Life in pain

Recently the National Pain Report did a survey on women in pain. I was one of the 2400 some participants... You can read the results here if you wish.

I have a few takeaways from the survey:

• If you aren't happy with your doctor, for example they tell you your pain is all in your head, it might be time to find a new doctor.
• If you have problems with the side effects from your pain medication (constipation is common with opioids, for example), it might be time to find a new medication. I am on an opioid pain patch and do not have constipation issues (if you must know) but I get a lot of pain relief with it.
• It is nice to know I am not alone with multiple pain issues
• Women do feel pain differently then men.

But then it is sad to know that women still feel discriminated by the medical system.

But we are all still here....

Chronic can be a good thing

When I was in cancer treatment, I was told cancer was being treated as a chronic illness instead of a terminal one. We all liked that. It was nice knowing that they didn't expect you to die anytime soon.

Living with a terminal disease is not fun. Your life is counted in weeks and months instead of decades and generations. But living with a chronic disease is not that great either.

We all know we came with an expiration date - life is a terminal occurrence. We are all going to die some day. But with a chronic disease, life just becomes a little (or a lot) less fun.

I have a couple of those chronic conditions that make life less fun. And that's how life goes for me. If you want to learn more about living with chronic ailments, this is a wonderful essay on life with chronic ailments.

And how you wake up each day with hope to be free of pain and and maybe there will be a cure. 

Life with chronic ailments is better than with a terminal one but how much is up for discussion.

Life in pain

Recently the National Pain Report did a survey on women in pain. I was one of the 2400 some participants... You can read the results here if you wish.

I have a few takeaways from the survey:

• If you aren't happy with your doctor, for example they tell you your pain is all in your head, it might be time to find a new doctor.
• If you have problems with the side effects from your pain medication (constipation is common with opioids, for example), it might be time to find a new medication. I am on an opioid pain patch and do not have constipation issues (if you must know) but I get a lot of pain relief with it.
• It is nice to know I am not alone with multiple pain issues
• Women do feel pain differently then men.

But then it is sad to know that women still feel discriminated by the medical system.

But we are all still here....

Chronic can be a good thing

When I was in cancer treatment, I was told cancer was being treated as a chronic illness instead of a terminal one. We all liked that. It was nice knowing that they didn't expect you to die anytime soon.

Living with a terminal disease is not fun. Your life is counted in weeks and months instead of decades and generations. But living with a chronic disease is not that great either.

We all know we came with an expiration date - life is a terminal occurrence. We are all going to die some day. But with a chronic disease, life just becomes a little (or a lot) less fun.

I have a couple of those chronic conditions that make life less fun. And that's how life goes for me. If you want to learn more about living with chronic ailments, this is a wonderful essay on life with chronic ailments.

And how you wake up each day with hope to be free of pain and and maybe there will be a cure. 

Life with chronic ailments is better than with a terminal one but how much is up for discussion.