I have nothing to add other than I think Scott Hanselman is a wealth of information and a legitimate gem in the programming community. I hope he can figure this out, and I hope he doesn't stay in horrible pain forever.
Feel better, man.
How to deal with extreme physical pain
41–50 of 362 posts
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#42I have a chronic condition that causes pain. One of the things I've learned, in as much as I can, is I don't tell anyone. I'd rather be rude than explain I'm in pain. Not because I don't appreciate sympathy. Not because I'm ashamed. It's because I don't want your advice on how to make the pain go away or to deal with it. I'm tired of advice. I've got too much advice. I try things, I research issues. I talk to doctors…
What would you hope people do if you did tell them? My guess is "Damn that sounds awful. Let me know if I can help" and then dropping it entirely?
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#43Have had neck and back pain for 10 years now, I've learned to live with it, sometimes it hurts so much that I'm wondering if I'm going to get paralyzed, or if I'll be in 5-10 years, and sometimes I forget the pain until it comes back. No doctor has been able to help, some doctors want me to do PT, some want me to do chiro, none helped. Some doctors don't want me to do X-rays, some are OK with it, after some X-rays some say I have an inverted vertebra, some say that I don't. At this point I have learned to understand that no doctors understand back pain, and that unless I'm willing to pay top money for high-end hospitals, I'll probably live all my life in pain until it gets so bad I'll end up killing myself or something. Well we'll see...
What seems to work for me sometimes: jogging and deep breathing.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#44I am also recovering from a frozen shoulder, but thankfully it was not nearly as bad as the author. This is also my second time having it. Both times have required months of PT, mostly stretching and some strength training. As for the pain during PT, I found it helpful to talk to the physical therapist, which distracted my mind from lower-level pain. When the pain increased, I’d temporarily stop talking and free my m…
How do you recover from this? Isn’t this a genetic disease?
In my case, the recovery required physical therapy. My shoulders have also improved somewhat on their own over time. From what I’ve read, it’s not genetic. My shoulder injuries were each caused by a specific physical event, and then gradual loss of range occurred along with increasing pain.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#45I have a chronic condition that causes pain. One of the things I've learned, in as much as I can, is I don't tell anyone. I'd rather be rude than explain I'm in pain. Not because I don't appreciate sympathy. Not because I'm ashamed. It's because I don't want your advice on how to make the pain go away or to deal with it. I'm tired of advice. I've got too much advice. I try things, I research issues. I talk to doctors…
I have to admit, one of my thoughts was 'Is there anything I can recommend'.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#46I have a chronic condition that causes pain. One of the things I've learned, in as much as I can, is I don't tell anyone. I'd rather be rude than explain I'm in pain. Not because I don't appreciate sympathy. Not because I'm ashamed. It's because I don't want your advice on how to make the pain go away or to deal with it. I'm tired of advice. I've got too much advice. I try things, I research issues. I talk to doctors…
What would you hope people do if you did tell them? My guess is "Damn that sounds awful. Let me know if I can help" and then dropping it entirely?
From my own chronic health issues, I think I just want pain to be seen and appreciated. Understand I need space/time to work on it. And whatever appropriate accommodations to be able to do my job.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#47I didn’t realize how privileged I was until a relatively minor bike crash left me with a hard limp for a week or two. There’s a lot of lessons there (how can we design streets better? why don’t we focus on accessibility? why is the healthcare system hard to navigate?) but honestly the one that really hit me is how privileged I am to be healthy.
It's remarkable how many people I know, including myself, had significant bicycle-related trauma. I broke my ankle in three places due to a fall (do not recommend by the way, once the shock wears off the pain is pretty bad, and then after a while you have to walk on your still partially broken foot so that it heals properly). A friend of mine broke a clavicle. Another friend nearly fractured her spine. I sold my bike…
Not disputing, not arguing, just trying to understand.
How come you and people you know suffered so many accidents? Were you commuting, competing, mountain biking, what? Is the weather bad?
Maybe my serious accident is waiting for me still, but the only close call I had was due to my own recklessness. Just riding a bike going from A to B? I can see how one could get injured, but not THAT seriously, unless it's due to a collision with a vehicle. Or it's something involving the head.
I don't know anyone that got seriously injured in bike accidents. I'm trying to understand if I'm just naive (and lucky) or if there's something I should avoid.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#48Have had neck and back pain for 10 years now, I've learned to live with it, sometimes it hurts so much that I'm wondering if I'm going to get paralyzed, or if I'll be in 5-10 years, and sometimes I forget the pain until it comes back. No doctor has been able to help, some doctors want me to do PT, some want me to do chiro, none helped. Some doctors don't want me to do X-rays, some are OK with it, after some X-rays so…
I have also had trouble with lots of inconsistent information from doctors. In my case urologists. Interstitial Cystitis / Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. Some doctors say it's an allergy thing. Others tell you to do pelvic floor PT. Some tell you its an anxiety thing. Every doctor takes a different tack.
People wonder why folks question doctors, it's because for many issues, we often are forced to substitute our own judgment of what works from trying a menu of inconsistent medical opinions.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#49I have a chronic condition that causes pain. One of the things I've learned, in as much as I can, is I don't tell anyone. I'd rather be rude than explain I'm in pain. Not because I don't appreciate sympathy. Not because I'm ashamed. It's because I don't want your advice on how to make the pain go away or to deal with it. I'm tired of advice. I've got too much advice. I try things, I research issues. I talk to doctors…
Ah, people are just trying to relate and help. I get that it's frustrating, though.
Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain
#50I have a chronic condition that causes pain. One of the things I've learned, in as much as I can, is I don't tell anyone. I'd rather be rude than explain I'm in pain. Not because I don't appreciate sympathy. Not because I'm ashamed. It's because I don't want your advice on how to make the pain go away or to deal with it. I'm tired of advice. I've got too much advice. I try things, I research issues. I talk to doctors…
> It's because I don't want your advice on how to make the pain go away or to deal with it Banana_giraffe isn't alone. I had chronic obstructive sleep apnea and I quickly got tired of unsolicited woo-woo illogical suggestions to treat it. Exercise and meditation doesn't fix problems with bone structure.
Exercise can help fix excessive body fat, which contributed to my apnea.
It’s actually pretty fascinating how many common and sometimes serious medical problems are known to be fixable with “woo-woo” advice like “don’t eat like shit” (advice that 95% of people don’t follow). E.g. type 2 diabetes and refractory epilepsy now have purely dietary interventions as front-line treatments. We have weak evidence that this will probably work for many other common diseases. But just 10 years ago you would probably have been accused of “woo-woo” for making this claim about epilepsy or diabetes.