If you have chronic pain, do you remember the exact moment it started, and did you think at that time that the pain might be long term?

Hoping for the best for you and your back. Bodies are scary shit.

My chronic pain is all in my digestive tract and isn’t bad these days for the most part. It’s hard to remember The Beginning; it was 10 years ago. I do remember it started with blood in the toilet before there was ever an inkling of pain. I remember being super alarmed by that but just assuming it would go away. I let it go on for almost a month I think before I told my mom ‘cuz I was just really, really hoping it was just going to go away. I think I still didn’t have any pain by the time I told my mom. I think the pain probably started after my diagnostic colonoscopy, because obviously when you’re having diarrhea, taking a laxative overdose to prep for a colonoscopy just escalates everything.

Definitely had no inkling that I was at the start of a many years long saga, nope. I mean, I was goddamn 14. I was happy when I got my diagnosis because I figured now that the docs knew what was going on they’d give me pills that would make it go away. Hah.

Pfff…. I don’t remember not having problems with my feet. I was five, six years old and having a hard time finding shoes that fit, and kids making fun of me because my feet were shaped weirdly. I have pretty serious hereditary bunions.

The first time I can remember literally crying in pain, I was twelve. My stepdad managed to get his doctor – an orthopedist, I think – to take an x-ray of my feet. He told me I had the feet of a 65 year old ballet dancer, and I should stop wearing high heels right away. I wasn’t allowed to wear high heels, I told him, I was twelve.

That’s the only time I really talked to a doctor about it. I go barefooted whenever I can and I’ve completely given up hope of ever wearing cute shoes again. It’s getting worse, though. I used to be able to mentally block the pain and make it through the day. Now after about an hour of walking I am done. Not just “I’d rather not walk” but actual in tears, trying to soldier on for the sake of the day at Disney World, pain. I usually bring a bottle of Aspercreme with Lidocaine to numb them up for a few minutes. That helps sometimes.

Eventually I’ll suck up my anxiety and talk to a doctor again. I just know the only cure is surgery, and even that has like a 60% chance of not working.

On the upside, I have a fantastic pain tolerance due to dealing with my feet. I slipped a disc or something in my back two days ago, throwing my kid across the room. I’m sure a normal person would, like, see a doctor for medicine or something. I popped a couple of Advil about 12 hours ago. It’ll heal. Or not. Whatever.

Here’s one that will scare the crap out of you.

I know two guys who started to notice lower back pain while in their 40’s. They even went to their docs for treatment – the usual.stuff – that didn’t work. They just figured it was typical muscle aches and pains. When they got into their 50s they both had PSA screening tests and discovered they had prostate cancer that had spread to their bones. Their PSAs were ~700 and ~1000 ! That is incredibly bad.
One guy is still around the other did not make it.

Sweet dreams!

@LuckyGuy Yes prostate cancer scares the crap out of me. Both dad and grandad had it. Same Y chromosome. Matter of time for me.

I had to dig to remember if I have chronic pain. I bury stuff that I can’t do anything about. But I found one. And I know exactly when it started.

It was just getting dark outside and two guys jumped out of the bushes near my front door and beat the shit out of me. I was out cold for awhile and when I woke up my neck and head hurt, my nose and a finger were broken and both eyes were closed up. The cops sent me to the hospital in an ambulance for x-rays. The guys had cracked my C-5 vertebrae. The next day, while still in the hospital, I turned on the TV and it was LBJ’s funeral. The injury happened the night before, at about 7pm, January 24, 1973.

I’ve had minor pain in my neck ever since. Sometimes it will develop into a headache. But it’s not bad. As I get older, a little arthritis has made it worse. As long as I keep moving, it doesn’t bother me. I was very lucky not to have been paralysed from the neck down. In light of what could have been, this is a minor inconvenience..

Wow, @Mariah, I thought your dietary problems were from birth. That’s a bitch.

I never heard you mention that before, @Seek. Suck it up. Go to the damned doctor. Mobility is life for most of us.

Thanks, @LuckyGuy. Me being 55 and all. Born less than a year after my mother had catastrophic cancer surgery.

@ibstubro Hopefully you know your PSA. When you get your annual (or 5 year) physical make sure your doc orders the test with your blood work. If the doc won’t order it, kick him in the nuts and go to another doctor.

I think I had a physical around 1991, @LuckyGuy. Probably at least one since – I was diagnosed with IBS at one point, and that surely involved at least one physical.

I’m only going to die once. Spare me the details until then.

Cue the spooky music….
All your bits work just fine and meet or exceed specifications. You feel no pain. Everything is where it should be. You feel great.
Meanwhile, the stuff is growing inside. Festering and getting larger every day… until some cells flake off and get into your blood stream quickly spreading to bones and other organs, including your brain where they take over and leaving with the strange desire to collect old film cameras.

If you are over 55 know your PSA. If your doc is a male and says “it is not necessary” ask if he knows his.

Right knee, yes: it collapsed under me while I was getting ready for work one day in 1975. A year of unsuccessful therapy led to surgery in 1976. It’s never been right since and goes out from time to time. The older I get, the more cautious I am with my step. It makes me walk like an old lady, dammit.

Back pain, yes: I was fine when I got in my car to take my son to the toy store, and when I got out I could hardly move. This was about 25 years ago. Sometimes I’m lame for a few days, and sometimes without any warning it feels as if a sharp blade had gone straight into my lower back.

Left foot, yes: it came on suddenly in an airport while we were en route to Birmingham and has been with me ever since; that was 9 years ago. It’s a neuroma. I’m being treated at present with injections in my foot.

Right foot, yes: I was in yoga class, doing the Dancer pose, when something cracked. I can name the date and time, nearly 6 years ago. One result of this was a year in a soft “walking” cast; another was a broken arm. It gets a little better very slowly.

Those were all sudden onset. All the rest must have come on gradually because I don’t really remember.

What I can’t remember is what it was like to go about my business every day without anything hurting, but I know that was the case. Most of the time I tune out the pain unless it exceeds a certain level, although I do remain aware of it as a caution against careless movement. I avoid using meds for any of it except some ordinary OTC analgesics at night, when the chronic shoulder pain will keep me awake otherwise.

Oh, and I did expect long-term trouble from some of these but not all of them.

@ibstubro get checked out, that’s way too long without a physical. I have had my psa checked every year since my early thirties.

January of 2013. I started noticing a numbness and tingling in my pinky. Then some nerve, from my elbow on down, started aching. Went to the doc twice, was sent to 3 specialists, no help. Two years later I wear arm braces of one kind or another constantly. I feel like a cyborg.
When my two youngest grandaughters want to be me they need my flip flops, my hair clip and my brace.

Damn, @Jeruba! You practically need an iron lung. I feel like I should apologize for being so healthy, so long. Sorry for all your woes.

I had the opposite, @Dutchess_III. A sharp pain in my neck and another at my waist – both on the left side – that traveled down my arm/leg and exited my fingers/toes. Over the course of several months or years. I blame mine on scoliosis.

I don’t have a doctor. I don’t have health insurance. I’m an Agnostic Scientist. We read Reader’s Digest in the Reading Room, and find that laughter is the best medicine.

It’s nothing, @ibstubro. I’m fine, except for a little of this and that, mostly inconveniences, which I’ve learned to manage as well as possible. As my podiatrist says, it’s mostly about the mileage. I can get around under my own power, and after experiencing a time (post-surgery) when I couldn’t do that, I never pass a day without being grateful for that ability. Don’t feel bad for me, not at all—just remember to appreciate what you have while you have it.

And hurray for prosthetic devices, from eyeglasses to plastic joints. I never disparage the idea of using a crutch, even metaphorically; when you need one, isn’t it great that it’s there?

When all else fails, there’s always denial.

I knew da Nile was going to come up, sooner or later, @Jeruba. It’s the river that soothes all my ails.