Replies to 'Living with Chronic Pain'

welcome --

crps/rsd sucks and that's an informed opinion!  just trying to get off on a cheerful note...  paula abdul hasn't been the most enlightening source of information for the public, but anything helps, i suppose.

one of the best places online for information on all aspects of crps/rsd is rsds.org -- their information and advocacy are based on the best science available.

challenging yourself to feel better?  tell me more!  if you mean "mind over matter"-- well, it's always helpful to have biofeedback and relaxation techniques to fight pain (or just life in general).  i try. 

but if you mean looking on the bright side and being generally upbeat, well, please give me lessons!

i also am a big fan of exercise -- and if medications and treatments have failed to control the intensity of the pain or the spread of your crps/rsd -- then exercise can be THE BEST and ONLY OPTION! 

even the meds and the initial spinal blocks are meant to relieve pain just enough to allow you to have very intensive physical therapy -- because it is the PT that *may* "reset" the misfiring nervous circuits. 

i have it now in every limb, which is pretty depressing. (crps/rsd sucks!) today has had both ups and downs -- medicines helped some (amitriptyline, cymbalta, trazodone, baclofen, fentanyl, percocet, ibuprofen, prednisone, and a partridge in a pear tree) and working out at the gym for 75 minutes *may* have been of benefit.  only tomorrow will tell.  actually... i can already tell you that the gym was overdone by about 35 minutes.  there is a very fine line between how much you should push yourself to do, even in pain, and how much will just sideline you for a while.  it is one of those things that i cannot seem to get.  what kind of (intentional) exercise do you "do"?  swimming is wonderful, i hear...

the past month or so has brought new difficulties that i find, and my household finds, difficult to accept.  who would think that going from using a wheelchair but being able to get up for short periods and walk -- going from that to having standing being nearly impossible -- who would think that it could completely confound a person on so many levels?  rising pain levels have accompanied this decline in mobility.  as i say, have said, or will say, crps sucks!

i share that not looking for sympathy (though a sympathetic thought is cool!) but as an example of my experience of this sucky disorder.  it plays on the mind as much as anything. that's why, as is the case with all of us with chronic pain, having a support system is so vital.  i've had times recently where i cannot even remember why i was trying to get better, it seemed so pointless and hopeless.  in addition to being a sucky disorder, we have to remember that crps/rsd is ultimately a disease of the central nervous system, and that's where we deal with *everything*, eh?  it's a real trickster... 

welcome to the board -- everyone here has pain -- some are grown-up enough not to whine too often -- others (guess who!) will whine every day, if allowed.  the best share news of daily life that remind us all what the struggle is about.

it's all good -- we cannot "compare" pain.  we can just meet each other where we are, you know?

i'd love to hear more about you -- and get some pointers on how you're dealing with crps/rsd --

be well,

prof