I have used tired before in diary titles. I have mentioned being tired in diaries before as well. That is because it is such a HUGE portion of my life. I never used to feel this tired all the time. Sure I had times where I was exhausted but it was not ALL the time. I can sleep for 11 or 12 hours and wake up feeling great for about 3 or 4 hours and then it hits like a brick wall. Normally I will get about 7 to 8 hours a night lately ( Thanks to my wonderful SCS that helps with the pain ! ) yet I feel like my butt is dragging soon after waking. I do wake up a lot ( 4 to 5 times a night ) during the night due to the urge to go, but this is directly linked to the fact that I actually drink a lot of fluids for my chronic kidney stones and now my bladder cancer. I’m talking ¾ to a gallon of liquids a day.
Living with chronic pain brings LOTS of friends to the party. One major companion is depression. This also influences our sleep or lack of it. Even if you don’t think about it a lot, it sits in the background quietly draining your energy; Throw in the way chronic pain drains your energy and you have a great recipe for daily exhaustion ! Add in a dash of stress, whether it be financial or work related or medical in nature, worrying about the government and it’s war on chronic pain patients, and you have a Cordon Bleu level recipe. I have yet to figure out the way out of this mess. I have ways of coping with depression, I have ways of coping with stress and I have ways of coping with my chronic pain yet even the fight against all three is draining of energy even if it is just emotionally draining. I just read a great diary by LokiMom over at Kosability which is an awesome group BTW, that deals with handling stress. It has some great tips for working through stress that you can try to get a handle on your own !
Depression is really so much a part of chronic pain it should be treated as a co-diagnosis in chronic pain patients. We know we will NEVER be pain free. That is not a happy thought ! What we want is our pain to be under control and here is where we differ from a large portion of the medical community. Some doctors truly believe that getting your pain down to a 6 or 7 level is perfectly fine and you should be jumping for joy that they brought it down to that. We want something more along the lines of 3 if at all possible. Now toss in the idiots from PROP like Andrew Kolodny, who believe all opioids are BAD and their continued influence upon government agencies like the CDC and the FDA as well as well intentioned politicians who want to FINALLY do something about addiction but have no clue how to do that and NOT hurt chronic pain patients and we have a situation that would cause anyone to SCREAM! Opioids will never cure chronic pain. I know this. I also know that a large number of people have been helped by opioids and take them responsibly under a doctors guidance. They don’t help everyone and we should be pushing for more options in controlling pain, whether it be medical marijuana, Kratom, PT, Aqua Therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic care or new pharmaceuticals from big pharma. We need insurance companies to cover alternative treatment therapies. ( Boy this sure seems like Deja Vu ! I could swear I have written this diary before lol ) So many in chronic pain who take opioids and been significantly helped actually have a “Plan” on what to do when their meds are taken from them by doctors who are too scared to continue treatment. Unfortunately that plan is often suicide. A story I have been hearing more and more is of chronic pain patients taking their lives like that told in this depressing article. These deaths are then added in to the CDC’s stats as an opioid OD, there by compounding the issue. They refuse to take out the suicides or even differentiate between illegal drug use OD’s and chronic pain patients. Sorry I am trying to keep on track but every time I get started on the CDC and the stupid guidelines I see RED ! What really gets me is that those making the rules seem to operate in a world detached from reality. Let’s look at the guideline for benzodiazepines and opioids. Basically it says it should never be done, yet many have been on that combo for years with no issues and not dying. So you go to your pain clinic and get prescribed an opioid and they refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist for your depression brought on by chronic pain and they want to write a script for any of the decent benzodiazepines that will help but then someone else steps in and says NOPE ! Sorry not allowed and they may not even be a doctor. Once again it can be dangerous and should only be done under doctors orders but it should not be cut out from the options.
So bottom line on this is I will continue to be tired, probably from a combination of factors such as medication side effects, the physically draining aspects of living with pain and depression 24/7 for years. If anyone has any suggestions on improving my exhaustion let me know. I am sure I am not the only one suffering ! Maybe one day in the near future we will become a society that does not tolerate people living with pain as normal.
Thursday, Jul 20, 2017 · 9:14:11 PM +00:00
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funtony47
Ok everyone who commented ( and it was a lively comment list too ! ) I am sorry. Normally I follow my posts pretty close but must admit I published this and took a nap ( Until Monday morning lol ) Monday was ok but no sleep at all Tuesday caused me to pass out after work at 230 and sleep straight thru til 430 am Wednesday.
So I apologize to all. !