Chronic pain Support - Significant Other suffers from Chronic Pain

Author

Significant Other suffers from Chronic Pain

Fugetaboutit

2005-09-23, 7:29 pm

Hello, everyone, I am the significant other (S.O.) of a 30 year old
woman who suffers form chronic pain. I am writing today to hopefully
encourage someone and to hear any advice.

I met S.O. in the summer of 2003 and she was quite fit, having worked
out regularly for the past seven years. I learned when I gave her a
massage that her left shoulder blade was usually tense, and she also
has a history of migraines.

Her job involved a lot of sitting and typing, but also quite a bit of
getting up to go down the hall, to the printer, etc.

In August 2004, she had two incidences. Incident #1 was that she and a
co-worker were carrying a big box of paper (10 reams?) and as they got
about 5" from the floor, the co-worker let go. S.O. weighted only 92
lbs., so one of these boxes of paper is more than she should carry,
but she only had most of the weight for a split second.

Incident #2 happened the following week. She spent most of a day
working on one thing at her computer and when she got home, she hurt
really badly. That was the beginning of where we are now at.

We first saw an orthopedist who did an MRI on her lower back, then
sent her to therapy which we thought helped a little at first, but
then she got considerably worse. We pressed the orthopedist for an
upper back and neck MRI and he put us off, so we insisted. When these
results came back, he said we would need a different approach in the
physical therapy, as she has three mildly ruptured disks. Again, the
physical therapy helped for a few weeks, but then seemed to make
things worse. We tried a back brace with the same results.

We found a neurosurgeon we came to really like. He says that this is
inoperable due to where it is, but that she will eventually get well.
He finally seemed to want out of the deal and sent us to a pain
management guy who we think the world of.

S.O. is on Oxycontin, Hydrocodone, Lithium, Zoloft, Imipramine,
Clonazepem, Carisoprodol, Zomig for migraines, and when it is really,
really bad, she adds Soma and Lortab. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being
the worst, she has been between 7 and 8.5 this week. She went to see
family including her son over Christmas and got down to a 6, then she
got worse when she returned here with me. She has had some good weeks
since then, but that was at least a month ago and lately she feels
like she is no better than when she was at her worst.

The first pain management people we went to see were pretty rude and
also wanted a contract. After several displays of bad attitude, we
left and found our current pain management doctor. S.O. is about to
move back home to be near her son and we were asking our P.M. doctor
the other day about finding someone where she is going. I asked him
about his lack of a contract and he said that they are a sign of
mistrust and that he hates them. He could ask S.O. for a drug test at
any time, but he said he trusts us (we are the first ones ever to ask
Oxycontin doe to be reduced). I am sharing this because it may help
someone.

Another thing I want to mention is that the woman seems very cool:
http://geniesongs.com/ We have been swapping email and it may help
some of you to read what she has to say.

If anyone wants to share similar resources, please do. I am about to
have to part ways with my S.O. until I can afford to move to where she
is going, and I want to find her all the help I can. She is going to
New England, by the way.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

healthyhabit@aol.com

2005-09-23, 7:29 pm

Fugetaboutit wrote:
> Hello, everyone, I am the significant other (S.O.) of a 30 year old
> woman who suffers form chronic pain. I am writing today to hopefully
> encourage someone and to hear any advice.
>
> I met S.O. in the summer of 2003 and she was quite fit, having worked
> out regularly for the past seven years. I learned when I gave her a
> massage that her left shoulder blade was usually tense, and she also
> has a history of migraines.
>
> Her job involved a lot of sitting and typing, but also quite a bit of
> getting up to go down the hall, to the printer, etc.
>
> In August 2004, she had two incidences. Incident #1 was that she and a
> co-worker were carrying a big box of paper (10 reams?) and as they got
> about 5" from the floor, the co-worker let go. S.O. weighted only 92
> lbs., so one of these boxes of paper is more than she should carry,
> but she only had most of the weight for a split second.
>
> Incident #2 happened the following week. She spent most of a day
> working on one thing at her computer and when she got home, she hurt
> really badly. That was the beginning of where we are now at.
>
> We first saw an orthopedist who did an MRI on her lower back, then
> sent her to therapy which we thought helped a little at first, but
> then she got considerably worse. We pressed the orthopedist for an
> upper back and neck MRI and he put us off, so we insisted. When these
> results came back, he said we would need a different approach in the
> physical therapy, as she has three mildly ruptured disks. Again, the
> physical therapy helped for a few weeks, but then seemed to make
> things worse. We tried a back brace with the same results.
>
> We found a neurosurgeon we came to really like. He says that this is
> inoperable due to where it is, but that she will eventually get well.
> He finally seemed to want out of the deal and sent us to a pain
> management guy who we think the world of.
>
> S.O. is on Oxycontin, Hydrocodone, Lithium, Zoloft, Imipramine,
> Clonazepem, Carisoprodol, Zomig for migraines, and when it is really,
> really bad, she adds Soma and Lortab. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being
> the worst, she has been between 7 and 8.5 this week. She went to see
> family including her son over Christmas and got down to a 6, then she
> got worse when she returned here with me. She has had some good weeks
> since then, but that was at least a month ago and lately she feels
> like she is no better than when she was at her worst.
>
> The first pain management people we went to see were pretty rude and
> also wanted a contract. After several displays of bad attitude, we
> left and found our current pain management doctor. S.O. is about to
> move back home to be near her son and we were asking our P.M. doctor
> the other day about finding someone where she is going. I asked him
> about his lack of a contract and he said that they are a sign of
> mistrust and that he hates them. He could ask S.O. for a drug test at
> any time, but he said he trusts us (we are the first ones ever to ask
> Oxycontin doe to be reduced). I am sharing this because it may help
> someone.
>
> Another thing I want to mention is that the woman seems very cool:
> http://geniesongs.com/ We have been swapping email and it may help
> some of you to read what she has to say.
>
> If anyone wants to share similar resources, please do. I am about to
> have to part ways with my S.O. until I can afford to move to where she
> is going, and I want to find her all the help I can. She is going to
> New England, by the way.
>
> Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Where in New England?

Fugetaboutit

2005-09-23, 7:30 pm

On 19 Sep 2005 12:55:11 -0700, healthyhabit@aol.com wrote:

>
>Fugetaboutit wrote:
[vbcol=seagreen]
>Where in New England?

She will be living in Baltimore and will make regular trips to
Greensboro in Delmarva.