Share Your Pain Story

Tell your story of living with chronic pain, by leaving a reply at the bottom of the page. Do not mention specific medications or dosages. Stories do not appear right away.

995 Replies to “Share Your Pain Story”

  1. It is unreal, the under prescribing. I’m in so damn much pain all the time. Don’t know what to do about it anymore, except maybe double up on the dosage? Help, please!

  2. I have lived with severe nerve pain for almost 31 years. Taken off pain meds has reduced my ability to care for myself or contribute. I can’t believe the government is missing the numbers affect the economic health of every country that beloved statements with no research, contradicting much research. We individuals need help, but so does an economy hurting because we were sent home to die. Left alive are too strong to die soon

  3. I share similar circumstances as these two have written. I have been on meds for over twenty years going to the same doctor but he has retired and moved across the country to be with his children. The pain center I was referred to spent very little time with me and suggested to go to a methadone clinic and subject myself to daily driving. At 69 years of age that is not only an unbelievable stress not to mention the type of conditions you would have to tolerate to deal with. Those facilities are not for people of my age and background.

  4. My name is Leslie Avila and for 8 years now, I have suffered from Trigeminalgia (the suicide disease) and more recently, I’ve been diagnosed with Stevens-Johnsons Syndrome, Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, and Lupus.

    I have been prescribed hydrocodone for years but during my hospitalization for SJS and TENS, I was taken off of and denied stronger pain medication despite having large patches of my skin covered in burn-like sores.

    I am treated like a drug addict every time I go to the ER seeking help and my doctor can’t prescribe me anything stronger due to the laws that are in place. I am stuck at a stand still and have a friend who is in a nearly identical boat. We are desperate, humiliated, and dying for relief so that we can be more adequate mothers to our children.

    I suffer daily from extreme pain and discomfort at only 31 years old, I don’t know how to keep going like this. I am in DESPERATE need of help.

  5. I’ve been dealing with the undisclosed dental decay for the past 4 years now due to Indivior, the makers of Suboxone, failing to advise patients of this vicious and painful side effect. I’ve never ever had serious issues with my teeth until after three years of being on said medication. Indivior had all of their employees sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) agreeing to never advise patients of this harsh side effect. Why is that, Indivior? This is wrong, and I will continue fighting for myself and all who’re having to deal with this crap! How would the president of Indivior feel if this happened to them or their family? They don’t care about the patients, it’s pretty obvious! They clearly chose #ProfitsOverPatients! I’ve lost pretty much all of my teeth due to their grimy action and I’m demanding compensation!

  6. My doctor is retiring soon. Judging from all the comments I’ve read here on this site it looks as if I will soon be up a creek without a paddle! My journey has been quite an interesting one over the years and my story will soon be coming to an end.

    I have never been to a pain management office as I was fortunate enough to have a primary care physician that believed in the oath all physicians used to take, and if they continue to say they took the oath they do not practice or live it in any way. As I stated I have been fortunate to have had this doctor for many years and I’ve known him most of my life, and even went to the same small high school many years ago. He was and is around three years older than me, graduating three years ahead of me with one of my older siblings who was/is the same age. I enjoyed robust health most of my life until reaching the age of 48 when I needed a total hip replacement. Doc made the appropriate referral to the orthopedic surgeon for the impending procedure.

    I was experiencing a level of pain that kept me from living my day to day life so he prescribed norco with appropriate and timely follow up, until we found the amount and dosage that kept me functioning pain-free, mostly, up until the surgery, which was successful. I stayed on the norco until the acute pain resolved. I came off of the drug because the pain was diminished to the point where Advil worked and only needed Advil occasionally. I played football in my youth and went on to doing construction work and other physically demanding occupations most of my life. Several years went by and then my back went out, causing horrific sciatic pain. Once again it was time for norco to get me pain-free enough to resume working plus physical therapy, chiropractic and several epidural treatments that provided varying levels of relief albeit short lived. My last injection gave me temporary paralysis from the waist down that scared the living shit out of me and my primary care doc, not to mention the doc that did that last injection who was shitting bricks and was visibly relieved when feeling came back after many hours. I was able to leave that place walking after about six hours passed.

    After about a year of sciatic pain I finally had a laminectomy performed successfully and once again discontinued the opioid. Life went on. About four years after my first total hip my other hip started causing problems and back to the norco, but didn’t wait as long before scheduling the next total hip procedure. I was very pleased with the first hip replacement and the back surgery. I was looking forward to having the second hip done, never thinking something could go wrong, but unfortunately it did. The second hip was a superior model developed for more active patients and had shown good results for many people who had opted to receive it. Unbeknown to me the surgeon was doing and using this prosthetic only for the second time. He had performed hundreds if not thousands of procedures and hardware like I received with the first one, but he had only practiced once on a cadaver before attempting mine.

    I agreed to the new hardware and procedure but was somewhat concerned when I noticed the incision site was larger than the first one, and he told me that he had to deal with “minor“ complications. Long story longer, the recovery was not as trouble-free as the first. I was suffering acute pain that never went away and continued to get worse. After about three months I was taking 16 Norco daily. My doc explained to me that he would have to switch me because that was far too much Tylenol to take daily and could have severely damaged my liver. Oxycontin was too expensive as I had no prescription drug benefit any longer, since I wasn’t working and had lost coverage by then. He tried me on Methadone four times a day with Norco for breakthrough pain. I was on 160 MME for several years and functioned without feeling “high” and was employed and able to resume daily life and all that entailed, and nobody knew about my medications except myself and my doctor.

    Enter 2016, and the CDC suggested guidelines for opioid prescribing: Fuck me. Doc gave me the heads up about six months before my state decided to adopt the guidelines as law and I successfully tapered down to 30 MME with the addition of cannabis smoked and cannabis oil I made myself and took sublingually on a daily basis. I was fortunate enough to learn how to make my own oil as I could not afford to purchase it from dispensaries on my fixed income. My doc was and is amazed that I reduced down to such a low MME level and told me he could have referred me to pain management and surely they could have continued prescribing opiods to me. I knew that would not be the case, as I had already heard the horror stories of how Pain Management docs were on a mission to reduce or discontinue prescriptions for evil opioids, and are still doing it to this very day, even with the new updated guidelines from CDC!

    A fact he soon discovered after hearing stories from patients he referred to Pain Management offices because his practice set the limit at 30 MME daily as their limit and cut off point. I doubt this will be read by anybody and I just want to wrap up my story where I started off. My doc is going to retire soon and rather than be subjected to inhumane treatment and a loss of dignity I’m going to “opt out”. My loved ones will be informed beforehand so we can say our goodbyes. I want to hopefully lessen their grief, especially my grandchildren that have greatly contributed to my life for the last 11 years, years I consider to be bonus years. Even while my pain just keeps getting worse, shrinking my brain, robbing me of quality of life. I would rather have them remember me as the smiling, laughing, loving grampa before pain robs me of that ability, and the angry bitter spiteful Grandpa shows up! Good luck to all my fellow sufferers – maybe science and research will come up with an alternative that works for you, and I know for sure it’s not Gaba-fucking-pentin, mindfulness, or any other cockamamie bullshit the powers that be keep touting. I’ve never wished ill on anybody, and I do wish for all of you, and you know who you are, that before you pass you get to experience unrelenting 24 hours per day excruciating pain! fucking assholes

  7. For as long as I can remember I have always been in pain, even as a child, since the first time my brother tried to kill me. He pushed me into the water, and I was clinically dead for 45 minutes. I learned to walk and talk again. I have had more things happen to me than a whole city of people. And now I have more health problems than anyone, I have about 50 or more. Every day I am sick and in a lot of pain. At one time I had big dreams, that have turned into nightmares. I have no family or friends to help me financially or any other way. To me the world is a really BAD place. There is not even one person that cares enough to even try to understand what I am going through. I AM ALL ALONE WITH NO HELP, FINANCIALLY OR ANY OTHER WAY. I TOLD MYSELF NOT TO GIVE UP BUT I HAVE. WELL I HAVE TO GO, BYE TO ALL

  8. I have to drive two and a half hours or take a train just to see my pain doctor. They made me choose between my pain meds and anxiety meds. What I’m getting is not working all. It does it make it so I can’t think, and I need to be able to work and raise kids. I have not really complained much about the long trip though … my doctor had to call a friend of hers and ask her to take all the people with fibromyalgia, because we got denied by all other pain doctors in Nevada. The only reason why she did take me is because she is treating me for other pain issues, not my fibro. I have to sign contracts with them every year of what I can and can’t take. As long as I’m on my pain meds they even want to know if anyone in my family has ever been addicted to anything. If so they can give meds to you. I can’t use anything natural that helps with pain because if they find it in my system I lose my meds. They keep trying to push me into doing the ablations again. I woke up from the last one I had in a panic attack because I had ten needles in my back and they were burning my nerve endings while I was awake instead of putting me back under. Most of my neck is blown out and I have stenosis in my neck. I have been on the same meds for years, and I need something I know that works.

  9. The pain I’m in is too much for me to handle, there isn’t even one person that cares enough to even try to understand what I’m going through. I am all alone in a world with too many people. People say and they think they know about PAIN, When they don’t have a clue. They think I’m faking it. So they say things that hurt or they just don’t care, they think they know more about my pain than I do. I get no help from anyone. They get mad, and yell at me, they say things that hurt, they pretend I’m not in pain, and they think that I can do things like someone that’s not in pain, they expect it. The pain has now ran off all my family and friends, I quit trying to be in a relationship, because they all would be mean and hit me, ABUSE me. So I have not been in a relationship for over 25 years now. Yes I’m lonely and sad and I get so mad, but I can’t make someone care about me it has not worked yet.

    There’s not even one person that cares enough to even try to understand what I’m going through, not even my doctors. They don’t care so I get NO HELP, I HAVE TO JUST SUFFER WITH IT, ALL BY MYSELF!!! The PAIN IS REALLY BAD AND IS GETTING WORSE. I have lost all enjoyment in all things I used to love doing. I don’t leave my room and I cry and cry and I get really mad over nothing and I’m so tired of the pain and the way people treat me, LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING AND FEEL AND KNOW I’M DYING BECAUSE THE PAIN IS TOO MUCH FOR ME TO HANDLE. I DESPERATELY NEED HELP BUT NO ONE WILL HELP ME, SO SOON I WILL BE GONE, BYE WORLD WITH NO HELP OR LOVE OR A LITTLE UNDERSTANDING

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