Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

This sounds like what I need so bad

Hi, my name is Warren. I have dry eye disease, whose cause has yet to be determined (after 6 years). I don't have pain in the sense of "hurt", but I do have it in the sense of irritation that is constant any time I have my eyes open. For that reason it seems I am more similar and sympathetic to people who have chronic pain than other types of disorders. People do not understand how it feels to constantly have sand in your eyes, or large foreign objects, and burning, and when one looks--there's nothing there! When I leave home or go outdoors, I find that wearing a snug-fitting pair of high-school chemistry lab goggles help keep my eyes from drying out so fast helps, but it is humiliating, and you should hear the comments some people make! I've said enough for now, but I am so glad to be part of this group. I hope I can help some of you. Thanks. Warren

Hi, my name is Tommy and I have several chronic diseases. I am not living in the US and am moving from Singapore back to my home country Sweden. I was first sick in 2001 in Sweden and got wrong diagnose and disability pension in 2004. In 2005 I moved to Singapore and the climate made it a lot better so I started working and cancelled my disability pension. But it got worse and I haven't been able to work for some years and I got help from the health care system here after ending up in the emergency.

It has taken time and the first diagnose was that my knees was worn out and that I had multiple polyarthritis and was put in a wheelchair. I got physiotherapy in warm water and it has helped me a lot. Now I am diagnosed with fibromyalgia, arthritis, chronic sinusitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome as my prostate and urine bladder gives me problems. On top of that my left lung is collapsing, I have Meckel's Diverticulum (a pocket on the colon) and when they examined that, colonoscopy, they found the beginning to colon cancer. At this time it was benign but they could not see the whole colon clearly and want it to be done again in Sweden. Like that wasn't enough I also had a heart attack 26 August last year with following surgery and in the middle of November I was back to hospital with heart problems. My heart was beating to slow and irregular. Tomorrow I will be admitted for a sleep study as I suffer a lot from insomnia.

I also have an abusive marriage and starved so I lost 25 kg and was diagnosed with malnutrition. Thankfully I got help from the social welfare so I could at least eat one meal a day. I am very thankful for the help I have got here in Singapore; they have done a lot for me. After several years of struggle in court I finally got help from legal aid and am getting a divorce from my wife and can return to my home country. I have tried to leave before but my wife has stopped me and now I have to leave because I will lose my PR because of the divorce.

But I have nowhere to go. I am going back to a place I have lived before but because of the refugee situation in Sweden there is no housing available. Even the health care system is trying to make it hard for me to come there. I have a daughter and grandchildren there and my daughter is helping me but fighting with the bureaucrats is horrible. I just have to go there and just hope they will help me otherwise I will end up on the street without health care. The catch 22 is that I can't stay with my daughter because then they will say I don't need help. The Swedish system is for refuges not for helping returning citizens. And they misdiagnosed me before. I hope I at least can refill my medications as I am not allowed to take everything with me into the country and I so badly need a wheelchair. Hope I can get help with it.

Sorry for writing so long but I am in a lot of pain and the situation is desperate so I need all the input I can get. Thank you.

I'm a 65yr old female who had always struggled even in my 20's with contacts whichever ones I tried but was never diagnosed with dry eye. When I was 49 I decided to get cateract surgery as opposed to laser due to that causing dry eye in some people who didn't have it before. Over the yrs that followed ( probably due to my age and having fibromyalgia) my eyes were constantly gritty. In my 50's I was diagnosed with Glaucoma by an eye surgeon here in Nanaimo,BC who told me I had really bad 'Dry Eyes'.After a long discussion about how long I had felt this awful condition which was worse when I had to do my 2 X 12 hr shifts on night as a nurse he Px me Restasis eye drops,It has changed my life. I have been using them now for about 9 yrs and have gone down from twice a day to once a day. I always carry around some OTC drops for those odd days when they might still feel a little dry of I get a bit of mascara in my eye. They are expensive but the eye Dr gives me a discount card when I see him once a yr which gives me 3 boxes at half price.

@anniebrook I also have dry eyes but do OTC gtts the Dr. never said I need Restasis but now I have a lot of gritty eyes especially when I wake up my eyes feel like sand in corners. I'm going to ask her next time about Restasis since my eyes are constantly like this somedays I have to put in the drops 5 times. I wondered if there was some help with the price .

I use Testasis every day. The manufacturer offers a great deal IF you have no insurance or you’re not on Medicare. A person isn’t eligible for any prescription discount cards if on Medicare. I’ve spent lots of time checking that out.
I have insurance but it was still $366.00 per month. So, I went online and scouted for a local pharmacy offering a cheaper price. I discovered that Walgreens was only charging me $47.00 a month after insurance. That’s still a lot but relatively speaking it’s a lot less than what other pharmacies are charging. I guess it pays to shop around.

Oops! I mean Restasis. Wish we could edit these things.

Hi, my name is Allan, I have been diagnosed with ilionguinal neuropathy from hernia surgery. I am in constant pain, the only relief, is the medication which only reduces the level of pain. No one seems to understand what this pain is doing to my activities of daily living. If someone knows if there is any clinicle studies on this I would appreciate any information. I would also like some help in assessing the Ama guide to impairment in relation to this problem. <br />
Thank you<br />
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