he was 3 until he was 18. My 2 kids are broken. They keep saying saying it’s an OPIOID crisis and all these people are dying of what us people with chronic pain could NOT function!! It is a fentanyl crisis! And the government needs to open more facilities for helping people. Rehabs. I have run my mouth way too LONG! I hope I have helped a shred!! I DO know what you all are going through.. and I feel so bad for you and my empathy is here for you. Hugs