A new treatment that aims electrical pulses at irritated nerves around the spinal cord appears effective at relieving chronic lower back pain and sciatica, a preliminary study suggests.
The minimally invasive procedure, called image-guided pulsed radiofrequency, eased lingering pain in 80 percent of 10 patients after a single 10-minute treatment. Ninety percent were able to avoid surgery.
“Given the very low risk profile of this technique, patients suffering herniated disc and nerve root compression symptoms may undergo a safe and fast recovery, going back to normal activities within days,” said study author Dr. Alessandro Napoli, an interventional radiologist at Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.
“In fact,” he added, “one of the dramatic advantages of this technology is that we can perform it in a day-surgery setting, without anesthesia, and [patients] go home the same day.”
Napoli’s study was scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting in Chicago. Studies presented at scientific conferences typically haven’t been peer-reviewed or published, and results are considered preliminary.
About 8 in 10 people suffer from lower back pain at some point in their lives, according to study documents. This pain can be due to a herniated disc in the lower spine. Sciatica is radiating leg pain caused by a pinched nerve in the lower spine, which also may be due to a herniated disc.
Also called a slipped or ruptured disc, a herniated disc occurs when the spongy material inside a spinal disc squeezes through its tough outer shell because of aging or injury. This material can press on surrounding nerves, causing pain and numbness or tingling in the legs, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).
Conservative, nonsurgical approaches typically ease symptoms of a herniated disc over time, according to the AAOS. These treatments include rest, gentle exercise, pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs, cold or hot compresses, physical therapy and massage therapy.
However, about 20 percent of those with acute low back pain don’t find relief through these measures. That leads some to decide on surgery to remove disc material pressing on their spinal nerves. For these people, Napoli said, image-guided pulsed radiofrequency treatment may become a viable option if larger studies reinforce his findings.
Napoli’s research included 80 people who had experienced at least three months of low back pain from a herniated disc that hadn’t responded to conservative treatments.
Image-guided pulsed radiofrequency treatment uses computed tomography—a CT scan—to help physicians insert a needle to the location of the herniated disc and surrounding nerves. A probe that’s inserted through the needle tip delivers pulsed radiofrequency energy to the area over a 10-minute period, resolving the herniation without touching the disc, Napoli explained.
More than 80 percent of the 80 study participants were pain-free a year after a single treatment. Six people required a second treatment session.
Pulsed radiofrequency has been widely used in pain medicine for other types of chronic pain, Napoli noted.
He said the treatment works by “eliminating the inflammation process” in nerves surrounding the herniated disc, hindering painful muscle contractions. “The aim was to interrupt this cycle and give the body the chance to restore a natural healing,” he added.
Dr. Scott Roberts, a physiatrist with Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., said the new findings showed “an impressive drop in pain and improvement in function.” However, he noted that the research didn’t include a control group for comparison with people not given the treatment.
“With no control group, we don’t know how much of the improvement we’re seeing would have happened anyway,” Roberts said. “I was very encouraged by [the study] because its results are significant, but it’s far from conclusive without a control group.”
Getting older certainly has its perks, but the reality is that aging can take its toll on many of us, despite our efforts to get out there and stay active—especially as the cold weather sets in.
No, it wasn’t an exaggeration when your mother/father/grandmother or someone else rubbed their knee/elbow/back, winced and muttered, “I can feel a storm coming on.”
Yes, there is evidence that shows a link between weather changes and chronic pain, especially joint pain and migraines. A 2007 Tufts University study showed that for every 10-degree drop in temperature, there was an incremental increase in arthritis pain. Low barometric pressure, low temperatures and precipitation can all increase pain. The theory is that these conditions increase swelling in the joint capsule, says the Arthritis Foundation.
It all adds up to giving your body an opportunity to heal itself by reducing its creation of pain-driving substances and stimulating mitochondria, the “energypacks” that drive cellular function and repair.
Here are a few of the more common causes of joint pain and ways to ease your discomfort.
1. Injury You slip and fall. Overdo it at the gym. Get rear-ended in your car. Sleep in the wrong position. Sit cramped on a plane for too many hours. Have poor posture. There are a zillion ways to injure your body, whether quite innocently and unknowingly from an everyday cause or overuse from repetitive motions over time.
That pain can lead to stiffness, sleep disturbances, a burning sensation in your muscles, achiness or acute pain running from mild to severe.
What to do to relieve muscle tension and soreness? Well, you can complain, call a doctor, take a pain reliever or rest—but don’t underestimate the power of massage in delivering a significant reduction in pain and soreness.
2. Osteoarthritis This chronic condition of the joints is sometimes referred to as degenerative joint disease or “wear and tear” arthritis. It gets its name from the way it develops: cartilage, the cushion between our joints, breaks down over time and with use. What comes next? Pain, stiffness and swelling.
If your knees, hips, lower back and neck hurt, you’re in good company with the 27 million other Americans who feel the pain. Also affected could be the small joints in your fingers and the bases of your big toe and thumb.
Although physical activity might be the furthest thing from your mind when you’re feeling this way, it pays to be active. Studies show that simple exercise, like walking, can help manage or even reduce the pain from osteoarthritis. Weight management, stretching and anti-inflammatory medications can help, too, as can alternative approaches like massage, acupuncture and hydrotherapy.
3. Bursitis We all have bursae—small sacs filled with fluid that cushion the bones, tendons and muscles near and around the joints of the shoulders, elbows and hips. When these become inflamed from repetitive movements, you’ve got bursitis, which can also affect the knees, heels and base of the big toe. Sometimes you can get bursitis from putting pressure on a joint for too long—like kneeling or leaning on your knees or elbows, for instance.
The pain from bursitis can make you feel achy or stiff and can hurt when you move or press on the joint, which might also appear swollen or red.
While you can’t prevent all types of bursitis, there are some things you can do to reduce the likelihood you’ll get it. If you do a lot of things that require kneeling, take stress off your knees by using a kneeling pad; warm up and stretch prior to strenuous activity; maintain a healthy weight to take stress off your joints and strengthen the muscles around them; use your knees, rather than your back, to lift heavy loads.
Bursitis usually improves on its own, but you can help it along by resting, icing and taking a pain reliever. More aggressive treatment, if necessary, might include physical therapy, prescription medications and steroid injections.
4. Gout This inflammatory form of arthritis affects about 4 percent of American adults.
Many people think of gout as a “rich man’s disease,” a result of a lavish and expensive diet. That’s only a very small part of the picture. Most of the uric acid—actually about two-thirds of it—is produced naturally by your body. The rest comes from diet, in the form of purines, found in animal and plant foods. In fact, one of the great myths of gout is that it is caused by or can be controlled by diet. The reality of it is that gout is mainly a metabolic disease with genetic origins.
Gout occurs when there’s too much uric acid in your body and your kidneys can’t flush it out. It builds in the bloodstream and forms needle-like crystals in a joint. Those crystals, in turn, bring on sudden and severe attacks of pain, tenderness, redness and swelling. It commonly affects the big toe but can also occur in your feet, ankles, knees, hands and wrists. It can make the joint feel like it’s on fire. The pain can get so severe that even the weight of a sheet can be impossible to tolerate.
Don’t think that you don’t have control over gout. You might not be able to change your genetics, but you can change factors like being overweight, which contributes to things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar—all linked to gout.
Experts say that although eating a low-purine diet won’t cure gout, it’s important to eat well and maintain a healthy weight. And, it’s wise to limit foods that increase uric acid levels, such as red meat, shellfish like shrimp and lobster, beer, liquor and high-fructose corn syrup.
To help ease the pain from acute attacks and prevent future ones, gout is usually treated with medication like nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and others), colchicine (a pain reliever used for gout pain) and corticosteroids (like prednisone).
5. Lyme Disease Achy knees and Lyme disease often go together, and that’s because the bacteria transmitted by the tick bite can spread to your joints. This stiffness could also develop in your neck, hands and feet. Aside from joint pain, Lyme’s usual symptoms are fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash characterized by a bulls-eye red circle that usually appears about seven days following the bite.
Left untreated, Lyme can also spread to the heart and nervous system.
Each year, approximately 30,000 people get bitten by a tick and develop Lyme disease. The first way to prevent it is to reduce your exposure by avoiding wooded and brush areas with high grass and leaf litter. Also, use insect and tick repellent, and inspect your body thoroughly for ticks after you’ve been outdoors. Putting your clothing in a hot dryer for 10 minutes can kill off any ticks that hitched a ride.
Caught early, Lyme can be successfully treated with a variety of oral, and sometimes, intravenous antibiotics or penicillin.
Women who live with chronic pain seek relief through all kinds of treatments, from acupuncture to physical therapy, medication to psychology.
But in recent years, researchers have proven a multidisciplinary approach to chronic pain management can offer substantial and sustained pain relief.
Even if you have explored multiple treatment modalities, you likely haven’t experienced a true multidisciplinary pain management program. That’s because they are few and far between. These complex team-driven programs require resources typically found only at large medical institutions. Some patients travel from far away to receive care because the potential life-changing effects are worth it.
In a multidisciplinary approach, a team of clinicians collaborates to create custom treatment programs for each patient, using a variety of modalities. Patients often spend many days a week, sometimes for multiple weeks, in a program.
“It’s more of a patient-centered, goal-oriented, holistic approach,” said Tim J. Lamer, MD, pain management specialist at Mayo Clinic and president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Lamer explained that multidisciplinary pain management is like a puzzle where every piece matters—and they all fit together.
Institutions like the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Pain Management Center in Chicago provide a model for multidisciplinary care, according to attending physician Shana Margolis, MD. There, most patients have previously tried one discipline at a time but not an approach that combines them all. The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab uses a biopsychosocial approach, meaning its team treats biological, psychological, and social drivers of pain, both as individual forces and as forces that intersect with one another.
Multidisciplinary pain management programs may include:
Pain psychology: Teaching patients how mood affects pain and how pain affects mood, often using cognitive behavioral therapy. “When you’re in pain, it can make you more irritable, anxious, and depressed, which then can make it harder to manage your pain, and you can get stuck in a vicious cycle,” said Margolis.
Biofeedback therapy: Providing a variety of relaxation techniques that employ monitoring technology that gives patients instant feedback on their efforts.
Physical therapy: Including time spent on strengthening, range of motion, biomechanics, and pacing.
Occupational therapy: Focusing on ergonomics and improving a patient’s ability to perform everyday tasks with less pain.
Vocational therapy: Helping patients learn to reclaim their working life through a variety of strategies.
Art therapy: Using creativity to cope with pain, express emotions, and even reduce symptoms.
Interventional therapies: Employing techniques like nerve blocks, injections, or electrical stimulator devices to treat the neurological aspect of pain.
Physician and nurse monitoring: Ensuring patients are using medications properly, that comorbid conditions are also well-managed, and more.
Margolis said a key aspect of a multidisciplinary approach is that the patient is at the center of the program, playing an active role in their own care, as opposed to simply receiving treatment. “We’re trying to give patients tools in their toolbox so they can learn to self-manage their pain,” she said.
Lamer said most patients in a multidisciplinary approach experience improved function, mental health and management of pain in their busy lives. And there’s research to prove it, he said, including at least one study that followed patients for as long as 13 years who experienced long-term benefits.
More research by Shirley Ryan Ability Lab Pain Management Center and the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago showed patients experienced improvement in pain, pain-related anxiety, ability to cope, and depression, among others.
Margolis said that while many people can benefit from a multidisciplinary pain management approach, patients with widespread pain conditions like complex regional pain syndrome and fibromyalgia are likely to experience the greatest benefit. “Any kind of chronic pain condition that’s really affecting the patient’s lifestyle is where we excel,” she said. Emphasis on the mind-body connection and mindfulness plays a significant role in a patient’s success.
If you’re looking for a multidisciplinary pain management program, ask at your nearest large medical center. If there isn’t one in your immediate area, reach out to reputable programs and ask if they can recommend a provider in your area.
As a physical therapist, my job is to assist my patients to move better, get stronger, and most often to reduce their pain. This is an important, gratifying, and yet often challenging profession. This is in part due to my own daily chronic pain that is primarily in my low back and tailbone. I have been in some level of pain constantly for the past ten years.
While there are times that I share my experience with my patients, I usually smile, persevere and act as if everything is fine. I think many others with chronic pain can relate to this alternate persona—the brave mask so many chronic pain warriors put on daily.
This is one of the tricky things about living with chronic pain. Most of the time I just want to feel normal. I want to go about my day-to-day tasks as if everything was not a monumental challenge and a huge energy expense. I want to pretend that my chronic pain has not affected my job satisfaction, my relationships and my feelings of self-worth.
There are other times when I want to scream. I want to wear a sign across my chest that says, “Please be gentle with me, I have chronic pain.” I want everyone around me know what I’m going through, why I am the way I am. I want my struggles heard, to know that it’s not easy. It is not pity I seek, but rather compassionate recognition of the daily challenges of living with chronic pain.
I’m often afraid to talk about my struggles with chronic pain. This would mean ripping up the mask––that brave face that I have worked so hard to maintain. My hope is that if I am true and open about my experiences more, a few people might feel less alone. A few people may push aside the fear of stigmatization and feel comfortable to be open and honest about what they are going through.
Early in my clinical training, a patient taught me an important lesson. She told me to never tell someone, “I know how you feel.” Her statement took me aback, but her explanation has really stuck with me. It is true. I could never really know what someone is feeling. It is impossible to know just from their explanations, my own examination and my pre-conceived beliefs and education.
I cannot innately tell how past experiences have affected someone. I cannot exactly grasp the psychological impacts that their illness or pain has had on them. I do not know all other aspects of their life that this has affected. I can’t ever fully understand what someone else is going through, but I can listen. I can respect someone’s experience and I can do my best to validate their concerns. I can call on my past experiences of others discrediting my own feelings and I can work hard to not allow this to happen to another person—at least when they are working with me.
I learned that opening up about my pain did lead to judgment from a few—one family member told someone that I write about my chronic pain, as a way to complain and vent. Many more have provided support and encouragement. I also learned that ignoring your pain and suffering in silence does not make it go away. I have found that by acknowledging my pain it encourages me to seek more treatment and work harder toward finding relief.
Most importantly, talking about my pain has allowed me to maintain the healthy human connection that we all crave and need so badly in this life. It is so much easier to genuinely connect with the people in your life when you are raw and honest. It is never easy, but eventually you will have to take the mask off and let the person see the real you.
I hope that you will find that by talking about your experiences with chronic pain and acknowledging its presence will lessen the power it has over your life. By ignoring my pain, I felt helpless. I let my chronic pain determine what kind of day I was going to have, how long a relationship could last, and how many hours I could stand to work in a week.
While the process is ongoing, I am happy to be taking steps to regain control and be honest about my experiences. I am in far less discomfort than I used to be and now I have something even more important—the hope that one day I might actually be pain-free.
The first step is to wear shoes, such as water slip-ons, in moist environments like indoor swimming pools and communal showers at the gym. Damp areas allow bacteria and viruses to thrive, and walking barefoot makes you more susceptible to common infections like nail fungus, athlete’s foot and warts.
You don’t have to give up style, but skip shoes that don’t feel comfortable from the moment you try them on. Calluses, corns, blisters and irritations can all result from or get worse from shoes that pinch and don’t fit well. It’s a mistake to expect that the shoes will “give” and feel better over time.
Choose hosiery with care. That means buying socks and tights made from breathable fabrics. It’s not always possible to wear cotton, so if your feet get sweaty when you wear hosiery made of synthetics like nylon, take these steps: Carefully wash and dry feet when you get home, hand-wash the hosiery every night and let shoes dry out before you wear them again — you may need to wait 48 hours.
A pedicure might be a great treat for your feet, but beware of harmful practices, both at salons and at home. It’s OK to gently slough off dead skin cells with a pumice stone after soaking your feet, but tools with razor blades are dangerous.
Cutting cuticles is also unsafe. Gently push them back with an orange wood stick. To prevent ingrown toenails, clip straight across, not in a curve. The edges should be just a few millimeters shy of the toe tips. Use an emery board to smooth any ragged spots straight across.
If you’re concerned about any changes in your feet, promptly contact your doctor or a podiatrist for an evaluation.
Arthritic disease is the most common cause of disability in the United States and now affects 46 million Americans, or more than 21 percent of the adult population, a major new report finds.
That number is expected to rise even higher as baby boomers age, so that by 2030, 40 percent of American adults will suffer from some form of arthritic disease, the researchers said.
Today, almost two-thirds of people with arthritis are under 65, and more than 60 percent are women. The disease hits whites and blacks equally, but the rate is lower among Hispanics, according to the report.
“Arthritis remains a large and growing problem,” said lead researcher Dr. Charles G. Helmick, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Cases of osteoarthritis has risen, while rheumatoid arthritis has gone down since our last estimate,” he added.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful autoimmune disorder of uncertain origin leading to chronic inflammation at the joints. Osteoarthritis is a more common illness caused by a gradual breakdown of cartilage in the joints.
The reasons why there are now fewer cases of rheumatoid arthritis is unclear, Helmick said. One reason may be that experts have changed the way they estimate the number of cases. Today, they use a more specific and restrictive definition of the condition, he said. But there has been a real decreases in cases of rheumatoid arthritis worldwide, and no one is sure why, Helmick added.
The main reason that osteoarthritis is increasing is an aging population, Helmick said. “As more people age, there will be more people with osteoarthritis. That’s what’s driving the numbers upward,” he said.
Also, the obesity epidemic in the Unites States is taking its toll, Helmick noted. “Obesity is a risk factor for knee osteoarthritis, one of the most common types of arthritis,” Helmick said. “We don’t have any cures, we treat the symptoms and, when it gets bad enough, we do knee replacements, which are very expensive,” he said.
As more people suffer from arthritis, the costs associated with the disease will also keep going up. Currently, the costs to the country from arthritis top more than $128 billion a year in lost earnings and medical care, Helmick said.
The researchers, from the National Arthritis Data Workgroup, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, national surveys, and findings from community-based studies across the United States to determine the prevalence of arthritis in 2005 and beyond. The results were published in two papers in the January issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
By 2030, almost 67 million people will have arthritis — an increase of 40 percent. Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, affects almost 27 million Americans. That’s a big increase from 1990, when 21 million suffered from the condition.
The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis has declined to 1.3 million Americans, from 2.1 million in 1990.
The prevalence of gout, a form of inflammatory arthritis, has risen in 2005 to about 3 million up, from 2.1 million in 1990.
Currently, juvenile arthritis affects some 294,000 children between infancy and age 17.
An estimated 59 million Americans have suffered an episode of low back pain over the past three months, the researchers said, while 30 million have suffered neck pain over the same time period.
In addition, the report includes estimates for related conditions such as fibromyalgia, spondylarthritides, systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), systemic sclerosis, Sjögren’s syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, polymyalgia, and rheumatic/giant cell arteritis.
One expert advised staying active and keeping your weight under control to help prevent or treat arthritis.
“We know that cases of osteoarthritis are likely to grow, because it’s age-related,” said Dr. Patience White, chief public health officer at the Arthritis Foundation. “In addition, weight plays a big role in risk, as well as lack of physical activity, in keeping your muscles strong,” she said.
Losing weight and keeping physically active can help to reduce pain and keep the disease at bay, White said. “If you lose as little as 10 pounds, you can decrease pain in the knees and hips by 50 percent,” she said. “With exercise, you can decrease progression.”
Like many other things in life, pain discriminates by gender. Women, studies show, feel pain more intensely than men, suffer disproportionately from conditions like chronic pain and migraines, and are more likely to be undertreated for pain than men.
More than 70 percent of people who report suffering chronic pain are women, according to a 2003 report in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America. Compared with men, women are more prone to a wide range of painful conditions, including migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, temporomandibular joint disorder, and fibromyalgia.
Women also appear to feel pain more intensely than men. Lab studies show that if you expose women and men to the same painful situation, such as being exposed to gradually increasing heat, women are usually the first to say ouch. On the plus side, other studies show that women handle pain better than men do. This might be because women have more experience coping with the predictable pains of menstruation and childbirth, and know how to prepare for painful episodes.
Ironically, the half of the population that feels the most pain is also the half that is least likely to get the treatment they need. The National Women’s Health Resource Center reports that women with chronic pain often have trouble convincing doctors of the severity of their pain. As a result, they’re also more likely than men to have their pain undertreated.
Some may be tempted to write off these differences as attributable to cultural influences. After all, there’s no doubt that boys and girls grow up with different outlooks on pain. Girls often feel free to cry over small injuries, while boys feel extra pressure to hold in tears. But the gender gap in pain goes far deeper than culture or upbringing. As recently reported by the American PainSociety, researchers are finding fundamental biological differences in the ways male and female bodies sense and respond to pain. Learning more about these differences can help shed light on the basic nature of pain and may lead to improved treatments for all patients.
Not surprisingly, hormones explain many gender differences in pain. The monthly ebb and flow of female hormones such as estrogen can clearly help fuel migraine headaches, a potentially disabling condition that is three times as common in women as in men. Women are especially vulnerable to migraines during their menstrual periods, when estrogen levels are low. Studies suggest that drops in estrogen can also interfere with the body’s ability to control pain. During menstruation, women produce only meager amounts of endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers. When estrogen levels are high — near the time of ovulation — women can produce about as many endorphins as men, as reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The brain also plays a role in the gender gap. In a small study of patients with irritable bowel syndrome, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles have found that men and women use different parts of their brain to respond to pain. Scan results showed that women tend to turn on their limbic system, the emotional center of the brain. Men, in contrast, respond to pain with the cognitive or analytical part of their brain. Researchers speculate that these brain differences may reflect ancient gender roles. In the old days, women in pain often needed to protect and comfort their young, a highly emotional job. Meanwhile, injured men were more likely to attack the source of the trouble — with a spear, if necessary.
Unfortunately for women, an emotional response can make an already painful situation even worse. As reported by the American Pain Society, women are more likely than men to develop anxiety or depression along with their pain. Both anxiety and depression can sharpen feelings of pain while raising the risk of disability.
Of course, the cool, calm approach often taken by men has its drawbacks, too. Men are less likely than women to take their pain seriously, according to the National Institutes of Health. Instead of getting treatment, men often just hope their pain will go away — at least for a while.
A study conducted over 36 months analyzing emergency room visits by more than 32,000 Baltimore men found that there was an increase in male visits immediately following televised sports events. The study, presented in October 2006 at the American College of Emergency Physicians conference, suggests that many men who visited the Baltimore VA Medical Center’s emergency room for various illnesses, including chest pain, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, and headaches chose to ignore their pain until they’d finished watching their football, baseball or basketball game.
As doctors learn more about gender differences in pain, both men and women should get more of the relief they need. There’s certainly room for improvement. Until attitudes change, women may have to be especially aggressive in getting the right treatment for their pain. Men and women may be wired differently, but in the end, relief should be gender-blind.
At first, my illnesses would require a little more rest while away. Because I pushed through pain and fatigue in hopes of keeping up with my family, I always returned home feeling like death. It was not unusual for my body to need days, weeks, and a few times months to recover from a week away from home.
Through the years I have not only made changes to how I address and relieve my chronic pain, but I have made changes to how I vacation too!
Here are a few tips to help you better enjoy your summer vacation!
Do a little research. Locate pharmacies, hospitals, and urgent care facilities that are in close proximity to your hotel. Then verify that they accept your health insurance.
Speaking of health insurance, check with your provider to see what your coverage is while in a different state or country.
Have your most important medicalinformation handy in case of an emergency. Click here to download my free Emergency Wallet Card. Perfect for when you are not able to inform emergency personnel of your health history or allergies. Always inform your traveling companions of their whereabouts so they can access them easily in case of an emergency.
I do not have White Coat Syndrome, where patients experience a higher blood pressure reading when at the doctor’s office. My fear of doctors goes way beyond that.
My fears stem from incompetent care. Not from just one doctor or surgeon and I am talking double digits!!!
My medical PTSD is the result of being ignored, dismissed, having more than one surgeon make life-lasting errors, and many post-op errors that will haunt me for life.
In case that is not enough of an explanation, here is a list of some of the reasons I fear doctors, hospitals, and test results.
Not one test ran in the emergency room indicated that my appendix was about to burst. I spent 7 hours crying from pain and being told that they can’t see a reason to give me more pain medication. It wasn’t until a shift change that the real problem was discovered. The new doctor pressed on my appendix, my body bounced off the table, and he said it’s her appendix. He then prepped me for surgery. My appendix could have burst inside had I not made it through a shift change.
Not one scan showed the giant cyst that was pulling my uterus, left ovary and fallopian tube, and bladder to my sidewall. This too was discovered in surgery.
Not one scan gave the surgeons I begged to help me after my hysterectomy a clue to the horror show that was taking place in my abdomen. A large, infected piece of my fallopian tube was never seen, nor were the adhesions that were strangling my bowels.
I experienced something that I thought would never happen to me prior to the second surgery performed to fix my botched hysterectomy.
The surgeon was reading my test results when he mentioned that my appendix looked fantastic. I stopped him and said that there was something wrong because I had my appendix removed 3 years earlier!!
His response? He argued with me!!!! He insisted that the report was read correctly and that it was mine!
Thankfully, I had already adopted the policy of never seeing a doctor alone. Had my husband not been there to witness this conversation, I probably would have had a mental breakdown.
One would think he would have checked to see if the results were correct or even mine. Instead, he questioned whether I really had an appendectomy….. I told him he could call the hospital where it took place if he had any more questions.
Later after surgery, I asked the attending surgeon if he saw an appendix. He said NO! The validation joy didn’t last long. I soon began dealing with the fallout from the errors he made during surgery.
Think surgical errors aren’t common? Well, they appear to be with me!
Apparently, there is only one surgeon in Arizona and one in California who not only knows about but knows where to find the only sutures that I am either not allergic to or that are compatible with my body. Why? Because no matter how much detail I go into when explaining the type of sutures they need to use, I have had an issue with the sutures and my healing all because they chose not to listen to me or take me seriously.
My incisions became infected from staples and traditional sutures. The ones that look like regular sutures but are supposed to dissolve on their own don’t dissolve with my body’s makeup.
A surgeon was in a hurry one Friday afternoon and didn’t take the time to sew me up properly.
Even after I protested and screamed that something was wrong, (blood has never poured out of my incisions in the past) I was told that it was normal and sent home. Mind you, the nurses who told me this was normal refused to look under my gown to see what I was referring to.
The next day I called the hospital who told me no that it wasn’t normal and to get back there asap.
When I did, they discovered that he left a gaping hole where he had cut into my belly button. I have seen three-year-olds do a better job of sewing!!
It took two years for me to get a surgeon to listen to me.
I was told repeatedly that it wasn’t an OBGYN problem since I had the hysterectomy.
Some refused to look past my chronic illnesses on my chart. While others told me that I needed to see a psychiatrist. But the pain wasn’t in my head, it was real.
Finally, when surgeon number 21 agreed to go in and later shared his findings, I could finally breathe. I wasn’t crazy after all.
During the second surgery to address the errors of the hysterectomy, my surgeon severed a set of nerves between my vagina and left leg.
Later one of the top neurologists in Scottsdale, Arizona informed me that there are two sets of nerves in that area. One that is commonly nicked or severed and that had been researched and there were ways to fix it. The other is a set that is so rarely severed or nicked that there was no research on how to fix it.
Can you guess which one my surgeon severed? That is right! I have permanent nerve damage.
The sad part is that every single one of those surgeons is still practicing and has never been reprimanded by the state that the errors took place in. Why? Because my lawyers and the state attorneys were unable to find a peer to testify against them.
When I woke up from surgery without feeling in my left thigh, I quickly called over the recovery room nurse.
She said that it was normal considering that I had just had back surgery. Except that I didn’t have back surgery and there was nothing normal about my numb thigh or the blood pouring out of my belly.
This took place at a world-renown hospital in Arizona, the last place you’d ever expect to be treated so poorly, but yet it happened to me.
The recovery room staff refused to allow my husband into the recovery area, even though everyone else had someone with them.
My husband had my glasses, so I was blind, but I also couldn’t walk because of the nerve damage and was weak from losing more blood, otherwise, I would have left on my own.
I have had doctors scoff at my allergy list. One actually laughed out loud, that is until he ordered a liquid for me to consume before a test he was running and I had an allergic reaction in front of him after one sip.
Others just ignore my list, leaving it up to me to go through the ingredient list to make sure it doesn’t contain one of my allergens.
Nine times out of ten my prescriptions would have killed me had I not done the research.
Living with incurable chronic illnesses means often hearing the words, this is all we can do or there isn’t anything else we can do.
But that doesn’t make it easier knowing that there is only so much that can be done.
However, all we can do or we are going to blame it on one of your chronic conditions don’t cut it when vital organs are being attacked.
What’s really sad is that I am only taken seriously when I have been in a car or other type of accident. Anything that could remotely be blamed on fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, etc. is…….
I could seriously fill a book about how terribly I have been treated by the medical profession.
With just what I shared in this post, are you able to understand why I am so fearful?
Do you see why I do not run to them until I am sure they cannot blame it on something else?
Can you understand why knowing I need to see someone ASAP for my latest bout of abdominal pain fills me with anxiety?
In 2016 I was told by a handful of surgeons that they agreed that adhesions were attacking my bowels. But each and everyone one of them refused to fight for me after their request to schedule surgery was denied by the head of my HMO’s gynecology and GI department. Their reasoning? The adhesions will return…..
Yes, they will return, but I won’t… especially if they are permitted to destroy what is left inside of me. On the other hand, I also fear that a surgeon will make a fatal error.
I got lucky and was able to find temporary relief outside of normal healthcare practices after being completely shut down in 2016. I just pray that I can get lucky one more time…
Mother’s Day is just around the corner and many people are scrambling to find the right gift for Mom. If the Mom in your life has fibromyalgia choosing the right gift can be even more difficult. Typical Mother’s Day gifts such as flowers, perfume, or scented candles may not be appropriate. So I have put together a list of gifts that a Mother with chronic pain would love to receive.
If you know a Mom who suffers from fibromyalgia, these 10 Mother’s Day gifts ideas will show her you were thinking of her and that you truly do care about her and her illness.
Oska Pulse is a small wearable pain relief device developed by Oska Wellness. The Oska Pulse is designed to reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and promote joint and muscle recovery. The device treats all types of pain including headaches and migraine.
I love my Oska Pulse and highly recommend it. Mom can try the Oska Pulse risk-free. If she is not fully satisfied, Oska Wellness offers a 90-day money-back guarantee that includes all taxes and shipping costs.
The Quell is another pain management device I personally use and recommend.
The Quell is an FDA-cleared medical device that can be worn 24 hours a day. The Quell device is designed to treat all types of chronic pain. It works especially well for nerve–related pain associated with fibromyalgia, diabetes, sciatica, and neuralgia. The Quell is worn around the calf of either leg. It stimulates the nerves and triggers the body’s natural pain blockers to relieve widespread pain.
The Quell Starter Kit costs $249 and includes 1 Quell device, 1 adjustable sports band, 1 month supply of electrodes (2 electrodes), 1 charger, 1 charger adapter, and a quick start guide. Each electrode lasts for about two weeks and costs about $30 a month.
The Hummingbird is a medical device intended to alleviate muscle aches, pain, fatigue, and related other symptoms associated with low blood pressure and inadequate blood flow common to fibromyalgia and other chronic health conditions. You simply sit in a chair, place the front part of your feet on the device, and it does the rest.
The Hummingbird operates by using low amplitude, low-frequency physical massage therapy causing muscles in each calf to pump blood and fluid from the lower leg back to the heart which improves circulation of the blood throughout the body and to the brain.
Most of us with fibromyalgia experience daily tension-type headaches and frequent migraines. Both can cause sensitivity to light, during and between attacks. Flickering or pulsing lights, repetitive patterns, glare, bright lights, and computer screens can all trigger a painful migraine, as well.
Axon Optic therapeutic glasses provide a natural solution for headaches, migraine, and light sensitivity. Their glasses are available for indoor use, outdoor use, and transitions lenses, which can be used both indoors and outdoors. They have a wide selection of frames and each set of glasses come with a hard-shell case and cleaning cloth.
Essential oils can be very helpful for pain relief, improving sleep, relieving stress, and addressing emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. One of the most effective ways to reap the benefits of essential oils is to use a diffuser. By diffusing the oils into the air, they are inhaled and sent instantly to the brain.
Organic Aromas make beautiful essential oil diffusers. Each handcrafted aromatherapy diffuser uses specialty glass and high-quality wood. They have various shapes, colors, and sizes of essential oil diffusers to choose from.
Organic Aromas nebulizing essential Oil diffusers don’t use water or heat. This means you can use less essential oil and get all of the oil’s therapeutic benefits. Organic Aromas certified organic essential oils and blends are made with the finest quality natural materials.
I love to read and don’t know what I would do without my Kindle. Kindle E-readers have dedicated e-book readers and can hold thousands of books. There is a massive selection of low-priced Kindle e-books available. And with a subscription to Kindle Unlimited, Mom can enjoy unlimited access to over one million e-books and thousands of audiobooks for $9.99 a month.
The Kindle Fire, which is what I have, is an e-reader as well as a high-performance tablet. Fire tablets feature instant access to thousands of the most popular free and best-selling games, social media, premium TV and movie providers, and more.
ChronicAlly is the first health and beauty monthly subscription box for women and girls with chronic illness. The box contains health and beauty products centered around self-care. The idea of ChronicAlly Box is to bring cheer to women living with chronic illness. The items are handpicked by Ally and her allies who are also chronic illness sufferers. Every month Mom will receive a new box filled with health, beauty, and pick-me-up products delivered right to her door.
Adult coloring books have gained popularity as a great relaxation technique. It turns out that coloring has therapeutic benefits for many different conditions, including anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. When you are focused on coloring, you’re not concentrating on the pain you’re in so it is a great distraction. Coloring can also help to boost mental clarity because coloring utilizes areas of the brain that enhance focus and concentration.
An Amazon gift card makes a great Mother’s Day gift. Amazon gift cards are redeemable for millions of items store-wide at Amazon.com. Plus they never expire.
The most precious gift you can give someone with fibromyalgia is your understanding and support. Fibromyalgia is a complex condition that’s difficult to make sense of. Because fibromyalgia involves the brain and nervous system, it can have an impact on virtually every part of the body. It can be confusing to see someone with fibromyalgia be unable to do something one day, yet perfectly capable of it on another day. That’s fibromyalgia, it’s unpredictable.
