Eoywin
Chaos Mandy
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
Over ten years ago, my life changed forever. I got really sick with an ear infection and I had a very bad headache. After being misdiagnosed for a month, I ended up in the ER. The ear infection was treated and finally went away (though I have permanent hearing damage in that ear). But the headaches never went away.
I went through nine months of hell - in and out of the hospital, going to specialists, and having a doctor who just wanted to put me on medicine. Every med I tried either didn't work at all or only worked for a short time. And nearly all of them gave me bad side effects because I'm very sensitive to drugs (and which is why I've never taken illegal drugs the way the legal ones mess me up).
The turning point for me was when my doctor told me that I should go to concerts, noisy restaurants and the like after I had a bad migraine attack after eating in a Hard Rock Cafe. That pissed me off because I was only in my mid-20's. Of course, Disney would fall under noisy too!
I took control as much as I could. Started a pain diary so I could figure out my triggers and worked on way to cope without medicine. I'm very lucky because I'm able to live my life pretty much normally. The doctors had put me through a battery of tests but couldn't find out what was wrong
DH and I started dating right around the time my chronic pain started. He's always been very supportive and married me despite knowing that I'll probably live the rest of my life in constant pain. I even went through a pregnancy because we wanted at least one child. Pregnancy plus chronic pain is not a good combo, but it was worth it to have DD.
A few years ago, I lost two days. I don't remember them at all and DH said I was awake but very paranoid. I ended up in the hospital and was told that I have a mass in my brain (but it's not cancer because it shrunk). Again the doctors were stumped and tried to put me on new medicine that didn't do anything and cause my eczema to get really bad.
It was so scary and took me a long time to get back to normal. About a year later, I started having anxiety issues and panic attacks. This is the one condition that medicine actually works for but I still occasionally have issues.
We went to Disney last week for DD's birthday and it was magical. My pain levels were pretty low most of the week. But now I'm back home, the pain is higher and it's making me feel down. I wish I could stay at Disney (though living in FL isn't an option because my DH doesn't tolerate high heat very well).
I'm in a few online support groups and that helps because living with an invisible disease like chronic migraines is hard. I look fine but I'm always in pain.
Does anyone else suffer from chronic pain?
I went through nine months of hell - in and out of the hospital, going to specialists, and having a doctor who just wanted to put me on medicine. Every med I tried either didn't work at all or only worked for a short time. And nearly all of them gave me bad side effects because I'm very sensitive to drugs (and which is why I've never taken illegal drugs the way the legal ones mess me up).
The turning point for me was when my doctor told me that I should go to concerts, noisy restaurants and the like after I had a bad migraine attack after eating in a Hard Rock Cafe. That pissed me off because I was only in my mid-20's. Of course, Disney would fall under noisy too!
I took control as much as I could. Started a pain diary so I could figure out my triggers and worked on way to cope without medicine. I'm very lucky because I'm able to live my life pretty much normally. The doctors had put me through a battery of tests but couldn't find out what was wrong
DH and I started dating right around the time my chronic pain started. He's always been very supportive and married me despite knowing that I'll probably live the rest of my life in constant pain. I even went through a pregnancy because we wanted at least one child. Pregnancy plus chronic pain is not a good combo, but it was worth it to have DD.
A few years ago, I lost two days. I don't remember them at all and DH said I was awake but very paranoid. I ended up in the hospital and was told that I have a mass in my brain (but it's not cancer because it shrunk). Again the doctors were stumped and tried to put me on new medicine that didn't do anything and cause my eczema to get really bad.
It was so scary and took me a long time to get back to normal. About a year later, I started having anxiety issues and panic attacks. This is the one condition that medicine actually works for but I still occasionally have issues.
We went to Disney last week for DD's birthday and it was magical. My pain levels were pretty low most of the week. But now I'm back home, the pain is higher and it's making me feel down. I wish I could stay at Disney (though living in FL isn't an option because my DH doesn't tolerate high heat very well).
I'm in a few online support groups and that helps because living with an invisible disease like chronic migraines is hard. I look fine but I'm always in pain.
Does anyone else suffer from chronic pain?