I'm tired of fighting the pain

[paul55]

Gary

Don't be sorry for feeling sorry for yourself. I feel like that at least once a week!!! As I mentioned earlier, when you are in constant pain all the time, it can really play on your mind.

[throeback]

Gary.....

hey bro we have way too friggin much in common. Would you mind calling me. I see what time you left your last post 4:15 am.... been there...done that... still doing that!!!!! Gary, our pain is real..... it will and does control us. I know enough about pain to be a threat in the depths hell. To say "this pain sucks" is grossly understating things, can I get a witness?

We can and will at the end of the day ALWAYS WIN..... that truth lives within each one of us. Gary, you have been down many roads in the past three years... you my friend have a right to be really friggin tired of fighting. I imagine your just a good person whom has had a bad thing happen in his life. Let us all stop being victims.... I believe we all have the strength to see this thing thru and to heal in the face of what seems to be an impossibility. Gary please send me a private message so we can exchange phone numbers. Peace out, Pain out.

Ron aka throeback ;D

[Joel]

Are you still doing any physical therapy or exercise? Have you seen a pain management specialist lately and told him/her this? I think it is good to spend some time figuring out what all the options are to rid yourself of the pain, then let's talk about each one.

[john8888]

Gary

I do know exactly where you are coming from. I am also in the C7 to T4 range and the pain is nasty. The pain is there 24/7 and the only thing that seems to work for me is to distract myself as Robert recommends. I work or go to the gym for distractions.

Stay strong and keep fighting.

[8338]

Gary,
I guess this was a good time to check this board. I was at a girlfriends house, feeling really down and not understood because everyone is talking about their minor aches and pains and sniffles and here I am not being able to walk without a cane, and in pain.
My pain is in the region of the surgery(t1-t6) and I always wonder what it's from. After 6 years shouldn't it be all healed by now and the pain gone? I think a lot of my pain is from slouching (I can't straighten up my back unless I really, really try) and when I'm walking my body juts forward and my shoulders, upper back and neck also hurt. The numbness, which is 1/2 way down my trunk on down also hurts. Neurotin does help the tingling.
I work a full time job and that gets my mind off of it somewhat but I do get depressed a lot, especially when I see the things that I cannot do any longer. That is a day to day struggle with me. People not understanding me is also a day to day struggle with me.
I go to open excercise and work out on the machines but I always wished that I would've gone to a pt with other spinal cord injuries just so I could see I was not alone.
Gary, you got a family that fully can relate to you!!!!!!!!!! and is here for you.
Barb

[gary s]

Thank you all for your words of encouragement, it really helps. I shared them with my wife, and we sat and cried together. People with everyday aches and pains have no clue what we go thru. People are polite and ask how your feeling, but if you try to explain they sympathize but don't understand, so I just say I'm fine and let it be. My wife of 37 years, bless her soul, tries hard to understand. She knows my limitations and tries to help. I think she has as many sleepless nights as I do. To answer some of your questions, I was in Pt but stopped after a year. Things stopped progressing. I went to a pain clinic and they had no clue how to deal with it. They brought in a shrink to see if I was imagining the pain. I told him to put his books where the sun don't shine and left. Now that felt good! I have been checking the internet about a baclofin pump, does anyone have any feed back on that? Thanks again for all the encouragement

[deirdre612]

Gary, of all the people in this world, those who have been through an experience such as yours, and who continue to live with pain and drugs on a daily basis, have every right to feel sorry for themselves. Don't apologise, thats what this wonderful group of people are here for - to support each other and talk about anything and everything.

[throeback]

Gary,

Hope your hanging in there. Hey you asked a direct question about a baclofen pump and you deserve a direct to the point answer. Though I do not use the drug here is what I think I know...... someone please jump in and correct me if I have misinformed Gary. Baclofen is best used to ease or relax erratic firing of nerves that cause a muscle or groups of muscles to tense or contract in a way which is completely involuntary. These events can cause great amounts of pain. It is also my understanding that these misfires can come and go, or the symptoms can be around the clock continuous causing muscle groupings to remain completely contracted at all times. Baclofen works by interrupting the nerve signal thus giving pain relief to those inflicted by this disorder. Strangely enough it may work wonders for some folks and yet do absolutely nothing for others whom share identical symptoms. A pump just places the drug into the body interthecially as determined by a programmed time and dosage amount. Baclofen is a serious drug.... it should only be prescribed by a doctor whom will help manage your care until ALL the kinks have been worked out. Hope this helps. ;D

Ron

[richard0314]

I wake up every morning just as tired as when i went to bed, The pain i live with everyday is enough to send an average person to a doctor in a hurry. there is no living with it you learn to deal with it, what else can you do. If you become consumed by it then you you confine yourself to a life of confinement to this disease. don't let this disease control you you need to control it. when i say it can be done it can be done, I just spent 15 months in combat in Iraq with it don't qiut keep fighting it head on.

Richard

[gary s]

Being new to this site and not very computer savy, I would like to contact someone who replied to my post, can someone tell me how to do that? All your caring comments really helped, and the vicodin I got from the doc helped to.