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How to deal with extreme physical pain

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Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#341

Post by steve_adams_86 »

hannofcart wrote: post #157
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had severe sciatica from ages 25-30 and it was like another lifetime. I don’t know where it came from or where it went, but that was a remarkably worse period of my life. Reflecting on it I wish I wasn’t dragged down so much. But in all honesty I think I’d handle it even worse now. It was agonizing at times. I remember laying on the floor squirming in pain, no idea what to do. Hours of it. Thinking about it makes m…

I am struggling with sciatica related to my SI joint right now. It's not nearly as excruciating as most of the other posts but it has rendered me unable to work at all. Am not able to sit for more than an hour before the pain is too much. Lying down is only slightly better. It's been quite some time since I have been able to get a good night's sleep without having to wake up with the pain buliding up slowly. More tha…

The only thing I actively did that coincided with getting better was that I started lifting weights. I had a shoulder injury at the time too, and just... tried to take a holistic and engaged approach to building my health.

I don’t like to encourage people with back problems to do what I did because it just as easily could have gone south. All I knew was that when I did deadlifts or squats I would get this fleeting relief from the pain and I’d gain mobility back for hours.

I also reduced my running. I ran a lot at the time. I had sciatic pain before the running too, but it seems running never helped it. Perhaps only made it worse.

I also tried to do more yoga. Yoga was hard because it was never rewarding, always excruciating. However I had a sense in the moment that I wasn’t harming myself and that the pain was the gain variety. It was just intuition.

I really believe movement is healing, or trying to strengthen yourself. Something I wish I’d done at the time was stop drinking. I don’t think alcohol helps any. It’s appealing though because anything to take the edge off is hard to resist... I actually drank quite a bit through that pain. Maybe not by some standards, but by mine, far too much. When you have an inflammation problem though I think alcohol is the last thing you need to add to your diet.

Anyway, if you can handle it, maybe some light compound weight lifting is worth investigating. Or yoga. Look into sitting bends and twists - they’re very easy to learn and ease into, and very unlikely to harm you. Throw on a podcast and commit to a few weeks of trying maybe.

It’s such a hard problem to navigate and find solutions for. In any case, I wish you luck. I really wish I had good advice for you.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#342

Post by treeman79 »

failrate wrote: post #304
treeman79 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who struggles with weight and chronic conditions. There are low hanging fruit. Dropping weight, removing processed foods, exercise are your bare minimum of what everyone should try for solving Medical problems. Now a lot of problems can be solved this way. Just not everything. I suffered exercise intolerance for decades. No mater how hard I tried I would need two weeks of recovery after any work out. Turne…

I have a similar exercise intolerance, could you enlighten me to what the underlying problem was?

Two issues. IIH and Sjogrens.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension Also called: pseudotumor cerebri.

Description A condition that occurs when pressure inside the skull increases for no obvious reason.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#343

Post by treeman79 »

DrAwdeOccarim wrote: post #297
treeman79 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who struggles with weight and chronic conditions. There are low hanging fruit. Dropping weight, removing processed foods, exercise are your bare minimum of what everyone should try for solving Medical problems. Now a lot of problems can be solved this way. Just not everything. I suffered exercise intolerance for decades. No mater how hard I tried I would need two weeks of recovery after any work out. Turne…

My spouse has something similar, do you mind sharing what the underlying problem was?

Two issues. IIH and Sjogrens.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#344

Post by rstuart4133 »

giantg2 wrote: post #286
banana_giraffe wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that. I'm like that too. If I see a problem, I want desperately to try and help fix it. This has absolutely taught me that sometimes the best answer is "Wow, that really sucks. If you want to talk about it, let me know" and move on to some other subject.

Yep. I try to be respectful by not suggesting common stuff since they would have already looked into. Sometimes I'll suggest looking into some less common things. There are many things that modern doctors won't suggest or don't know about. For example, I'm an amateur mycologist and I have heard about health benefits of different mushrooms. If they don't want hear about the health aspect, the way I bring it up usually…

I had a frozen shoulder. It didn't get nowhere near as bad as this article describes, although I did look at surgery, considered pain killers and had injections. After research I decided the surgery and pain killers were probably worse than the disease.

Things came to head when I was on holidays, in a hotel lying on a double bed getting some rest. The double was two singles pushed together. They moved apart, and my body fell between them but my arms unable to move remained on the beds, forcing my frozen shoulders to do things they didn't want to do. My wife saw the end result written on my face, and decided something had to be done. She traipsed between doctors, one of whom said I should see a physio.

After a couple of visits the physio said the pain was caused by muscles pulling the wrong way. The initial injury (a sprain caused by my throwing a barrel onto a truck) had triggered an avoidance mechanism, where my mind had learnt all sorts of tricks to avoid triggering the pain. The result was atrophied muscles in some places, overworked ones in others. He gave me a few elastic bands, toys really, and exercises using them.

The exercises weren't particularly onerous - nothing as tiresome as a 5k jog for instance. Just 10 or 15 minutes each morning. To say I was dubious was an understatement, but I was paying for it and the discipline I force on myself to is either stop paying or do as the man says.

It took 6 months. But it was gone. Now it is as if it was never there. I've never looked at a physio in the same way again.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#345

Post by Thorrez »

archon810 wrote: post #340
Thorrez wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binary search doesn't always turn out well.

9 to 2 definitely isn't binary search.

It could be if you're binary searching the range of 2 to 9 maybe, or -5 to 9.

But if not, you're right it's not exactly binary search, it's interpolation search, which is like binary search it just uses a different midpoint finding algorithm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpolation_search

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#346

Post by Vinnl »

francis-li wrote: post #282
Vinnl wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it would help (bit nervous about this comment because it looks like giving advice, and I haven't had the frustration myself) to explicitly preface the sharing with an explicit request not to give advice? I have been on the other end of that: when the father of a friend of mine passed away they explicitly said they did not want sympathy but instead to do something fun that night, and we did. Years later I…

I think it would probably help, it'd probably require that person to be pretty in touch with their needs (which seems like it could be pretty hard when you're already super frustrated and in pain). It sounds like your friend was in touch enough to let you know how to help them and it sounds like you really connected that night. I wish people were more candid in general, but maybe people are a bit scared to ask for wh…

Yes absolutely, and that is very difficult, but since the people in this thread were already articulating their needs, it looks like they have already acquired that skill?

(Of course, actually articulating those needs on the spot is yet another skill, so it's still easier said than done, but it might be worth focusing one's learning efforts on.)

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#347

Post by DrAwdeOccarim »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #321
DrAwdeOccarim wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your comment, it was really illuminating. I work for a company that is starting clinical trials for a new type of CF treatment. Let me know if you'd like any info.

I'm guessing that would be some drug trial or other and I am off all drugs and much happier that way. I'm guessing "any info" would be "how to try to get in on the trial" and not "this is what we are trying and what our hypothesis is." So we probably have nothing to really talk about.

It's whatever your interested in learning about. Honestly no pressure. I am from the scientific side, so I don't worry about trial enrolment.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#348

Post by giantg2 »

rstuart4133 wrote: post #344
giantg2 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I try to be respectful by not suggesting common stuff since they would have already looked into. Sometimes I'll suggest looking into some less common things. There are many things that modern doctors won't suggest or don't know about. For example, I'm an amateur mycologist and I have heard about health benefits of different mushrooms. If they don't want hear about the health aspect, the way I bring it up usually…

I had a frozen shoulder. It didn't get nowhere near as bad as this article describes, although I did look at surgery, considered pain killers and had injections. After research I decided the surgery and pain killers were probably worse than the disease. Things came to head when I was on holidays, in a hotel lying on a double bed getting some rest. The double was two singles pushed together. They moved apart, and my b…

Very interesting. I'm glad it turned out well for you.

I have impingement syndrome in one shoulder and it flairs up every once in a while. That shoulder has never been the same since the injury, but it's not nearly as painful or debilitating as I hear frozen shoulder is. I should probably do exercises/stretches more often so it doesn't flair up or get worse.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#349

Post by DoreenMichele »

DrAwdeOccarim wrote: post #347
DoreenMichele wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that would be some drug trial or other and I am off all drugs and much happier that way. I'm guessing "any info" would be "how to try to get in on the trial" and not "this is what we are trying and what our hypothesis is." So we probably have nothing to really talk about.

It's whatever your interested in learning about. Honestly no pressure. I am from the scientific side, so I don't worry about trial enrolment.

You can drop me an email if you want to talk. Gmail: doreenmicheletraylor

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#350

Post by htnsao »

treeman79 wrote: post #259
eslaught wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was rereading The Lord of the Rings a while back and one of the things that struck me was how seriously the characters take the giving of advice. In retrospect I think this is one of the biggest blind spots of American culture in general. We act like advice is cheap or even free, both in the giving and in receiving. It's not. Even when solicited. I think we'd all be healthier if we were slower to give advice, even…

Advice gets old after awhile. Someone finds out you suffer migraines, “oh drink some water!” Also chronic conditions tend to have cycles of weeks to months. People get tired of dealing with you much faster. So you learn to hide your symptoms as best possible.

> “oh drink some water!”

Works for me. Headaches without. I often wake up a few times each night to drink water to get rid of dehydration headaches. And I carry water with me all the time, thirst all day, headaches when it runs out. (like yesterday). Worse in the desert.

One guy I worked with suffers from extreme debilitating migraines and only drinks about 1/4 of the amount of liquids that I find necessary to avoid headaches. (which is about ~3-4 litres/day). I would tell him if I did the same I'd have major headaches too. But no, he doesn't want to hear it, says water doesn't work. Too dumb perhaps.

Actually I can feel a slight headache now so will go drink some more water to get rid if it. If it hurt more I'd reach for 400mg of ibuprofen or two and, of course, more water.

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