Friday, January 2, 2015

1/2/2015 Wow! It looks like I have managed to be real consistent with publishing at least once a year. LOL. Hesitant, crooked smile here. Once again the ole new year rolls around and I make promises to myself. This year will be different, I will commit and I will follow through with my writing. Gosh, with a whole new year spread out before me, it is easy to be positive, ultra determined and gun how one more time. No goals set, none met. So here goes another try. Broad smile here :-)

I do not want to make this post about making resolutions and following through. That is a very in depth subject and not one I want to tackle at this time. What has been on my mind lately is Chronic muscular/skeletal pain. How do you deal with it? How does it relate to all that we do? Getting to the bottom of our pain. Following our noses so to speak to find out just what the real cause of the pain is.

If you suffer from chronic pain, you know that answering just those few questions is a tall order. This is a subject close to my heart because I suffer from chronic right hip and right knee pain. Dealing with pain can include many modalities of care. You can mask it with drugs and or herbs or you can have surgery (maybe if that is indicated, which may or may not fix the underlying problem). Being self responsible people when taking charge of my own health, I like to first realize that whatever I do, I must be able to accept the consequences of those actions or non actions as the case may be. The answer to this question will be different for everyone depending on their view of health and healing.

Chronic pain can and does affect every aspect of your life. How you move, how active you are, your self image and how much you get done in your day.

Getting to the bottom of our pain is one of the most difficult and most rewarding. Answering the following questions can help with this. When did it start? Did it start gradually or suddenly? Did something happen just before the pain started?IE trauma of any sort or a sickness? Could the pain be related to this? Did you start eating something consistently just before the pain started? IE Aspartame? Has the quality and quanity of pain changes since it began. Does the pain radiate from one spot? Keep asking yourself questions about the pain until you run out of questions to ask then think again. Usually chronic pain is chronic because it sneaks up on you or because "they" can't find the cause of your pain.

You and only you should be making these decisions as to what to do about your pain. I would suggest that you also put a lot of research into your decision. Please don't just take the surgeon's word for it. Hey, guys, I have my reasons, I am a nurse with 22+ years of experience.

The biggest thing I see about chronic pain is that it is never, well I guess I should not say never, but rarely is the solution a simple one step. As much as I would like it to be. It is a lot of trial and error as well as openness to using different techniques. Some therapies to try Chiropractic, Physical Therapy, Therapeutic massage, Prolo-therapy, Escogue therapy and more, much more. Be open, be critical, skeptical even, but keep searching for what will get to the bottom of your pain. Don't forget the impact diet has on our bodies either. Some foods cause us to have more inflammation. Watch your diet for connections. Some foods are poison to us such as aspartame. Herbs and vitamins can also help relieve pain.I know it can be a long difficult search but it is time well spent.

May the pain spur you to continue your search till you find an answer.

Happy New Year to all! Thanks for reading my blog and I wish you all a healthier, happy new year.

Till next time,

Healthbug