Chronic Pain

Living with chronic pain. I don't talk about it much because I hate it and it sounds like whining. People ask why I don't just stay in bed when it hurts. Well, because I would never get out of bed, and there are things that I would like to do... like live life. Trust me, I've sought help for this. I've tried several avenues. I've gotten scans, been to dozens of doctors, gotten massages, and taken I don't know how many medications... Nothing so far seems to help. I have chronic headaches. My high school youth leader has fibromailgia now, but you would never know it. We talk about living with chronic pain sometimes. It's a completely mysterious world to someone not familiar- they think "well, just take 2 Advil and move on". Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

We talked a few weeks ago about it, and she was going to an event at her church, where very few people know about it for her. She would act like her "normal" self, but be on the couch for at least 4 hours in pain the following day because it took so much out out of her. It seems to be if you are extroverted and deal with chronic pain that you don't know how to talk to others about the issue, because you aren't sure how they are going to react really. So instead, I just keep silent, isolating myself in pain further. There are very few people who understand because I've found very few people dealing with chronic pain as well. This last week, my doctor started me on Cymbalta to try to get my pain under control. This isn't a "woe is me" entry, but just a "there's got to be some relief out there besides becoming an addict..." and I want to live a healthier life than that with other alternatives. I'm willing to look for alternatives certainly, and feel like I've already tried most of the things that are out there, and I really want to get healthy and better, but I feel I'm out of options that I know of, and am looking for additional help and ideas. Being in a new place is making my headaches even present differently, so I'm starting to note how that is so. Living with chronic pain is not a clean cut issue unfortunately, and makes for some dicey issues to deal with. Thankfully, I am getting some new doctors with new ideas on approaching the situation and I am writing down what has been tried before and how it has effected me. Hopefully that will make a difference as I move forward. I just needed to get that out!
Love,
Amy Christine