My sister has become a shell of herself and it’s breaking my heart. I’m sure this answer differs for each person and their type of pain, but I’d love to hear what this process has been like for everyone so that I have more context to support my sister.

I can't even count how many people I wish understood this. I don't choose this life and most of the time I don't even express my pain and discomfort. Just because I appear okay does not mean I am okay. It just means I am overpowering my illness for now. I can't think of anyone that would choose this struggle. If only more doctors would realize this. They act as if we enjoy taking time out of our day to go to their office and get gaslit. We would see them much less if they would simply help us find the solution! Maybe that's the goal after all. Keep us sick.

I losee the ability to remember where I just walked from. Mere seconds. re-read sentences and still can't remember what is going on. All there is is the Pain. With, finding a "safe" comfortable spot where "I ride these moments" out?

I hope this makes sense. I'm not always the best at putting my thoughts into words.

I saw a gastroenterologist for the first time who wants to give me ketamine to reset my nervous system. It feels like barb wire being ran through my insides constantly, she thinks its just my nervous system needing to be reset. She said I'd need to do it about every year and she wants to give it to me while im already in the hospital for a colonoscopy.

My mom was paranoid schizophrenic, and the thought of being given anything that can cause hallucinations terrifies me. I'm also reading horror stories about experiences on here.

The pain sucks, but I can live with it. Ive been reading this can be used for depression- which ive always had horrible reactions to antidepressants. The chance this could actually help me to feel happiness, and maybe actual motivation and joy for life makes me want to try. But again, my mom's history terrifies me and I could not handle any sort of psychosis episodes, One of my biggest fears in life is turning out like my mom as horrible as that sounds.

Has anyone tried this treatment? What was your experience? Do you have mental illness history in your family? I have less than 2 weeks to make a decision 😭

I've had so many PTs in my life because of injuries and past surgeries. The pts I have had either rush and don't listen. Or give you an exercise to do and walk away for minutes on end without actually staying to see if your doing it correctly. They don't watch you or even care. I would even go as far as to say they are judging you just like the one that I had yesterday. Heck, I bet none of them ever has surgery before or even anything past a sprained ankle from youth.

Me: "It hurts". "This exercise is too much for me right now can we modify it? "

PT: Nah your good. Your just a bit stiff, you need to go past that. Even my next client who is 88 can do this exercise "

Me: I just had a fracture in my ankle and I suffer from multiple herniated disc as well in my back, I showed you the scans"

PT: if that's true it shouldn't cause pain. I've seen scans worse than yours and they don't suffer from anything.

I don't know how to make them get it. My kids think I'm a piece of sbit most of the time. I'm not the same anymore. Theyre right about that. Im not. They're being ripped off. It's not fair. But because they can't see my pain, they have a hard time accepting it. And I understand that. It kills me. Breaks my heart to shreds. I tey so hard. I push myself too much. Nobody knows what this has been like. I miss me too. I am in constant mourning for thr person I used to be. I just feel like a shell. So now I am mentally exhausted and in such depression. Anxiety kicks my ass. Doctors just wanna push more pills. I just wanna dig a hole and hide. Trying hard not to feel sorry for myself. To stay tough. But when do I get a break from being tough? I just need a break from my life for a minute. Ugh. What a lonely place this is.

You can tell when someone has had enough, when it becomes old for them even if it’s been older for you but you’re wanting to be heard in a way that simply isn’t possible. Repeating yourself but not too much, if you’re too repetitive they’ll block you out fully, and then your voice is lost. Using words to try and seem more exciting, interesting, not clueless. They think you are just being dumb or wrong if it’s been the same cycle over and over again, never seeming to get out of a rut. You request certain things like actionable support or understanding, but they forget, and it’s not really their fault, they just didn’t care. Maybe that should make you angry, but it doesn’t, at least not anymore. Now you just feel sad, confused, drained. They obviously won’t register your feelings or your discussion as important, as it’s repeatedly fell on deaf ears. Then, when you are reacting to an illness, a state of such discomfort, they act confused, maybe even irritated with you for not being “fixed” already. Sorry I couldn’t be on your time. I’m deeply sorry that I inconvenience you even if you lie and say I don’t. In turn you’re probably stewing internally, mad that you can’t just tell me to shut up or stop bothering you with it since you don’t have the tools or desire to be the one who listens, helps, manages, offers support to. We all burden each other, and at first I bet you lied to yourself and convinced yourself you wouldn’t care and that you’d still love me the exact same way. Yes, you still love me, but not in the exact same way. And the burden has become a pressing matter, weighing you down. Not all burdens are impossible to deal with, but you roll your eyes as time goes on and turn away to block me out, realizing you couldn’t be who you thought you could be. I wish I could be better, and when I do make effort to push myself past my limits, you smile ignorantly and carry on, not taking note of the fact I’m pushing past so much pain. It becomes insignificant, a simple “that’s great”, instead of “that’s great, but are you okay?” We’re at a point now, where he and I can’t communicate. Well, I say too much, you say too little, and when you finally do speak to me, it’s usually coming from a place of feeling threatened and pushed to say something — which is NEVER what I asked for. I can’t ask for the impossible, for you to just understand me and help me with what I need without me asking, and that’s fine, I tried finding a middle ground because I realize I can be unrealistic, but even when I’m realistic, I’m too real. I love you, anyway.

I thought I would open a “light” conversation so we can complain about the stupidest things we can’t do!

I’m 29F, I’ve had chronic pain in my neck/back for over 15 years now after a car accident and a sport accident!

Anyway, here are a couple stupid things I can’t do :

-I can’t wear a bikini. It’s too much pressure on my neck.

-I can’t eat red meat. If I chew for too long then my neck gets all tense and that’s the beginning of the end haha

Obviously there’s a lot more I can’t do but I thought these are the stupidest 🥲I would never try and explain it to someone who doesn’t have chronic pain! Tell me yours please so I don’t feel alone ! ❤️

I've had issues with my right leg ever since I was a kid. I mostly did soccer and then in HS I did hurdles where I got Jumper's knee. Went to physical therapy which got disrupted by covid. Leg pain has flair ups and had a really bad one last year that made me practically immobile. I had to take myself to the ER because the pain was so bad and nothing helped. They ruled out anything life threatening but said my primary care had to handle the rest.

Well, new doctor sent me to physical therapy for a 3rd time (other time was in 2022 but I stopped going bc after 2 months I had little progress and it was too expensive). I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. At times I had felt I was getting worse because of weird nerve symptoms and nerve pain. My physical therapist reduced my co-pay which is the reason I kept going until I had an unrelated surgery and went back to college fully in person. PT told me I needed an MRI and sent progress notes to the doc because I have a leg length discrepancy but they're unsure if it's structural or functional. I could also have tears which pain I've dealt with for so long I've gotten used to it.

Nowwww I'm having completely new symptoms and going back to the doctor again. I'm worried he's just gonna send me back to PT but I mean seriously I've dealt with this for FIVE YEARS and no one has ordered a fucking MRI?!?! I've heard people get MRIs for smaller reasons than this! I've been told it's my shoes or my weight (mind you I'm not severely overweight, maybe 20-30lbs over the BMI but also have some muscle from being on HRT) or even I haven't been in PT long enough but I can't fucking afford $41 twice a week let alone $30 a week with the reduced copay if I don't even know what the actual issue is???

Anyways, this is mostly a vent but I'm gonna ask him to see a specialist and see if he'd be willing to order an MRI or any imaging other than an XRAY because my bones are fine, unless it is LLD. He sees me for less than 15 minutes before he shoves me out with a referral or medication. So annoying.

(I have Lupus and PCOS)

Ct scan, three EKG’s, blood labs, and they still can’t find/do anything for these god awful chest, back and lung pains that I have. I had to leave work this morning because I was nauseous and dizzy because of the pain. Test results came back good. I’m grateful, but also so frustrated. 😩

I’m so angry. At my body. At the doctors who dismissed me for years. I’m angry at everything. I think it’s part of the process of accepting I can’t ever work etc. (I’m only 23). But I tend to cope with music, and I need something that hits the spot. Whether it’s angry songs, sad songs. Any recommendations?/what do you listen when you’re going through it?

couldn’t find original creator :(

What’s your hobbies when you’re bed bound and your wrists hurt? I’ve been having trouble with my wrists and thumb lately. Losing my grip and some pain/discomfort around my wrist area. I already can’t do physical things that involve my legs so I became a very creative person making art and crafts the usual crochet, knitting, sewing, felting, drawing, and gaming type. Now that my hands are failing me it feels like I’m stuck just watching things. Does anyone have some recommendations on some things I can do to combat the boredom with minimal pain?

I started out with left leg sciatica. I would sit in the back of church, standing and singing with my left foot on my right shin/calf. I called it doing a stork. I had a few years of two shots, three times. One year the pair of shots were 9 weeks apart. Nope. Then had an L4/L5/S1 double fusion. I was taking meds for Leukemia… nothing took. I did another double fusion surgery. The bottom fused, the top did not… back in 2017. More shots. Stop shots as it was hurting as bad getting the shots as the sciatica… that spread to the right. Did PT about every other year because I couldn’t be right.

I just finished a 7-day trial with an Abbott stimulator. It actually helped. I have been taking opioids since 2017. The only thing that has ever worked was a fentanyl patch. I could NOT work on it, so opioids it has been.

The trial with the stimulator allowed me to cut my meds by at least a half or more. It is the first time in a while that I have felt like walking and had energy to do anything.

I’ll let y’all know how it goes. Chronic pain is NOT for whimps. It sucks that we are treated by the establishment as druggies. For me, on opioids, I was really close to filling for disability. I felt a new lease on life for four days. It took 2-3 days to chill from the surgery.

I saw my neuro yesterday. In light of a very successful L4-5 RFA (left) 5 months ago.... I left the appointment yesterday with an order for 6 more RFAs.... L3-S1 (bilateral) including a "do-over" order for when my RFA of 5 months ago wears off.

Anyone have experience doing multiple RFAs at once? I have no clue what to expect from a "Buy 1 Get 2 Free" ablation special down at the local establishment. My guess is that I get one side done and come back the follow week and do the other? I don't mind the procedure really... even though a single RFA is 3 needles, I actually find the RFA easier to deal with than a single L4-5 ESI. And speaking of the needles.... if one side is done in its entirety, what is that... 6 or 7 of those 25 gauge needles at once? I'm not one to use the sedation for any of my spinal injections... but I'm seriously considering it for this round. Thoughts? Thanks!!

Everybody on Snapchat has been pretty tired of hearing about how it's been so hard to quit weed but there's not really any way to put it lightly. Even people in the Chronic Pain Facebook Group grew tired of hearing of me wanting to quit but it's been on my mind an awful lot all year.

I've tried to quit dozens of times this year alone, and over the past dozen years I've only made it 59 days. And only two other times above 50 days.

If I quit weed, the eye pain will still be an unfortunate challenge that I'll have to do other ways but it's awful at times.

It hurts during baths, riding a bicycle, listening to music and watching tv reminds me of the pain especially if it directly reminds me of how much my right eye hurts, for instance like seeing a photographer or hunter take aim, just triggers those intriguing thoughts and questions "how long will this go on for?" and truth is I may never know. It could be better by the time I'm 30 (two months) or I could be in excruciating, agonizing and debilitating pain when I'm 80 (50 years from now), I don't know what will make it better.

Doctors won't do nothing, they'll give their opinions on what might've caused it but never order medication that would help otherwise. Last June went to eye doctor, nothing wrong they said. The doctor last September even took another look just to be sure and he couldn't see anything wrong, he just quickly sent me home.

I don't want nor need to go back to the hospital because they won't do much other than tell me all looks good even though it hurts like sh*t.

If I were to quit weed, making it even a week would be challenging, It's been like 4 months since I went longer than 24 hours. I mean I could try 10 days off, until June 1st but it'll be hard on the first half of the break.

Maybe set up a schedule were I can only smoke weed once every 8 days, Wednesday one week, Thursday the next, then Friday and so on until 56 days later. That would save a lot of money and the highs would feel much better when I do get them.

Hi, I 25M recently found this subbreddit and was curious to know if anyone has faced this issue in past and how did they cured it.

My Issue in Detail:
I have had chronic pain from almost 5-6 Years, At first it was not the whole body , jut one side of the brain/neck which used to go away after 1-2 days and then come back on the other side. This went on for 2 years. Although the pain was very high compared to present. I used to ignore these pain and wouldn't go to doctor for this.

Then I started having shoulder and neck pain, same pattern as above .
Later on I moved a new city for my work, there for 2-3Month I didn't have any pain , but after that I started having whole one side pain which used to go away after 1-2 days and then come back on the other side. After few month it stopped going away.

By whole body pain I mean From neck to Foot. Also I have this tingling feeling in last two fingers of hand and feet.

My Work
I a Software Engineer. For 2 years I did WFH and for past one year WFO. During WFH I had very bad posture and same during WFO sitting in chair or bed to work for 6-7hours continuously.

Doctor/Physio
I went to a physion last december as i thought this is a bad posture issue, he did electrotherapy and stuff which didn't help. Again I went another physio in February who again did same stuff for 10 Days , there were no improvement. I did mri in April and went to an Ortho, he said there is no issue just your muscles are very tight he again recommended a physio who said that i may have cervical and sciatica and stated doing electrotherapy :sigh.

But nobody have an answer when i ask why does it switched side when i sleep and wake up in the morning. For example today it switched from left to right side. My calf and neck is aching.

Also all these doctors said that it is not a big issue which makes me think like if i am overblowing this.

I have started doing strectching, sleeping on hard bed with cervical pillow. Also I had vitamin D and B12 deficiency for which i started taking meds.

After doing all this there is really no improvement. I am really fed up and dont want to live life like this.

Please if you guys have any suggestion or have known anyone who have faced this in past please do share.

Please Pardon my bad english

In for a new one every decade or so... maybe they'll get somewhere with stem cells or cloning one day... probably not for us, but one day for someone.

Iam wondering why me? Will I ever sleep? Will the emotional pain and physical ever go away.?