Anyone else have problems describing your pain?

[Guest guest]

I always feel like I don't have the right word. I once had a Ford

Escort, and it kept dying at stoplights. It would all of a sudden

want to take off, the engine would rev, I would stomp on the brake to

keep it from getting away from me, and sometimes die. I took it to

the dealership three times trying to get it fixed, spent hundreds of

dollars, still had the same problem.

Finally a friend of mine was over, her husband worked on cars all

the time, and when I described it to her (the same way I had

described it to the auto tech by the way) she said " Oh, it's

SURGING " . I said, that's what it's called? She said yes.

So the next time I took it in to the dealership, she went with me, we told the

service writer that it was " surging " and he said " Oh, that's covered by the

warranty " and I got my car fixed for nothing. See what having the right word can

do for you?

Now, I'm always asked about my pain. It started out 15 years ago and

felt like my upper right back was a big wet gym towel that had been

twisted tightly to give some " friend " a welt at the opportune moment.

It hurt so deeply, so tightly, and so burningly. I would take

ibuprofen (twice as much as normal person) wait 20 minutes, put a

heating pad on it, wait 20 minutes take it off and do this twice a

day.

A few years later, I would take ibuprofen (double dose) then 2 hours

later take tylenol, then 2 hours later take ibuprofen again, and

stack medications like this to get through the work day. This worked

for many years. My hands started tingling and I started dropping

everything. Then I started falling often. All I could do after work

and on weekends was lay in bed trying to recuperate enough to work

another week.

Then one morning I woke up and couldn't get out of bed, I had

excruciating pain if I turned left, and exruciating pain if I turned

right. Vicodin did nothing, oxycodone did nothing, I had to take 120

mg morphine to become bearable.

My pain has been severe, debilitating, searing, sometimes like a hot

poker with a curve on the end of it is in my upper back, and once in

a while the devil pulls on that poker so that something gets caught

deep and catches my breath.

Sometimes I take a breath, not even a very deep one, and I have a

sharp, shooting pain at my upper right bottom of my trapezius.

Sometimes I think I must have a cancer or aneurysm deep in the

middle of my upper right chest, under my arm and inside just a little

ways. Hot, stabbing, searing, deep, tight, sharp.

What is your pain like? Do you have a hard time describing it? Do

you know what the " right " words are?

I have nerve damage, neuropathic pain, and spasming muscle pains.

Ice works for the nerve pain, heat for the spasming muscle, most of

the time when anyone touches me, they can't believe how hard as a

rock my upper right back is.

Does this sound consistent to anyone with anything I may be missing?

Does this describe it so that you can understand it?

I never get validating confirmation back from the doctor. They make

me feel like I'm describing something they've no clue about.

in Oregon