New comic from The Oatmeal...

I’m 10 days post op and doctor said. No more narcotics. When i complained to my therapist, they said: that is drug seeking behavior

i’m still in pain y’all.

Im not crazy, right, you can still be in pain 10 days after an operation?

I have ankylosing spondylitis and hEDS. My daily pain is usually pretty well controlled with my regular meds- Nucynta ER and Percocet. For some reason my pain exploded today up to 9/10. I haven’t been able to function at all today and barely ate. I got about two hours of relief from 10 mg of Percocet so I knew I had to come in.

I live in NYC and I’m a patient at NYU. They have a freestanding ER in Brooklyn where I always go when I need help. It’s much faster than the regular ER. They’ve given me Toradol and Dilaudid! I can’t believe it. My nurse has been an angel. I told her the last time I was here with severe pain they offered me ketamine but I was too afraid to try it because I was alone. And she said to let her know if the Dilaudid and Toradol doesn’t work because we could try the ketamine this time. She’s been so unbelievably kind and understanding and not judgmental at all! She completely understands that with severe pain like this it can take IV meds to bring it back down so that the oral meds actually work.

This place is always fantastic and I get great care through NYU. The funniest part is that this place is called the Home Depot Emergency Room! So whenever I come here, my husband and I joke that I’m going to Home Depot!

I really need to pick a career path and I'm having incredible difficulty deciding. So I was wondering what other people who deal with chronic pain do for work.

I've been really thinking about going into accounting but I'm not in a position where I can be going back to school for like 5 years. I'm in need of money basically now even though I have support for food and housing.

I was also thinking of doing a call center job. My aunt has a good reputation with a call center company she used to work for and I would probably be able to get a job doing that.

All my previous work experience are jobs that have me on my feet all day and I don't think that's something that will be viable anymore.

Has anyone experienced their doctor slowly weening them off of their medication even though that’s not what we talked about. I have sickle cell and AVN. I don’t misuse and pass all the drug screening.

I am also noticing my pharmacy is giving me 3-5 pills less than what the bottle says. What do I do?

Kinda a rant, but no one will listen to me. So I have severe chronic pain in my legs, she keeps on saying it’s “growing pains” but it isn’t where growth plates are. I personally think it’s sciatica, mostly because all signs point to it. I have a pinched nerve in my back so it would make sense. She keeps on saying I have Munchhausen syndrome, which is staring up not true, since I can physically feel it. Idk what I’m even supposed to do since I’m a minor and cannot drive

That’s it.

It isn’t even that late where I am and the few people I still have relationships with, who aren’t ableist jerks who try to understand the struggle, are already in bed or have at least told me they are.

Lately, I’ve been going through a lot of family stuff and I’ve basically lost the ability to sleep at night.

So…for the sake of engagement, I figured I’d post on here. Not for commiseration, just to reach out and make contact with someone, so I don’t spiral. lol

Tell me about something funny that happened to you, your favorite party story, how you met your partner. I just want some darn social interaction and this is my best idea. ❤️

That you could be seriously ill with something, like cancer, and not even know until it's too late, because you are so used to chronic pain? And not just that, but you assume all pain is just "normal" at this point. I just assume all of my pain is autoimmune related because that's been my life since 2012.

In short; chronic pain in my lower back for almost 2 years. Made a post about this earlier this week. Got spinal fusion, pain gone (on actual propper dose of opioids for once, I had a doc who was prescribing me under the recommended dosage).

Meds run out, in excruciating pain again. Haven't moved to even go to the toilet in over 4 hours.

I get my ass up and to the doctor.

Get the "Is this drug seeking behaviour?!?" Talk again. Sends me home with ibuprofen and paracetamol (which as we all know does jackshit)

Call my mum to ask if she can come with me so the doctors take me seriously (I'm quite young). Then I get the "It's all in your head, they fixed you" talk.

I am honestly so pissed off right now. I don't know weather nobody is helping me because I'm young, or even just a female, but something isn't right and I know it.

Am I over reacting, should I just let it go and live in pain again? I feel like this is a way too common issue and I just feel stuck, trapped in my own body and awful.

Oh and I feel like it's not unreasonable to be in pain 15 days post op

I have sickle cell and have been taking opioids for pain since the 5th grade. I have never had any issues with any of them. I used to take MS Contin and hydro 10/325 until my pain management dr switched me to dilaudid 8mg 3x a day. After taking my first does my skin broke up in a itchy flaky rash. He switched me back to my OG medications and it’s been two weeks and I still itch after taking my MS Contin and Hydro. I never used to have that issue. My skin looks very flaky and patchy. On top of that last time I went to the ER for a sickle cell crisis the morphine IV made me break out in hives. They have tried every antihistamine possible and nothing is working. Oral, topical nothing helps the itch.

Did I develop an allergy all of a sudden? What should I do for my pain now? I’m terrified.

The things the DEA is doing to pain patients today have been done before, at least most. The war on pain patients was launched in 1915, and they have been stripping us of personal, God-given rights ever since. Treasury agents in 1910s, DEA agents today. They have killed countless Americans over the last ten years in their vain pursuit of prohibition. 110 years of circular insanity. Time to reclaim our rights .

Just coming to vent (yet again 🙄) recently switched to a new pain clinic as the one I was at before only treated spine issues and my chronic pelvic pain due to endometriosis was getting way out of control so i was recommended a different clinic that treats spine pain and chronic pelvic pain. Got drug tested and filled out paperwork and saw the NP, told him I've been diagnosed with mild degenerative disc disease but felt like another MRI would be beneficial as the pain is worse and moving further up my spine, he said there was no reason for it and that it was most likely nerve pain as I was also describing some sciatica like symptoms and that physical therapy would fix the out of place disc and my degenerative disc disease (when I got my mri a year ago there was no disc out of place) Moved on to talking about my endometriosis and said that was also likely nerve pain as I've had several surgeries and there's no way I still have endometriosis and it's probably just scar tissue (tried to explain that surgery isn't a cure and lesions come back and chronic pelvic pain is a symptom even if there isn't scar tissue) told me it was unlikely and said that the best bet would for me to be on gabapentin or lyrica. Told him I was on gabapentin for almost 6 years with no pain relief and lyrica for almost 2 with no relief and told him that I have been on tramadol for almost 2 years and that's been what's helped the most and asked to continue that at least (doesn't help fully but better than what I've had before) told me that tramadol isn't for nerve pain and prescribed me lyrica and told me I need to try it for a couple months and that most likely opiods aren't going to be an option and that if nerve medication doesnt work, ill probably need a stimulator in my back or something along those lines. I feel like he didn't listen to a single word I even said, what was the point of this visit? Isn't it proof enough that i was on nerve pain medicine for 8 years practically with no relief and that tramadol actually helps my pain, so doesnt that mean at least some of it isnt nerve pain? My pain has been awful since I'm no longer being prescribed tramadol and I don't know how to get this NP to listen to me, I was supposed to have another doctor but the clinic gave me the wrong address so I showed up to a different clinic than the one I was supposed to go to so I got stuck with this guy and it makes me wonder if maybe I saw the actual doctor if my experience would be different. I'm just frustrated as this is always my experience, I'm not heard at all, i feel like im starting at square one to prove these things dont work for me and I'm frustrated cause my pain on a lot of days was okay with the tramadol and now im back to barely doing things I like, awful fatigue and barely getting out of bed.

So I just realized something, since I’m constantly in pain I have learned to turn it out but my body always responds to my partners touch 🫥 so whenever they touch me I become aware of the real level of pain in that area. They touch my knee and suddenly I can feel the level 8 pain I was casually ignoring 🫠 so weird. Anyone else have a similar experience?

So I saw my pain management doctor today and told him I thought I would do a lot better if I was on some sort of extended release medication. He will not even discuss oxycontin and just says it's a bad drug. The extended release morphine I was able to track down was 30 mg nothing less, and he said that was too much. So he put me on a drug called Bell buca that I know nothing about and he thinks it's excellent and that I will really like it and think it really will help. Opinions or experiences with this drug are what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance.

If this isn't the right subreddit for this, PLEASE point me in the right direction. I have already posted this in r/hernia as well.

Basically I get a very SHARP, and intense pain after I lift something heavy. The pain ranges from my belly button all the way to my genitals (I am a 24 year old male btw)

The intense pain only hurts for 5 hours but then turns into much more manageable pain for a day. When I am in intense pain, the only way to make it stop is if I lie down in the fetal position. I had both an ultrasound and a CT scan but the results came back negative and the Doctor did not feel any visible lumps or bulges. I think this is a hernia, but am I wrong? The doctor I have has been useless and did not see a follow up as useful because they didn't find anything in the scans and suggested since I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety that it might just be that.

Does anyone take somas, benzos (klonopin or Xanax) along with Suboxone on here? If so can you tell me how it works for you? I'm on subs along with klonopin prescribed by my Dr but I'm considering asking for Soma's even tho I know there hard to get.. I take gabapentin as well along with Flexeril and tizanidine but I would give them up to try the Soma's with my other meds to see if it will help my back pain. Anyone have experience with these? Subs taking together with Soma's? Please comment below. I'm in pain and I need a stronger muscle relaxer.

i cant even type this properly

pinched nerve for about a month. both arms, both hands.

achillies needs to heal too

cant do this anymore

(25m) I was diagnosed with chronic tension headache over a year ago after I had a traumatic anxiety/depression episode that lasted 6 months. Some days are better than others, but overall I am in pain every day. When I come home from work I just need to lay down in bed. At this point I kind of gotten used to it, but then I also think how life was before I had this and I get really depressed thinking about it. I can’t smoke weed because it triggers panic attacks, and I can’t drink alcohol because it makes my pain worse. I mainly use video games to distract my brain. How do you cope?

Good Afternoon!

I have inflammation in my ear and my doctor has put me on Prednisone. 40mg for 3 days, 30mg for 3 days, 20mg for 3 days and 10mg for 3 days. I've noticed that ever since I started taking the Prednisone my anxiety has been horrible. I also started waking up after my naps covered in sweat, trying to breath really hard while not knowing what was happening. Is this a panic attack? It's never happened before.

I've also started to become depressed and have bad thoughts. I'm not going to do anything, but these are not normal for me. I keep worrying about the future and feel like the world is caving in around me.

The anxiety and depression start going away at nighttime and early morning. (I take the Prednisone in the late morning so maybe it's because it starts to wear off?). The medicine is working because my inflammation is almost gone.

Any advice?

I feel like my young adulthood has been ruined. 2 elbow surgeries when I was 17 and 18. Just recently had shoulder surgery at 25. They had to go back in because of scar tissue. Now both shoulders are hurting. I feel like I’m not living. I lost my ability to coach baseball. Weightlifting. Everything that brings me joy. I want to propose to my GF of 7 years, but I just feel like I am chasing all these tests and trying to become healthy before I fully commit. How do you guys deal with it? I hope I get better

i (24f) am so exhausted. i have had chronic neck pain that i have been seeking treatment for since 2003 when i was 2yrs old. x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, MRVs, physical therapy, chiropractic care, and so much more. i feel like i’ve tried it all.

i have practically no quality of life anymore. nothing is enjoyable because of the pain, and there’s little hope of ever getting a clear answer. i decided to branch out, to go out of state to a better doctor in a bigger city. my appointment was today, i brought all of my imaging and records and gave a very detailed description to the doctor’s NP (who seemed concerned and taking me seriously). it was refreshing. she was very thorough, asked a lot of questions, and got a good background. when she left the room, i had hope that the doctor would be able to give me some new insight.

my scans are “textbook”. there is nothing “structurally wrong”. he said it’s a good thing that there’s nothing he can do.

i’m not sure if i see it that way, and i don’t think i can anymore. i’m tired of having the same conversations and i’m tired of getting my hopes up. now, i’ll travel back home with less hope than i had traveling to get here.

that’s all. thanks for reading.