“Everything hurts.”
You’ve been saying this for months…maybe even years. You look fine on the outside though, and you’re aware of the raised eyebrows and the little scuff at the edges of your friends’ voices when you describe your many aches and pains. That scuff is skepticism. Many people seem to think you’re just being dramatic or seeking attention, even if the beginning of your troubles coincided with a wound healing slowly, or some logically incipient trauma. Often doctors are no better. Chronic pain without an obvious source can often be a difficult thing to diagnose, and often it’s easier to push you out of the office with a diagnosis of “stress.”
“But my pain is real, and I need help.”
We believe you. Let me say that again;we believe you. You do not have to justify yourself. The fact is, there are many many diseases that can cause chronic pain, including Lyme disease (an ailment that’s very much on the rise lately), a previous physical injury, chronic fatigue syndrome, and something called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, or RSD. The best thing for you to do is to stop internalizing the skepticism of friends and medical professionals and start documenting your symptoms. Write down when they started and as much as you can remember, even if they seem unrelated, as this information is vital for to a doctor in making a complex regional pain syndrome diagnosis. RSD symptoms for example run the gamut from photo-sensitivity to inflammation, rashes, and even depression. Once you’ve got the facts straight, do some research into a doctor that specializes in at least one chronic pain disorder, such as chronic lyme disease treatment or treatment for RSD.
“Even if I find a doctor who believes me, what can they do? I don’t want to go on a million drugs.”
This is a valid concern and one we share. For a disease like RSD, where you are already dealing with chronic pain and slew of other symptoms, the last thing you may want are the dozen other side effects and liver damage often associated with prescription cocktails. Fortunately, there are alternative RSD treatment options. One of our favorite RSD treatment options that has also been used for fourteen other chronic pain conditions is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treatment, or HBOT. Basically this is a fancy name for a treatment that uses oxygen at purer and higher levels found in nature to put pressure on problem pain areas of the body. The increased levels of oxygen improve circulation and clean out the blood, (kind of like a really awesome massage does) and the result is often a significant decrease in chronic pain.
“How do I know this is legit? It sounds a little alt. medicine.”
HBOT is 100% FDA approved and is not considered an experimental treatment by most health insurance outfits. In fact, it’s a covered treatment for 14 diseases, and is one of the more popular RSD treatment options because it’s not drug based.
You don’t want to hurt anymore. So get on the phone. Find someone willing to hear you, and then keep an open mind in terms of treatment.