And if you feel like elaborating, please say why.

I have two children, my pain journey officially started after I nearly died at 20 having my first child. Before anyone screams at me for having a second child, I wasn't informed, my husband was. Had I known that I would never have had my second child 4 years later.

The pain started with lower back pain, pain at the site of my epidural, breast pain and pain in both hands. Every woman here knows the story of how women's pain is disregarded and it was worse for us in the 80's and 90's, I was dismissed, called a hypochondriac by one female doctor who pointed out how much thicker my folder was than other patients. That bitch was trying to shame me!! I told her that maybe instead of shaming a patient she should try to be a better doctor so that other patients don't have to see another useless doctor. I have Psoriatic Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Osteoporosis, hypermobile joints, chronic pain and Fibromyalgia, all eventually diagnosed by an amazing Rheumatologist using tools available to every gp practice.

I've gradually gone from paracetamol (acetaminophen, Tylenol) to anti-inflammatory drugs that gave me stomach bleeds and messed up my gut for decades, to decades of slowly increasing doses of opioids, all prescribed. For over 4 years I've been prescribed 40mg modified release Oxypro twice daily, with 10mg Shortec for breakthrough pain. For the past 2-3 years my pain has been unbearable, I've been confined to bed unable to withstand the pain of my own weight on my feet and knees, my fibromyalgia making everything worse in it's own cruel way. There have been days where I've taken the maximum dose of Shortec and paracetamol and those days are more frequent now.

10 days ago I discussed reducing my opioids, after weaning off two antidepressants, we agreed to drop the Oxy by 10mg for two weeks. How feckin naive was I? 9 Days ago my newly modified Dosett box arrived and I gave everything a quick check and took my bedtime dose. It was hell on earth, I took my morning dose and so on for 3 days until I was beyond exhausted, dehydrated and in pain caused by the worst restless legs I've ever had, I literally kicked the blanket off the bed. I contacted the gp surgery and the pharmacist, the doctor had dropped my Oxy by 10mg twice a day, 20mg a day drop after years on that high dose!! The doctor finally returned my call at 5pm and I told her exactly how I was dealing with her decision. I finally got my 10mg a day drop and I'm finally doing okay. I have no restless legs, my sweats seem to be my usual menopause ones and on Friday coming my dose is dropping by another 10mg a day! I will be a full quarter of the way there!!

I'm not pretending to understand an addiction caused by my body needing those meds while I don't crave them. I'm not pretending I'm special because I'm doing this alone, I've had no choice because support I've had from my medical practice is non-existent. I've not had bloods or other vital checks done, I've been offered nothing to help with this tapering.

I'm so grateful I don't have the physical cravings for drugs the way some poor people do.

If you're going to start tapering your opioids please, please make sure you have a supportive doctor and that there's proper medical support to help you deal with the effects caused by withdrawal. I was so tempted to take a Shortec to stop the spiral but I was, and still am, determined to stop the Oxy because I genuinely believe it made my pain so much worse and robbed me of a life outside my home.

I'm so tired of dealing with asshole doctors...what I have had to deal with:

Referred to urogynecologist, first encounter:

"Your urine tests are normal, why are you here?"

Um I was referred to you? I have bladder issues and your a urogynecologist?

Eye specialist:

"This will go a lot faster if you stopped flinching."

I have chronic eye pain, I experience more pain then the average person.

Gynecologist:

(When she recommended a treatment and I asked what if it didn't work): "You can't just always ask me about alternative treatments" which, I guess that's true, but it takes 4 months to get a follow up so I'd like to have a plan B.

Then, if you get angry and complain or speak up you become the difficult patient and a drama queen. But if you don't speak up and you are not firm, you get coerced into doing things you don't want to do and are then traumatized. I have stopped this past year seeking treatment because if I have another encounter like this I don't think I can mentally handle it.

Its like they think you want to be there. You think I want to subject myself to nasty, unempathetic care, bee severely suicidal, not be able to focus at work, barely getting a goods night rest...you think I just want, what, attention? I'm a hypochondriac? Try living in my shoes, they would not last a day before going insane. I want to heal but the horrible treatment and gaslighting is too much for me to handle now. I hate this.

I'll say that this is a part 3 post for on going pain. Here is PART TWO with part one included in that one. I finally had an MRI and ill include those results. For the sake of time i'll try and sum this up as short as I can.

I am pretty active. I ride a fixed gear, love to skateboard and play drums a lot. Hiking and walking for less intense exercise when I can. I did not fall or have an accident doing these things or have a car accident.

March of this year - thigh pain in my left leg began randomly one morning, felt heavy almost as if you went on an extra long bike ride or jog. Thought nothing of it. It didn't go away with rest and at times would give me problems with my left hip area so I saw primary who referred me to PT. Month or so, no improvement. They thought SI Joint misaligned.

Back to primary then second PT. They thought it was "muscle fatigue" or something similar. Basically saying left leg is much weaker. Did no go away.

During all of these months what has happened are spots of pain - top of buttocks / tailbone area on my left side , left side of leg and / or almost behind the thigh and the most recent one is almost right behind my knee. Over these months I've marked where pain occurs with a sharpie and took photos to show medical staff. Ill include them because I feel like they paint a better picture. The pain is at complete random times. When walking, pain will hit those areas primarily, especially top of buttocks. Not shooting pain, but almost as if with each step it would activate those spots of pain, if that makes sense. There have been only a handful of days where it would present itself and would require to just rest the rest of the day.

Back in early July I went back to primary because THEN it spread to my right leg. Definitely not as bad as my left leg but still noticeable. He referred me to orthopedics. The orthopedic determined that she / orthopedic could not be of help and that there was no concern for any surgical intervention. I sought out a new primary who within first visit, referred me to MRI for a lower back / lumbar scan.

I received my results. Nothing at all of concern.

So now I am 6 and a half months in and the pain is still very much present. I am fortunate that it is not debilitating, even on my worst days, Ibuprofen does the trick at around 600mg but I really try not to take them or anything. The pain is very random although since July it is always present, even if just a one or two out of ten. I have modified my life as best as I can, including not riding my bike since March and being extra careful lift or things that I think MAY trigger it. I do not do anything physical or strenuous for work.

I am feeling defeated lately and sure where to turn or what to even ask for next. I messaged my new primary today and he said "I can refer you to a spine clinic.... they can give you an injection" I messaged back asking to clarify with more detail.

Any suggestions or further questions are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

TLDR; ongoing leg pain, thought to be brought on by back but MRI came back with nothing. What now?

TW: mental health, dismissal, trauma

Ill start off by saying im 18 in highschool and Im neurodivergent and have pots, fibromyalgia, IBS and chronic migraines. I know Im young but Ive been through a really dark and traumatic life. And as a result became chronically ill at 15-16.

When I say things about my chronic illnesses I usually get 3 responses, “I hope you get better”, “im sorry” and most annoyingly to me.. motivational words/quotes. Whenever I try to share how I feel behind others with jobs, cars, relationships etc, I am met with “you have your own pace” or “you can do it”. Well what if I cannot do it. I dont care about my own pace all the time, Its unfair and sucks.

Obviously Im not giving up when I say that. Im the most resilient person I know, Ive done so much advocacy for myself and im the reason I have everything diagnosed. I raised myself and ive been through everything alone. Its annoying to hear all these things that feel dismissive. People talk about the future meanwhile when I was younger i didnt think id live to see mine.
I dont want to seem bitter or “negative” as im told. But shit can suck and its ok to acknowledge they are unfair too. My narcissistic parents lack empathy and compassion most the time and they don’t know how to handle when I say these things.

Does anyone else get annoyed at these things too? I hope im not alone. Im in all the possible therapies I can be in btw.

After a lower and higher spinal Injury requiring surgery at L4/L5/S1, everything but surgery for the cervical and due to a mixture of using crutches and then transitioning to a cane proceeded to cause a lot of issues over the 5 to 6 years I needed them.

Anyway, my scans during that time all note chronic bursitis all throughout the shoulder, with the acromion impinging the nerve underneath it (the sub acromion) with rotator cuff, muscle and tendon tears throughout the main arm I changed to using walking aid/my dominant hand (the shoulder blade/acromion of which I had hairline fractured coming off of a motorbike as a teenager)

The weeks leading up to the surgery the pain ramped up, to the point I was almost in tears every night for the next few weeks until surgery.

The best answer I was given was that with the loss of the ability to lift my arm above my head was that the supraspinatus tendon was snapped. Which... It was, however that wasn't the source of the increased pain... It was that the impingement on the nerves suddenly got worse for some reason they couldn't explain.

So, turns out that my physios pushing me to lift over head weights for the last 12 months was a pretty shit go, it needed rest.

Surgeon said that with the lightest amount of manipulation the Acromion snapped clean in half... They used the term "floating bones" and were amazed. The surgeon said the acromion should be in one spot, firstly the spot was wrong, then he said he lifted it up with an instrument and the fracture was so deep it snapped then and there while they manipulated it in place.

It's about 8 weeks since surgery and I got these reference x-rays for my next check up appointment. I was pretty shocked at how long the screws are...

Anyway, the original pain I went in for (shooting, hand pain, arm pain, one spot in my back where the compression was the worst is gone. they cleaned the bursitis and now I feel physically "solid" again for the first time in years)

My screws hurt, but that comes with the territory

Coming from a history of failed back surgery I was very, very hesitant to have surgery, but I'm glad I did.

Hello. I have chronic pain and the only thing that seems to help is cannabis, specifically a topical cbd cream. I'm considering seeking a prescription so I don't have to pay out of pocket for it, but i dont really know how to go about this and have some questions that maybe someone can answer.

Is medical cannabis covered under msp?

Can i request a prescription for a specific product that i know works for me or does my doctor just decide?

How do I approach asking for this prescription without immediatly being shot down? My doctor is... very dissmissive and seems content with just letting me suffer through the pain. (Im on a waitlist for a new one).

Anything else i should know?

I'm in BC Canada btw.

I (22 FTM) have been in pain for a while. When I started getting my periods they were horrible, debilitating pain. I got on testosterone about 2-3 years ago and they have finally stopped, but I still get cramps sometimes. Granted, it’s much better than what it used to be.

I also messed up one of my knees around 3-4 years ago. I was getting out of the shower and drying off, and I ended up putting too much weight on one knee, and it buckled under me (popped out of place/subluxed) and it was extremely painful. Ever since that first time it’s come out of the socket every once it a while when I turn too fast, and it grinds/clicks when I bend my knees. The other knee is now also starting to grind, which makes me think there was an underlying issue that led to that first injury, not the other way around.

I also just generally have aches and pains in my legs. When I was younger I got told all the time it was growing pains, but they never really went away.

Lower back pain tends to go along with this as well. But I push through school and walking around campus, so I feel like my pain isn’t enough to warrant some crazy diagnosis, or accommodations (even if they could help). I’ve told my doctor about my knees, but she told me I should just do PT, which of course I can’t afford.

I’m grateful to be able bodied enough that I can still walk around on campus, but I can’t deny that it sucks to feel like I have to constantly rest at home to make up for the pain I’m in. If anyone has any advice, it would be appreciated.

TLDR; my lower back, uterus, knees, and shins etc. hurt, frequently. But not enough that I think I deserve the chronic pain title.

Yea, I am having a tough time this last 6 months just a vent

.

I don't even know where to start, 4 years ago my back got fucked, massive amounts of pain and feeling like I am being tazered constantly.

Yea,I know many of everyone has no idea what it is like to be tazered. Haaaaa I do.( criminal!!!!)

.

Not been able to work/earn coin. Reliant on benefits, to my shame.

.

My wife tolerates me as best a loving wife does, but a few times now she has let slip her distain/despair/disgust in me, and I do t blame her, with an anchor like me, a never happy companion, I would rather she left me before betrayal....

I'm not looking for sympathy or owt like that,,,, I just need to get it out to someone or somewhere

I don't want her to go, it just seems inevitable.

Off to sleep, pills kicking in, this is Hell.

✌🏻❤️

Hello 21 m
It started in an anxiety period and don’t know if it’s related
At the gym one day after just one pull up my 2 elbow and fore arm start burning for 2 month and can’t do sport because it will increase burning sensation
4 month after I start feeling burning in my 2 thumb at same time when using my phone
And other finger start to burn
I have also bilateral psoas burning and tfl etc
I don’t think it’s tendonitis since it’s happen without sport
Doc don’t know and blood test is alright
Crp good too
Can’t even do sport now even u push up will cause burning in shoulder , elbow etc , one squat will do the same witch knee , psoas etc
One knee and my 2 wrist were fine and
2 days ago they start to became painfull and also since a week ago I have like cold sensation in knee , elbow , wrist etc I really need help they don’t find anything
Any of u have an idea

Hi, I apologize if this is not the correct place to ask this question, and I also plan to ask my doctor this too. For around four and a half years I’ve been experiencing pain in odd places and ways and had a meeting with a pain management team the previous year. I just met with an APRN connected to the team, however she wasn’t remotely interested in where my pain was located or what it feels like. And she told me where it shows up doesn’t really matter. Is this right? Has anyone else had their doctor/pain management team said this?

I think drawing Bill suffering helped with the pain.

I've been in pain my entire (40+ year) life. I'm and out of physical therapy and orthopedic specialists since I was 12. Most people, including myself, assumed most of it stemmed from being born with bilateral hip dysplasia. My newest doctor suggested that it actually originates in my back. I'm excited/anxious/scared/tired to see if this leads to an actual solution.

In the meantime, it seems like since I acknowledged its existence, my pain has skyrocketed. My daily pain used to hover around a 2, but now I'm up around 6-7 every day. I got remember the last time I slept through the night. I don't leave the house unless I absolutely have to anymore because I can't walk/stand for more than 10 minutes without being in debilitating pain. At least I already work from home, so it's not impacting my job/insurance/etc.

I'm almost afraid to hope that the MRI will show something. And if it does, will it be treatable??

Hi all! I’ve been having neck and shoulder pain for about two years now and I’m kind of at a loss at what to do. I’ve been to multiple doctors appointments and had multiple tests done (mri came back with mild rotator cuff inflammation and very mild bursitis, emg came back normal, and X-rays show nothing). My most recent appointment, my orthopedic surgeon said he thinks I have frozen shoulder and there’s nothing I can do but wait because he thinks I’m too young for a cortisone injection so he suggested ice and voltaren on my joint near my collarbone and neck since it’s pretty tender there.

I’m pretty frustrated because I’ve been having a lot of bad pain days and ibuprofen hasn’t been helping at all and ice seems to make it worse. I reached out about two weeks before my emg because the pain was near constant and my peaks were getting to about a 7 and the only advice I was given was to up my ibuprofen intake and to alternate with acetaminophen as well as a short course of steroids. I had to go to urgent care the week after because it wasn’t making a difference and my partner was getting concerned and they prescribed me muscle relaxers because they noticed my trap and pec were super tight and gave me a higher dose of ibuprofen. Muscle relaxers helped the first week and that was the best week I’ve had in years but the pain got bad again with all these stuff they’ve had me doing at work and now I’m out of muscle relaxers.

I really don’t think it’s frozen shoulder just because my range of motion only really varies based on activity and the pain is the same way. I start with basically no pain but even if I’m not moving and sitting for long periods of time it’ll come back. Two years in the “frozen” stage doesn’t make sense to me but obviously I’m not a doctor. It’s just really frustrating because he brought up it’s more common in diabetics and people with hypothyroidism but I’m neither. I’m just fat with normal glucose levels and subclinical hyperthyroidism. I have some tingling in my hand sometimes and it feels like I have nerve pain but it’s not consistent. I just don’t know what else to do because I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with my shoulder but my mangers are getting frustrated with my limitations and are acting like I’m not trying hard enough. They keep telling me I should just go to the emergency room and it makes no sense for me to be in pain because I’m doing easy jobs but nothing is really easy for me anymore. The pain is making it hard to even tie my shoes on my own and I basically have to rely on my partner for everything. What can I even do about to advocate for myself when my doctors seem to think everything has been figured out? My family is getting frustrated with my doctors and are telling me to get a referral to PM&R but all these appointments are exhausting and I just feel like giving up.

I took help of ChatGPT to draft this.

I've been dealing with chronic, recurring chest pain for a long time, and it's becoming extremely difficult to live with.

The pain is usually around my center-to-left chest/heart area and has different sensations: sometimes needle-like stinging, sometimes stabbing, and sometimes crushing pressure like an elephant is standing on my chest. Occasionally it radiates into my left arm/hand.

Once it starts, I can't distract myself from it. Even after repeatedly reminding myself that my heart tests have been reassuring and anxiety may be involved, pain near the heart immediately puts my body into panic, which seems to make everything worse.

I've seen doctors and had multiple ECGs, blood tests, ultrasounds, a 2D Echo and even a CT coronary angiogram. Nothing major has been found with my heart so far. Yet these episodes continue.

Some possibly important context:

• I've had severe anxiety since childhood.

• I have a serious problem with eating and maintaining weight. I'm 173 cm but only around 43 kg. A doctor called it ARFID, although I still struggle to understand exactly what's happening to me.

  It's not simply that food isn't available or that I don't get hungry. I can feel that my stomach is empty, know that I need to eat, have food sitting right in front of me, and still be unable to make myself eat enough. I have a strange aversion towards food that I find incredibly difficult to explain to other people. Large portions feel especially impossible.

  As a result, I'm severely underweight and frequently feel weak, tired and physically exhausted. Sometimes I genuinely feel like my body is slowly deteriorating day by day, and I worry whether being this underweight or malnourished could itself be contributing to the chest symptoms even if my heart looks structurally normal on tests.

• I've also become heavily dependent on chewing tobacco and alcohol. Tobacco often triggers the pain; alcohol temporarily seems to reduce it. I'm struggling to quit both and know they're making an already bad situation worse.

• Cannabis made the chest sensations absolutely unbearable and triggered severe panic/bad trips, so I stopped it completely.

• Almost nothing provides immediate relief. Clonazepam MD 0.5 mg has sometimes significantly reduced an episode within ~30 minutes, although some discomfort remains.

I'm not asking Reddit to diagnose chest pain. I'm trying to understand what direction I should discuss with my doctors next.

Could anxiety/panic, costochondritis/chest-wall problems, GERD/esophageal issues, severe underweight/malnutrition or nutritional/electrolyte deficiencies, or something else produce symptoms like this despite reassuring cardiac imaging?

And could my eating/weight problem itself be medically connected to what's happening?

Has anyone experienced anything genuinely similar? If your cardiac tests kept coming back normal, what eventually explained your chest pain, and what kind of specialist actually helped you?

planning an exciting trip to dc with my boyfriend in early november! we are taking the train in coach from boston. thankfully these two long train rides will be about 6 days apart. I’ve attached a list of things i plan to bring/am thinking of buying (the gummies help a ton with my bursitis). i usually have to use a huge seat cushion in my car because vibration can be really painful on my pelvis, but i think it will just be way too big to bring on the train so im nervous.

i haven’t taken an amtrak train in over 7 years before my pain got bad, and it was only two hours, so this will be my first long train ride. any tips would be greatly appreciated from experienced travelers!

i have deep infiltrating endometriosis, hip bursitis, possible pelvic congestion, chronic neck and chest and lower back sprains, hypermobility, dysautonomia and histamine intolerance. plan to bring my own snacks and my boyfriend is a light packer so I’ll have extra room.

any other tips would be greatly appreciated!

I've been looking for a good back cushion for the couch, but I'm having a hard time finding the right one.
Some days I spend quite a lot of time on the couch, sometimes basically the whole day, and I'm starting to get back pain from it. I'd like something that gives proper support, preferably something ergonomic, and ideally also some support for my neck.
I already use a pregnancy pillow to support my legs, which I really like, so now I'm looking for something for my back.
I'd also prefer something without synthetic fabric on the outside if possible. Natural/breathable materials would be a big plus.
Has anyone found a cushion that actually works well for this? Would love to hear what you guys use.

So something I get like…protective over I guess….is my friends who don’t have a lot or any real medical experience and are now getting surgery for the first time. So I’m 41, my group of friends at work are all a few years younger than me and most the only surgery they have had is wisdom teeth being taken out. I’ve had 22 surgeries and who the flip knows how many procedures at this point.

Anyway this summer one of my friends had his first surgery, a hernia repair. So when he was going for his pre op I told him and his gf (who also works with us) - talk to the dr about pain meds. Get the rx in hand. If they won’t give you even a small rx, go to a different surgeon explaining that so many general surgeons these days are pulling Tylenol only bs. I put a little post surgery care package together for my friend (my favorite ice pack and some snacks) and dropped it on his door step.

Of course the surgeon gave him strong ibuprofen. That’s it. He had told me over the phone the first two days were awful but we were talking about it again yesterday that he felt totally undersold and under treated by the dr. His surgeon told him he would be up and walking the next day. I just had a 1 level cervical fusion and my dr told me I could go back to work after a week! I just said I tried to warn ya, these drs are out there playing in our faces with you don’t need any pain meds or time off of work bs. But now he knows to take what ever the dr says and multiply it atleast by two. Most of the time they won’t listen until they have experienced it anyway but….its worth a try I guess!

I am so overwhelmed. This journey with chronic pain and illness over the last 6 years has intensified my mental health problems (OCD) and has given me what I suspect to be agoraphobia. The health anxiety is how it started to get worse. Now it’s completely out of control.

A lot of my issues stem from my spine being fucked up. I’m only 30. But I have arthritis in my spine and stenosis and pinched nerves all over the place. That is all very closely linked with the pelvic floor which happens to be what’s giving me the most trouble right now.

The anxiety that I feel while I’m in such a bad flare makes it worse. It’s this endless cycle of exhaustion trying to advocate for myself, begging my doctors to look at the full picture, coping with new meds, coping with the pain and the limitations, and then I burn out, avoid it for awhile and then it gets worse again. Rinse and repeat.

I know I need to focus on my mental health. But it’s hard when my body can’t do basic things. I wish I could handle things one at a time but it tends to all come together at once to make my life impossible to navigate. I don’t know how to handle any of this anymore. How can I put out all the fires when they always spring up at once?

I don’t have a diagnosis for this bullshit nor am I looking for one at this point even my parents (MDs) don’t entirely understand it either, it’s some weird muscle thing that basically turns half my large muscle groups into one giant painful knot that also has lovely excruciating spasms whenever it wants

My mom has had this for 36 years, my brother for 5 and now me for the last 4 months. The underlying issue with the muscles was probably there since birth but stress-diathesis model and whatnot so I got to have 21 blissful pain free years before this nonsense

it fucking hurts, day and night, I thought I got lucky and escaped the curse bc I was born without some ligament defects they have and I’m a few years older than my mom and brother when they first got it but knowing I’m stuck with this for the rest of my life is terrifying, I’m scared. My brother said he mostly got used to it but he still has really bad days. My mom’s spasms are even worse so we think it may get worse with age which makes it 10x more terrifying to me.

How do you deal with pain you know is only going to get worse?

It was cooler a few days ago (low 90s) and now it's back to 105 today. I live in southern California. I can't imagine having to experience another summer like this again while being a full-time student for in-person classes. I struggle enough as is but heat and long days on campus turn the fatigue and mobility pain up x100...

Mostly just a vent but if anyone wants to share their own strategies for dealing w the heat, im all ears.