Life can be a Pain

@Zoe7 I can slowly start introducing activities next week but the doctor warned me to go very slowly. I tried to do something yesterday that was on my do not do list and quickly realised why I shouldn't be doing it. 😬

Take it easy then @Escaped_Goat and only do what you can. It is frustrating not being able to do things we could before but slowly, slowly it has to be. Then you can begin building back up gradually until you are back in a better place.

Hi @Escaped_Goat ... Although I have seen you around, we havent actually met before. Lovely to see you here. I have no doubt that @Owlunar , our hostess on this thread, will welcome you eagerly. Just as @Zoe7 has. I look forward to chatting more with you in future.

Sherry

@Owlunar

Welcome to the forum @Escaped_Goat - it's good to see you here

And it is perfectly okay to jump in here - this thread really is about chronic pain - it's one of the two main reasons I joined and I found a wonderfully supportive crowd of people here.

Yes - having chronic pain is a good reason to be in this forum - people can become depressed with it - so we care for mental health here - and how to deal with the discomfort and inconvenience that comes with it

My grand-daughter has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and my second cousin has fibromyalgia - and across 5 generations we have had 6 people with chronic health issues and I think there might be a genetic factor involved - something I could research

Anyway - about you - how long have you had the fibro and therefore the pain and the fibro-fog I have heard about? I know pain medication has become harder to get lately - which seems radically unfair to me - that Government Bodies can decide this - for us - it just makes it all harder

We all have stories to tell here and I am looking forward to hearing yours - and what you do to manage the situation - which is not easy I know

I find a wheat packs the best for treating my pain - I am titrating down on my medication - this is not easy - if you are doing the same - I certainly understand the difficulties many people are facing right now. At least there is no say-so from distant authorities on the use of heat

I hope you can get rest when you need it - do you live alone or do you have someone who helps out - I have council help for domestic work and shopping - I hope you have something in place like that

Chronic Pain, Fibro, Chronic Fatigue - these conditions are only managed - they can't be fixed - but a safe place on-line is available here and people really care

All the best

Dec

Hi @Former-Member

I'm glad I was able to support you earlier this week - sometimes these things might miss us entirely - on this occasion though I did pick it up and I was glad to do that.

I understand your confusion and distress entirely - and it certainly was not caused by you - there are things beyong our ability to grasp at times - actually I am just glad I was there even late in the time-line but there - as if I was meant to be

I have thought about being a CG but I don't reach out to the whole forum - mostly I stick to a few people and gather up different people as some people move on. From what I have read a CG is meant to respond to new members and there are people whose first posts are not really in my area of expertise. A lot of mental illnesses are outside my scope and I feel inadequate in that regard. So I don't think so - my posts are often long and I value the contacts I do have here

It's a thought though @Appleblossom is a Community Elder - I don't know if I qualify for that role but I would feel better today that - which I think is what I do now. I am really glad you tagged me about @Escaped_Goat - the subject of chronic pain is something I do know about - and I want to make the best use of my time here -

There are many people here I never get around to - but I am dedicated to those that I do -

I have made an appointment to have an MRI on my shoulder on Monday morning - not to early - how great it can be done so soon! - It used to be the case that there would be a long wait - it's local too - it won't be ouchy either - I just have to lie there and let it happen - they will give me ear-plugs and I can drift off into my own world of photos

And find out

I am glad you are feeling better at this end of the week

Dec

@Owlunar Thank you so much for the warm welcome! I developed fibromyalgia following an accident and a series of surgeries back in 2010-2011. It was quite sudden.. like a house falling on me. As I was going through a lot of mental health issues at the time due to the loss of my career and new limitations in mobility thanks to the accident and failed surgeries... my doctor was quite happy to point out that all the symptoms I was experiencing can be linked to depression and anxiety. It took a few years of me fighting for answers and insisting on tests for everything under the sun before I received a diagnosis. Not knowing anything about fibromyalgia because nobody in my family has it and I knew nobody with it I was at first excited thinking "okay, we have a diagnosis now we can fix it". Of course that was short lived excitement. I was put on so many medications by my doctors that I wasn't able to function and gained a massive amount of weight making me even less able to function and then if I said I still hurt they said.. lose weight. I felt stuck and the doctors just said this is the rest of your life so the sooner you accept it the less miserable you will be. Then one day I had a fall and my son took me to emergency and the on call doctor was so understanding about fibromyalgia that I hunted him down where he worked when he wasn't on call at the hospital and booked an appointment with him. I had to wait 3 months to get in to see him but I haven't looked back. He changed my medications and I was able to function again and in the 19 months that he's been my doctor I've lost all the extra weight and my pain has been made manageable. Certainly not gone but at a level on most days that I can cope with. Not that weight made a difference in pain levels but it makes being able to move about easier. I still flare with weather changes and overdoing or not doing enough... which is my issue currently. Recent major surgery has me banned from activities that help keep my pain is the Goldilocks zone for another week. The medications help of course but yes they are getting harder to come by although my doctor is trying to make sure I don't have to go cold turkey anytime soon. I live alone so I'm lucky in that I can rest when I need and pretty much fit my day around what I need to do for my fibro. Recent stresses have not helped.. we know that's the worst thing for fibromyalgia pain and this covid has piled stress on everyone!

Yes @Owlunar ... I'm glad you were able to as well. It helped.

Im sorry you dont see yourself as a CG, although I disagree with you on that one. Its not all about new members, many existing members are equally as important to keep connected as the new ones. Although you may not welcome all that many new members, you do a great job of maintaining connections with many existing members. Long posts? Yeah true, but nothing wrong with that either. They are always interesting, informative and easy to follow. Good punctuation and sentence and paragraph structure also helps to get through long posts. Its true that many people in distress often do not have the concentration necessary to take in a long post, people can come back later to take in more when they are feeling less distressed. A bit like a post from @Zoe7 to me on my ptsd thread last night. I wasnt in a good state of mind and decided I needed to come back later to reread. Otherwise I would have done a disservice to Zoe, because much of what she said wasnt sinking in.

There are a number of Community Elders here. As far as I know, all of them are 'retired' or former Guides. So when Guides give up their official duties, they are given the new (honorary) title of Community Elder. Although I read some months ago that the Managers were considering bringing in a new 'layer' of Guides at some point. Perhaps when they have that up and running, perhaps the new position may be more to your liking, and perceived talents. Perhaps you should ask though, because its possible that you might need to apply for the Guide position in order to get that 'secondary' position. Worth asking if you really are interested. I do not believe that either position would prevent you from remaining dedicated to your current membership crop.

So true @Owlunar ... you definitely have experience when it comes to chronic pain, as do I, and I think @Escaped_Goat as well. I would love to hear more from you when you're next visiting Goat. 💖

Monday morning for your MRI .. that was quick. Fabulous news. I have had a couple of MRIs for my back injury .. they dont bother me at all. Certainly nothing painful about them. Noisy things though, with all that clanging and banging. My husband is claustrophobic however, and he needs a general anaesthetic whenever he has to have an MRI. He's had a number of them these past 2+ years, as they continue to monitor his cancer. The type of cancer he has, commonly spreads to the brain, so they monitor closely. Thankfully he can bear a CT Scan, which sometimes they can get by with.

I thought I was feeling better Dec, but yesterday was a real bummer of a day. Didnt end well at all. I hope you have a good weekend, and remain warm and snug inside out of the cold and wind.

Sherry

Hi @Former-Member @Escaped_Goat @outlander @Zoe7 @BlueBay

I had my shoulder MRI this morning and I will get the results in a couple of days I think - and then I will know the true state of affairs there and that will be a good thing to know

The technician was really great - she packed me up with so many pillows I couldn't move - and while it was all going on I wondered if I would ever move again but I did - I was so carefully packaged after I got up off the bed I was fine - though my back is telling me stories this afternoon

I see there are a few messages to reply to here - I can do that later - maybe this evening - or tomorrow - I haven't time right now

If I don't cook dinner now I might go to sleep - I feel as if I could - if I just closed my eyes - and if that happens in the late afternoon I never feel like cooking or even eating when I do that - so right - prepare and cook and maybe get back on-line

Yesterday was a cold, gloomy day in Melbourne - how many times will I write than this winter - I had a touch of asthma but that went away by keeping myself warm and using my asthma spray - and I went to bed early - and was able to get up early to get ready to get my MRI

Back later hopefully

Dec

@Owlunar Knowing is always better than not knowing.