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Old Jan 13, 2012, 08:17 PM
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athena2011 athena2011 is offline
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Member Since: Dec 2011
Location: In another dimension...
Posts: 452
Hi Shipping,
I'm so sorry you are having to endure all this. I had pretty severe chronic pain since the birth of my last child, age 7 now. It started off in my lower back then shifted to upper back, shoulders, neck and arms. It is quite a bit better now. I will tell you what I did and you can decide what if anything, you want to try from my list:

I read many books and several internet articles on chronic pain. The best of these was written by a medical doctor who was bedridden with chronic pain. He was so shocked by the lack of empathy from the various 'pain experts' he saw, including a 'take an aspirin' brush off from a renowned doctor. This prompted him to interview a bunch of people and compile a book of his findings. The number one lesson: Stop doing what's not working. Number two - find out what type of specialists are most likely to help you. A couple that stood out in general for lasting relief - Naturopaths and Psychotherapists. For me, the worst of my pain was myofascial (muscles that will not relax, even in sleep). Physiatrists are recommended for that - they gave me trigger point injections - that helped quite a bit. I saw several kinesiologists (basically highly trained personal trainers at a small gym, not a big corporate money grabbing machine type of gym where lesser trained people tend to work). I saw a Naturopath - he's been excellent at identifying problems with what I eat. First recommendations - cut out all common allergy causing foods, such as wheat and dairy and peanuts. That has been very helpful with my digestive system, which is in turn allowing nutrients to get to the tissues that need them. I think this is hugely important.

My circulation is poor so I worked on getting the blood moving with a high intensity exercise - I started off swimming then progressed to high intensity working out and then running. I have found a noticeable drop in pain when I run consistently. For me, keeping the blood flowing is critical (I have Raynauds syndrome in my hands).

I drop any drug that causes pain (a tricyclic I tried made me feel arthritic within three days). I drop any drug that causes weight gain (obviously mucking up my digestion - which means nutrients aren't getting where they need to go).

I also have a EMF masking device on my computer (electromagnetic force) because EMF's are a suspected common cause of Fibromyalgia, which is what I was originally diagnosed with.

So on a final note - be your own doctor - get to know your body, what it likes, what it doesn't like. You spend more time with it than anybody. Read, read, read. Let your mind wander - imagine what it is that is causing the pain. For me, nutrients not getting to the tissues makes sense because I'm so lethargic all the time, I'm hypersensitive to cold, my muscles and joints ache and sometimes it feels like effort to breathe. So - circulation and diet were top on my list.

Welcome to PC, I hope we can help you through this.
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