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Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

sailhealth.substack.com

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Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#141

Post by Chyzwar »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #22

I’ve been dealing with chronic reflux for about 8 mos now. On PPIs and they don’t seem to do much. But once I get away from my typical routine of work/dadding then all the symptoms vanish, even to the point of being able to eat foods that are not good for reflux: spicy things, tomatoes, a bit of coffee. In my case, this is absolutely a downstream symptom of something mind-body. Already been scoped and got a diagnosis…

For me intermittent fasting after 6pm and small diet changes fixed my acid reflux. PPI were not helping and making things worse. I actually took Betaine HCI supplements to fix digestive issues after PPIs.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#142

Post by Aurornis »

foobiekr wrote: post #106

I have a pretty severe back injury - double pars fracture and significant spondylolisthesis from an accident (not a car accident). For many years i was in incredible pain, but it just kept going, sometimes getting a lot worse. When this happened I would go get some imaging done to make sure there weren't degenerative changes that needed to be addressed - you should never, ever get back surgery if you don't need it, s…

> I hesitate to add a link to this on the thread, but there is an interesting story around chronic pain actually being psychological and there are now some high quality studies coming out.

This is a misinterpretation of these studies which is common throughout this thread.

The research isn’t showing that chronic pain is a psychological condition. It’s suggesting that some cases of nonspecific chronic pain that specifically do not match the symptoms of typical physically-rooted pain are psychological. The participants in this study were filtered for this criteria.

For some reason, people see this idea and lose the nuance, concluding that most or all chronic pain is actually psychological.

I think if someone matches the description used by the author of the substack for this HN entry (he describes his chronic pain as random and popping up all over his body) then pursuing the psychological explanation would be a very good idea.

However, it’s getting frustrating to see all of the reductionist claims that “chronic pain is psychological”.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#144

Post by pregressicko »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #48

I was just talking to a friend of mine, yesterday, about what happened to me. In 2017, I was laid off of my job (of almost 27 years). I immediately started looking for work. Since the company I worked for, was a marquee-name company, I assumed that it wouldn't be hard. Boy, was I in for a shock. I almost immediately learned that no one in tech, is interested in hiring a 55-year-old, regardless of their pedigree. I co…

>> I almost immediately learned that no one in tech, is interested in hiring a 55-year-old, regardless of their pedigree.

My comment is off topic but I have to chime in: while I'm sad to hear of your bad luck, this is YOUR experience, and it is not universal.

At 54, I got my highest paying job ever in tech after being walked out of a "marquee-name" company after 24 years. This was three years ago. There is a tremendous need for senior engineers in smaller companies. The main reason is that all the A+ engineers (clearly I am not one!) have retired from decades of fat equity compensation, and those of us at the B+ level (or me who financially screwed up) are actually now a rare commodity.

So hang in there, greyhairs are still valuable to smaller companies.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#145

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

pregressicko wrote: post #144
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #48

I was just talking to a friend of mine, yesterday, about what happened to me. In 2017, I was laid off of my job (of almost 27 years). I immediately started looking for work. Since the company I worked for, was a marquee-name company, I assumed that it wouldn't be hard. Boy, was I in for a shock. I almost immediately learned that no one in tech, is interested in hiring a 55-year-old, regardless of their pedigree. I co…

>> I almost immediately learned that no one in tech, is interested in hiring a 55-year-old, regardless of their pedigree. My comment is off topic but I have to chime in: while I'm sad to hear of your bad luck, this is YOUR experience, and it is not universal. At 54, I got my highest paying job ever in tech after being walked out of a "marquee-name" company after 24 years. This was three years ago. There is a tremendo…

Fair point.

I should say that I wasn't particularly interested in a "good-paying" job. I was set, already.

I wanted something that I found interesting.

The places that would hire me, had crappy work.

The places with the interesting work, had no interest in hiring me. Saying that it's because oldtimers are expensive, is a red herring. I would have happily taken half of what they pay people with half my expertise.

In any case, it's all good, now. I have no interest in returning to work. I'm having way too much fun, working harder than I ever did, without managers pissing all over my work.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#146

Post by trts »

aspbee555 wrote: post #34

I felt like I was dying at 35 years old, my body was completely betraying me, exhausted, constant pain, no life as absolutely no energy on days off and still exhausted starting the next week. Even years in the Army never left me feeling like that I had no idea it was the misery of the IT job that was causing most of my pain and suffering, and it had nothing to do with the job itself, it was the endless insanity of ev…

experienced something very similar. thought I would leave my field permanently out of frustration and despair. I like my work now, but faced with that burnout again do not think I could power through it a second time.

Apropos, I had chronic pain throughout this experience. I thought it was just aging, irreversible, and something that compounded my hopelessness. It's very surprising to be 10 years older now but feel 20 years younger. Books like "The Body Keeps the Score" or "Healing Back Pain" used to seem woo to me, but now I am convicted that health comes from within as much or more than it does from without.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#147

Post by incomingpain »

theshackleford wrote: post #92
incomingpain wrote: post #9

>Pain Reprocessing Therapy I asked chatgpt to explain this to me and it did a poor job. Generally speaking in my friend group. Chronic pain used to be opiods; though long ago medical cannabis came along. I couldnt tell you how many people i know who arent stoners who got into the cbd thing and fully got off opiods. 1 addiction for another, but at least cannabis has far less negatives. >If you don’t have chronic pain…

I find CBD about as useful as a sugar pill for pain treatment. THC amongst its most minimal side effects increases my pain, not decreases it. I would suggest everyone try everything that is open to them, but cannabis is not a miracle cure for every ailment.

>I find CBD about as useful as a sugar pill for pain treatment.

Same.

>THC amongst its most minimal side effects increases my pain, not decreases it.

I had green card before canada legalized and thc was my main go. Higher potency just meant less smoking needed.

Alcohol was what increased pain for me.

>but cannabis is not a miracle cure for every ailment.

For me, I cant do cannabis at all anymore; but you'd be surprised how effective it is as a medicine for a lot of people.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#148

Post by roarcher »

jdbsbsndn wrote: post #80
aspbee555 wrote: post #34

I felt like I was dying at 35 years old, my body was completely betraying me, exhausted, constant pain, no life as absolutely no energy on days off and still exhausted starting the next week. Even years in the Army never left me feeling like that I had no idea it was the misery of the IT job that was causing most of my pain and suffering, and it had nothing to do with the job itself, it was the endless insanity of ev…

[flagged]

What a bizarre and unnecessary comment.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#149

Post by nradov »

anticensor wrote: post #64
kianN wrote: post #58

“As pain becomes chronic, it is increasingly associated with activity in the affective and motivational systems tied to avoidance and less closely tied to systems encoding nociceptive input” [1] I’ve been on the slippery slope of chronic pain. Minor post surgery issues caused me to change my routine and avoid certain activities which only exacerbated the issues, which led to more avoidance. Eventually I couldn’t walk…

Pain is a legitimate diagnosis, though.

Make friends with pain.

Re: Why I left my tech job to work on chronic pain

#150

Post by Quekid5 »

Aurornis wrote: post #142
foobiekr wrote: post #106

I have a pretty severe back injury - double pars fracture and significant spondylolisthesis from an accident (not a car accident). For many years i was in incredible pain, but it just kept going, sometimes getting a lot worse. When this happened I would go get some imaging done to make sure there weren't degenerative changes that needed to be addressed - you should never, ever get back surgery if you don't need it, s…

> I hesitate to add a link to this on the thread, but there is an interesting story around chronic pain actually being psychological and there are now some high quality studies coming out. This is a misinterpretation of these studies which is common throughout this thread. The research isn’t showing that chronic pain is a psychological condition. It’s suggesting that some cases of nonspecific chronic pain that specif…

> However, it’s getting frustrating to see all of the reductionist claims that “chronic pain is psychological”.

It's incredibly frustrating and disheartening... For obvious reasons, I'm not going to go into too much detail, but chronic (non-visible) pain is the worst of the worst. People will either think you're "faking"[0] or it's "just psychosomatic"[1]. I actually relish being able to work for a good long day because I'm lucky enough to actually enjoy making computers do stuff.

[0] Yes, I love to miss lots of family occasions, just because.

[1] I'll just will myself better. Nevermind the MRI scans and all that.

EDIT: I should add... the cognitive biases at work are understandable because they've probably been around since proto-humanity, but that doesn't change the outcomes.

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