the pain game.

We all feel pain in our lives, life is "suffering" in the most base way as at least some point in your life, you will feel physical pain. Until I got sick, I had no idea how many different kinds of pain there are. Because my diseases are systemic, I have pain in my joints, muscles, as well as lots and lots of nerve pain. The sensations I will feel can vary from deep bone pain to superficial burning and zapping on my skin. Usually I feel several at once. A pain orchestra if you will :)

Part of living with chronic pain is pain management be it medication, breathing techniques, accupuncture (I will be writing a separate blog about my experiences with accupuncture/cuppping). Your life revolves around "staying" on top of the pain and finding the best coping methods to alleviate the intense physical experience (as well as the emotional experience). There are different schools of thought about when to take pain medication. Some say to take medication as soon as your start to experience pain to help stop it from getting too out of control, others say to wait and see how bad the pain gets.

I have done both, I usually will take pain medication shortly after waking up as mornings are very painful and then wait until the afternoon/night to take another dose. Unfortunately I have yet to find a medication that works 100% of the time. Doctors seem to err on the side of caution and because I have been on pain medication for so long, my body habituates very quickly and a lot of medications don't work unless I take higher doses of them. This leaves me sometimes taking the maximum amount I can take in a day and then having to "just deal" with the pain until the next morning when I can begin the "game of pain" again. I often can begin to feel anxious knowing that I will use the maximum amount in my 2 doses and then any pain that happens after that, I will just have to "tolerate". Anxiety and pain often go hand and hand which can complicate things as anxiety will only increase your pain as it changes how your body functions. You breathe more shallowly, you tense your muscles, your heart rate increases...it's like having your "pain orchestra" be tramsitted through a gaint speaker that amplifies the song 100x.

Its hard to explain what living with pain is like to someone who hasn't experienced it. The best way I can describe is a game of tag. I am constantly on the run trying to escape it but I often feel like I am not fast enough. Once Pain "tags" me I am too slow to escape and I am "tagged" over and over again. Things like pain medication, breathing techniques, accupuncture/cupping can give me the speed to run faster and evade pain...but sometimes even that isn't enough. I have come to realize that it is important to have more than one "tool" in your pain toolkit so when one doesn't work, you have something else to rely on.

I wanted to share two new pain relief techniques my new Accupuncturist shared, they don't work for me all the time but they almost always help take some of the anxiety away that comes when I am in a lot of pain.
-The first is a breathing technique. Take a deep breath in through your nose for 4 counts, hold for 7 counts, and then release through your mouth making an "ahhhhh" sound for 8 counts. If you can try to visualize breathing in and out in the spot/s that are hurting. Do this 4-6 times.
-The second is to vocalize your pain. Say out loud how it feels. I usually say "OW", curse words, and how the pain feels "burning, zapping, aching" etc.

A wonderful book about pain is Explain Pain by David Butler. A friend lent it to me and it really helped me to look at pain differently and understand the science behind it. They also have a great blog.

What helps your pain?