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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

#31

Post by pbronez »

glasscannon wrote: post #19
NoTranslationL wrote: post #14

I make an app called Reflect [0] that’s designed to track things like chronic pain and help you get to the root cause with self guided experiments. I’ve used it for my own pain symptoms, especially joint pain. Happy to answer any questions. Wish you the best on your journey. [0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638...

Amazing, I'll take a look at it. Thanks!

Another option for this is Bearable. I used it for headaches a while ago and it worked well:

https://bearable.app/

Here’s an actual peer reviewed study evaluating a pile (over 1000!) symptom tracking apps, including Bearable.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245210942...

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

#32

Post by amelius »

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…

I had this for years. Then I took vitamin K2 (about 50mcg per day I think), and after a few months it went away. No idea why, though. Anyway, happy that I can drink coffee again :)

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

#34

Post by aspbee555 »

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 everyone else around me doing exactly what they were informed would cause problems instead of having discussions with people that actually knew how shit worked. I was endlessly picking up everyone elses mess and treated worse than a pile of shit all because people were incapable of having a speck of respect for other people since all their hatred for computers fell on me

I GTFO of the career of misery and took half a decade to finally start feeling better

I have now spent years and countless hours working on software and I greatly enjoy doing this work again and find I get even more done than I used to simply by doing life the way I need to instead of how some backwards/abusive control freak "needs it done"

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

#35

Post by glasscannon »

Aurornis wrote: post #24

> For the next 4 years, I continued to accumulate weird and persistent pains in different parts of my body. Anyone who is accumulating weird pains in random, different locations should definitely pursue some of these alternative explanations. Another sign that these techniques are appropriate is if the pains come and go depending on your mood or situation (worse when working, disappear when doing something fun) or ar…

On your first point, the moving of symptoms is not uncommon in patients with chronic pain - and yes definitely a sign something not normal is going on!

On the second, I've mentioned it elsewhere in this thread (on a different comment) that it's critical to determine if a structural cause is at play (i.e. tissue/nerve damage or something else causing inflammation). It is unfortunate however that many doctors are not familiar with modern pain science so I'm hoping spreading awareness via patients (and some practitioners) will change this.

In the next few blog posts this very thing will be discussed (i.e. exploring when it's likely something is mind related vs the body [though I will focus primarily on the former in this series] - as you're 100% correct sometimes it's the body and sometimes it's the mind, and sometimes it's both!).

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

#36

Post by glasscannon »

pbronez wrote: post #31
glasscannon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing, I'll take a look at it. Thanks!

Another option for this is Bearable. I used it for headaches a while ago and it worked well: https://bearable.app/ Here’s an actual peer reviewed study evaluating a pile (over 1000!) symptom tracking apps, including Bearable. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245210942...

Awesome study - thanks for the link!

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

#37

Post by mattgreenrocks »

johnisgood wrote: post #27
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…

Have you tried H2 blockers? And as you have said, avoid anything that increases stomach acid production (such as caffeine or even tea, along with spicy food). You might also have success with Venter[1] (Sucralfate). [1] https://www.medicinesfaq.com/brand/venter

Yep. I track which foods affect that and try not to stack them. In addition, I take famotidine in the evening with two different antihistamines.

I suspect I have a histamine intolerance behind it all, as it tends to be comorbid with ehlers-danlos.

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

#38

Post by Micanthus »

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…

FYI, The Body Keeps The Score is full of misinformation, and is alternately ignored and criticized by other psychiatrists

> The most consequential problem with BKS is its promotion of a large number of treatments, outside of EMDR, that have limited to no evidence (e.g., massage, acupuncture, yoga, community theater, and neurofeedback), according to the latest treatment guidelines by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (Frank et al., 2020), while simultaneously ignoring or criticizing PE and CPT, the two treatments with the highest quality evidence (Sakaluk et al., 2019).

https://web.archive.org/web/20250120164320/https://journals....

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

#39

Post by glasscannon »

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…

The link between the gut and brain (especially in the case of dietary intolerances) is an interesting one! Keen to see if others have come across good research in the space

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

#40

Post by nickspacek »

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…

Lots of anecdotal cures here, but I'll add Aloe Vera gel to the mix since it seems to help* both soothe/recover/prevent the return of my reflux symptoms for long periods of time.
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