thepick4uchicks
Songster
Microchick don’t you think it is simply amazing what blessings our careers were for us. They gave us such wonderful presents in the form of health problems themselves! Sometimes I could scream but they blessed me much more really. Your pain relief the Tramadol. - I couldn’t take that med for long. I tried. It’s the only one. It made me so nauseated that I couldn’t stand up. I can take any other narcotics with no problem and I switch around between hydrocodone and OxyContin depending on how many months it has been since the pain management folks have switched me around. I do have a pain management doctor who over sees my care and wouldn’t take anything for it. That way I don’t abuse or seen as one. I have never been one and don’t want to start. I don’t think I could be though. I never get a high feeling from any kinds of meds. But another point. About the pain scale. The true pain scale that nurses use is the one that pain management doctors use and that is really different than the one seen everywhere else. Far cry from each other.I just found a whole page of responses that I wasn't notified about and just found while back tracking. Apologies for not responding.
@thepick4uchicks I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever in 1976. I was 26, and spent one month in the hospital and a total of 6 months total in bed. I contracted a strep throat while working as a nurse on a pediatric unit where germs ruled. It was a life changer for sure.
I have degenerative disc disease and stenosis in my cervical vetebrae along with a scoliosis and degenerative changes/osteoporosis/arthritis in my lumbar area. I also have serum negative RA that only responds to steroids during a flare.
@penny1960 I was wondering when you were going to drop in again, girl. Sorry to hear about the doc thinking he knows how bad that you are hurting and how the pain affects you. At best my pain is a 1-2. By the end of the day it is a 4-5 and when it goes acute it's a solid 7-9. The initial acute phase is when the pain is the worst and when that happens all I can do is hobble to the sofa with my husband's help with ice bags on my back and pain killers within reach.
It astounds me that any doctor would say, oh you aren't hurting that bad! The audacity! IMHO if I were in your shoes I would ask to be referred to a pain specialist and let them deal with your chronic pain so that he/she HAS to listen to them.
I am so glad that I have the MRI's, Rheumatologist reports and Dexa Scan reports on hand. One day my doctor was talking to me about my pain medication and I told him, don't worry, I don't and won't abuse it. His response was, that isn't my concern. I'm more worried that you aren't taking it when you need it.
That is the one big bit of advice that I can give to anybody dealing with chronic pain and degenerative joint diseases is make certain that you have your health care provider/hospitals etc, give you copies of all of your tests whether they are labs or radiology reports. They belong to you, not the hospital and you have a right to a copy for your own private records.
@ronott1 Sorry I missed the question about the 4 wheeler. What we would like to get is one of those little 4 wheel drive Kie Mini Trucks. Here in Missouri we can drive ATVs and Minis on the road without license plates. People drive them into town all the time plus people in town drive golf cars around. Our town is small, only 1300 people and we live on a gravel road approximately 8 miles from town.
As for the question about heating, no we only have wood heat. We bought a wood splitter 6 years ago and love it to pieces. We have approximately 24 acres of oak, hickory and Honey Locust timber. We harvest at least 10 cords of split wood on hand right now harvesting mainly dead standing wood. We know we won't be able to keep harvesting our own wood forever but that is one of those things where it's 'not yet'. Plus we have Amish around us that we can probably hire to harvest our wood for us when the time comes.