Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

I'm Monique. I'm in constant severe pain all day everyday. I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease, cronic granulomatous, cronic fatigue syndrome, gerd, ibs, and type II diabetes. Ive had 3 left rotator cuff surgeries, 2 cervical fusions, lumbar fusion, gull bladder removal, inguinal hernia repar, partial hysterectomy, 2 broken ankles and 3 ingrown toenail surgeries. I take 5mg of Hydrocone every 8 hrs, 900mg 3x per day of gabapentin, 2500 MG of tylenol all for pain. Nothing works. I'm on the heating pad several times a day, I use salanpas pain patches every day and muscle rubs. I need help. Don't know how much more I can take. Please help, any suggestions

I'm Monique. I'm in constant severe pain all day everyday. I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease, cronic granulomatous, cronic fatigue syndrome, gerd, ibs, and type II diabetes. Ive had 3 left rotator cuff surgeries, 2 cervical fusions, lumbar fusion, gull bladder removal, inguinal hernia repar, partial hysterectomy, 2 broken ankles and 3 ingrown toenail surgeries. I take 5mg of Hydrocone every 8 hrs, 900mg 3x per day of gabapentin, 2500 MG of tylenol all for pain. Nothing works. I'm on the heating pad several times a day, I use salanpas pain patches every day and muscle rubs. I need help. Don't know how much more I can take. Please help, any suggestions

Hello everyone, welcome to Connect - @redhatter, @chesbeau, @sheld11004, @mayopam, @szucker99, @samz0429 and all -

My apologies for this being a group message and not addressing you each individually. I have read your posts. Thank you for sharing your chronic pain journeys, it's
not always easy to do. I'm very sorry for all that you're going through. For me it's a little difficult to read about so many chronic struggles that I relate to and have compassion for. I live with Central Sensitization Syndrome (CSS) which basically means my central and peripheral nervous systems are hypersensitive sending louder messages to my brain. CSS helps explain a lot about migraine, gut issues, neuropathy, sleep disorders, CRPS, etc...

As you folks navigate Connect, I'd like to throw some food for thought your way regarding CSS and pain management. For those who may not be aware, Mayo Clinic has a comprehensive Pain Rehabilitation Center (PRC) at all 3 of it's locations, MN, AZ and FL. I graduated the PRC almost 2 years ago with the tools I needed for pain management and self help. It was the most rewarding thing I have ever done for myself. Here's a link with information about the PRC:

- https://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/pain-rehabilitation-center/sections/overview/ovc-20481691

Like some of you, I was on the merry-go-round of failed treatments, meds not doing enough anymore, and doctor after doctor. This is called the "Cycle of Pain" and it's hard to not get trapped in it. I didn't have a plan of how to manage all of my conditions physically or emotionally. Through research, I finally discovered the following video by Mayo Clinic's Dr. Sletten of the Pain Rehabilitation Center. He made sense of what I was going through and what I could do to help myself collectively. Take a look...

As you'll find, Dr. Sletten explains CSS and the science behind chronic pain and symptoms. He makes sense of the mind body connection and how it can be managed through a comprehensive plan that includes the 4 pillars of physical, emotional, behavioral and chemical.

I'm always curious what folks think about the video and look forward to hearing back from you. I'm happy to help or further elaborate on my experience with the PRC and pain management. Do you mind letting me know what you think? Did any parts of the video resonate or help you have a better understanding of your chronic symptoms or a new approach in managing them?

Hi Rachel,

Thank you for sharing this video! It was really interesting as it's a whole different approach to dealing with chronic pain. I am really intrigued. I just got accepted to Mayo through General Internal Medicine and will be visiting the Rochester location. I have lupus and fibromyalgia, so I will be meeting with a General Practitioner, Rheumatologist and have a Fibromyalgia consultation in the Integrative Medicine and Health department. If the PRC clinic is something I am interested in doing, would I just mention my interest to the doctors and see if they would be willing to refer me? I have not been diagnosed with CSS but it is spot on with what I am experiencing. I have pain signals going off all over my body day in and day out and my body is hypersensitive to many things - what I ingest, sound, smells, weather changes, heat, cold, etc. The pain is progressively getting worse and the pain meds don't nearly help enough. My doctors keep upping the dose or adding more, which I hate to do.

Thanks for sharing this! I found the video very reassuring. All this pain and the life disruption it causes is not in my head! On paper, I appear to be a very healthy person, but my body knows how to hijack me…
Fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, peripheral neuropathy, and 2 forms of Vasculitis plague me daily. Unless things get bad, I manage to go through my day without having to take pain medicine including Tylenol because even that makes me sleepy!
Topical magnesium creams, Aspercream, and Biofreeze are my go to helpers.

@moniesluv1974 Hi, Monique. I have no idea how old you are but you sound like you have a lot of very painful conditions. I’m not sure how you feel about pain medication but it seems like your dosage is very small, even for someone without half of your conditions, 5 mg every 8 hours. Do you have a pain management doctor that can adjust your dosage or are you trying not to use opioids? I am so sorry you have all of this going on with you!

I'm Monique. I'm in constant severe pain all day everyday. I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease, cronic granulomatous, cronic fatigue syndrome, gerd, ibs, and type II diabetes. Ive had 3 left rotator cuff surgeries, 2 cervical fusions, lumbar fusion, gull bladder removal, inguinal hernia repar, partial hysterectomy, 2 broken ankles and 3 ingrown toenail surgeries. I take 5mg of Hydrocone every 8 hrs, 900mg 3x per day of gabapentin, 2500 MG of tylenol all for pain. Nothing works. I'm on the heating pad several times a day, I use salanpas pain patches every day and muscle rubs. I need help. Don't know how much more I can take. Please help, any suggestions

Hello there, thanks for your response. Yes matter of fact I'm at my pain management doctor now. They're sending me to have water therapy. They try not to prescribed too much opioid. But I will ask for atleast the next dosage up. I'm 48yrs old and have been dealing with this 13yrs. It worsens every year.