I am in pain. Every freaking day of my life is lived in pain. This isn't imaginary pain. This isn't psychological pain. It has a very real physical cause. My spine is bent on destroying itself. I have what they call "Degenerative Disc Disease". Everybody has it. It just means that the spine over time takes abuse and slowly or quickly fails. There is more to it than that but that is the basics.
Most people don't have many issues with it. The degeneration is slow. It is basically considered aging. Some of us have a spine that has suffered an injury. When that happens DDD speeds up. The discs above and below the injury start to fail quicker. This then spreads up and down the spine from the original injury. I suffered a herniated disc at L4 way back before the turn of the century. I had surgery to repair that disc and went about my life.
For quite a few years I lived in fear of re-injuring my back. I didn't want to do anything to bring that pain back but as is human nature I eventually started to do more and more. I am not sure exactly what caused the next injury. It could have been work related. About a week or so before I started to have excruciating pain I spent the weekend adding memory and installing new computer towers at my job for a cable company at their local call center. I had felt some twinges during the job but nothing major. The next day my back ached pretty bad but I felt I had just over strained it. Just over a week or so later I felt excruciating pain in my back. It was horrible. I could barely get out of bed. I wound up being out of work for a month.
So that led to what I have currently. A pretty screwed up spine. That has led me to realize what is missing in my treatment. From my posts here I have found many others who have similar experiences in treatment. The humiliation, the belief you are just a drug addict. The disbelief of how bad your pain is. SO yeah I care about this. It affects me every day of my life. I want to do something not just for myself but for everyone who has to suffer with chronic pain.
Now the purpose of the diary today. I am inserting a poll. I want to know what you think is more important. Do we really need a National Pain Patients Bill of Rights ?