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How to deal with extreme physical pain

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Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#61

Post by [deleted] »

banana_giraffe wrote: post #56
centimeter wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wil…

And perhaps this is a thing everyone deals with to some extent for one thing or another: I have a very strictly controlled diet. It's the result of a lot of testing, and discussions with my doctors. Most people that are around me enough get a sense of this. Most don't know the depth of it. What gets old is when I deviate from the diet, by say having a glass of beer at a social function, it's a big deal. Everyone's co…

[deleted]

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#62

Post by GEBBL »

newbie789 wrote: post #59

A few years ago, my partner ran out of critical insulin pump supplies and I appealed to the internet for help. Eventually, Scott drove quite a way to our apartment to give her (a complete stranger) what she needed (and more!) He's a stand-up grade A really nice guy, and I genuinely wish him the best. I wish that I had more expertise to help with this issue, as the only thing that comes to mind is I've had good result…

That is a lovely story. He does come across as a genuinely good guy.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#63

Post by neurobashing »

I had pretty extensive shoulder repair surgery a year and a half ago. I was amazed at how much recovery hurt, and I can't take opioids (too many physical and mental side effects).

I ended up smoking a ton of weed. It really helped so much.

The funny part was going from an occasional recreational smoker to using it medicinally. At first I was like, it's 7 in the morning, I don't want to get stoned, this sucks. But it worked at managing pain. I was not in pain and I could rest; I could rest so I could heal.

End result was anger and frustration at our stupid drug laws, mostly. But also, my shoulder works again, and I know how to manage pain, if anything happens again.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#64

Post by jaggederest »

stordoff wrote: post #39
zdragnar wrote: post #5

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia ~15 years ago. Since then, having started an immunosuppressive for something else and it seemed to help with the pain- now the doctors think it is psoriatic arthritis. I am in constant, mild pain. Some days it is nearly, but not quite debilitating. Some people think I am making it up, exaggerating, or that it is all in my head. There is no certain test for either condition- in partic…

> or that it is all in my head I sometimes end up wondering that about myself. I have near-constant headaches of varying intensity (ranging from a barely noticeable ache to feeling like somebody a vice round my temples) with no known cause, and I occasionally find myself asking if I'm imagining it or it's psychosomatic. I think it stems from my frustration at not knowing the cause, but starting to doubt what you are…

Well, if it makes you feel any better, being psychosomatic doesn't mean it's not "real", it just means that there's an extra step in the causality. Like psychosomatic itching - you are genuinely feeling the irritation, it's not imaginary, but you can retrain yourself not to indulge to fix it. The same thing is true with other psychosomatic illness.

Many people act like psychosomatic illness is in the same category as malingering, delusion, or antisocial behavior. It's not. It's a real thing that you're really experiencing, not some kind of moral failing, it just happens to have a root in neurology and psychology instead of a different causative origin. Is a headache any less real or painful just because it's caused by stress instead of a hangover? I would say no, if anything, the opposite.

Same goes for psychosomatic nausea, high blood pressure, eczema, psoriasis, pain, dizziness, any of at least a dozen things. They're real things you're experiencing, that might have more to do with mental health than physical health, depending on the exact situation. But they're still all real - nobody with high blood pressure from somatic issues is imagining their numbers higher.

So, trust yourself. What you're feeling is genuine, regardless of the source - the fact that that source might be on one or the other side of the extremely fuzzy line of "mind versus body" is no reason to question your own experience.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#65

Post by smabie »

centimeter wrote: post #58
banana_giraffe wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And perhaps this is a thing everyone deals with to some extent for one thing or another: I have a very strictly controlled diet. It's the result of a lot of testing, and discussions with my doctors. Most people that are around me enough get a sense of this. Most don't know the depth of it. What gets old is when I deviate from the diet, by say having a glass of beer at a social function, it's a big deal. Everyone's co…

If your diet plan allows beer it’s probably not very effective. Doctors aren’t going to be very helpful here - 95% are incompetent. You should probably try to come up with a good and efficiently computable a priori dietary strategy (e.g. evolutionary ancestral diet, with the goal of minimizing the chance of running into defective metabolic pathways). I can’t think of any such strategies I’m aware of that would allow…

What's wrong with beer?

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#66

Post by uprighten »

centimeter wrote: post #58
banana_giraffe wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And perhaps this is a thing everyone deals with to some extent for one thing or another: I have a very strictly controlled diet. It's the result of a lot of testing, and discussions with my doctors. Most people that are around me enough get a sense of this. Most don't know the depth of it. What gets old is when I deviate from the diet, by say having a glass of beer at a social function, it's a big deal. Everyone's co…

If your diet plan allows beer it’s probably not very effective. Doctors aren’t going to be very helpful here - 95% are incompetent. You should probably try to come up with a good and efficiently computable a priori dietary strategy (e.g. evolutionary ancestral diet, with the goal of minimizing the chance of running into defective metabolic pathways). I can’t think of any such strategies I’m aware of that would allow…

I'm not sure about 95% of doctors being incompetent. If nothing else they are much better trained than the average person offering advice.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#67

Post by nosmokewhereiam »

I work with cannabis and CBD/CBG/CBN/CBDV/CBN-D.

I understand that others view may be that this has been marketed to death (in some very MLM-esque ways).

These products either help you or they don't. Some people with ocular pressure disorders can see large improvements to quality of life (vision) by using crude oil CBD. Nerve damaged individuals sometimes see relief with CBG. People with chronic sleep disorders can sometimes find relief with CBN / D9THC combos, while still others utilize D9 THC by itself to stimulate appetite, and still others may use products that contain D9 THC / THCV combinations to lose weight.

I just wanted to state that most of the stuff regarding everyone and their brother using CBD products to relax and have reduced anxiety is bullshit lifestyle business snake-oil, but those same products can immensely help a small fraction of the population struggling with life-altering pain management issues. Please don't discount the above cannabinoids when searching for solutions.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#68

Post by autarch »

wycy wrote: post #52
autarch wrote: post #14

About ten years ago I had around 9 months (maybe a little more) of chronic testicular pain. It felt like someone had kicked me in the crotch about 10 minutes ago, all day every day. I've been in more pain from some injuries I've had (bike accident), but this lasted for much, much longer. It also made sleeping difficult, as for some reason lying down was extremely uncomfortable. I ended up sleeping in a chair for seve…

That sounds horrific. Did you ever find out what the cause was?

See my other comment here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24948175

The only thing that made sense was that an initial infection triggered idiopathic pain long after the infection was gone.

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#69

Post by Waterluvian »

banana_giraffe wrote: post #51
Waterluvian wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Pretty much. If you want to talk to me about what my symptoms are, and what I do to treat it, fine, I'm happy to discuss things most of the time, with the understanding that it's me telling you about my life experience, nothing more. I know I'm coming off rude here, but the truth is, I don't want your advice on how to fix things, or worse, your advice that it's not as bad as I think it is, and that I can do whatever…

You're really not coming off as rude at all.

It's actually helpful. The bottom line is that I want to be supportive. And if I don't know how, I might make a guess at it and that guess might be the natural response of "try to help fix their problem."

It makes sense that you just don't want to hear that. I can empathize avec depression. Just listen to me and be patient with me. You can't fix this and it's kind of insulting that you try, as if I was too dumb to think up your idea.

(This also relates to software reviews too: I've spent a week on this problem. You suggesting I'm doing it wrong after five minutes of review can be really insulting)

Re: How to deal with extreme physical pain

#70

Post by diob »

gwbas1c wrote: post #22
banana_giraffe wrote: post #12

I 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.

I hear that. It took a reluctantly ordered sleep study for doctors to even take my case seriously (since I was in incredible shape). Then when I picked up the machine they said they were expecting someone morbidly obese.

Sometimes people just get a bad luck of the draw, and no amount of "hard work" can fix genetics.

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