Chronic Pain Update

What is chronic pain? Any pain you've had more than 3-4 months. Pain you have had for years is, of course, chronic pain. Anyone who has chronic pain or has had chronic pain knows how energy zapping this can be. My suggestion is to never give up trying to find the root cause. Even when you know it is due to degeneration of a joint, there are still healing modalities that may help your body heal these joints. Oh, I know "they" say "joints don't heal" but I don't buy into that thinking. If you do, the best thing you can do is get that joint replaced as soon as you can afford to. For me, and I believe, many others, any part of our body can heal if it gets the right nutrients, exercise, blood flow,  muscle balance, whatever, to heal. Don't get me wrong, I am not against joint replacements, they are a great thing, but for me they are the absolute last resort. Thankfully, many others think the same or there would not be so many alternatives out there to choose from these days.

I promised to fill in the gap from 2013 to present 2018. In the exercise/physical realm I tried a packaged program that is sold through chiropractic's offices that include: Chiropractic adjustments, therapeutic massage, and physical therapy. This help a little bit for a little while. Then I went to a wonderful Physical Therapist, Eric-who graciously saw me in his home as he usually does not take private clients. Eric kept me going so that I could work in a busy ER. I even kept going after I moved on for about 6 months. The hassle of traveling so far to a therapist became too much and also the benefits I gained from the exercises peaked at a level still not acceptable for me.

During this time frame I tried prolo therapy injections in both my right hip and right knee. After 11 injections in both, I and the Dr concluded that they were not going to help. I was referred to a clinic that does stem cell injections to the tune of $10,000. "gasp". No, I can't afford that but was able to find a facility that would do the injections for $2,000 and injection. Expensive, but if it worked it would be far less than surgery. Six week post injections and no improvement. Huge disappointment  here, as you might expect. What now? A specialist that said I have nothing wrong with my knee per x-ray and MRI and Avascular necrosis (AVN) in my right hip! Say what? That's a nasty sounding diagnosis. It means lack of blood flow to the joint/bone causing degeneration. Hmm.

On to Acupuncture, with Joel Dunning-Omaha, NE, goal- to open up the circulation in my hip and thus allow for healing nutrients to flow to that joint. 6-8 months into that modality and I added lymphatic drainage and therapeutic massage which was done by the Acupuncturist's wife, Theresa. Another 2-3 months and I was feeling discouraged so asked for a referral to a Chiropractor or someone else and was referred to John Macy in Omaha, NE. Two appointments with John and I felt I had some hope of better pain relief! At my second appointment with John he referred me to the Hruska Clinic in Lincoln, NE.

I Promptly made an appointment with Jason at the Hruska Clinic (Restorative therapy which uses Postural Restoration). I am now 2 appointments into this therapy which involves assessment by a trained individual and then exercises that help to restore muscles balance. This therapy is powerful, and so far I am encouraged. In fact yesterday I was able to walk with absolutely no pain! Plus my right leg felt much stronger! Yeah for exercises that are working those muscles.

Here's a thought for those thinking of joint replacement, if your posture and muscle balance is out of whack and doesn't get fixed before a joint replacement, most likely you will have the same problem/pain after the joint replacement. Just a thought.

Along with the Physical Therapy, I have tried changing up my diet in many ways to see if that would help. Without addressing diet, I believe, you are only touching one of the root causes. Diet is a huge subject and I have tried numerous diets and supplements to achieve pain relief. This is too much for this one post so I will leave that to next time.

Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a great day!

Till next time, Healthbug