This post is about my experience with chronic pain.
About 5-6 years ago, I was at a regular doctor’s appointment, and I mentioned that sometimes, I get really bad pain in my right lower abdomen, and I mentioned it because it was pretty bad that day. My doctor pushed on my belly a couple of times, and I guess whatever that test is, I passed (or failed), and he brought me down to the surgeon’s office to get my appendix out. The surgeon did some tests, and determined my appendix wasn’t having any issues, so he sent me home with some painkillers and instructions to call if things got worse.
They didn’t really, until a month or so later, when the pain came back worse, and I went to the ER. They again determined I didn’t need surgery, so I went home after getting some painkillers.
This kept repeating, with me going to the ER so often that the surgeon I’d originally seen saying they might as well take out my appendix, which they did, and it was not healthy, so I thought all was well after that.
Until the pain came back again. Worse and worse every time.
Eventually, my gastroenterologist put me on regular painkillers, which don’t exactly take everything away, but make it so I don’t have to lie down on the floor just to keep from screaming, and they have kept me out of the ER for over a year now.
I eventually switched doctors, and my new PCP sent me to a pain clinic to see if they can do anything.
So I’m going to go through a series of nerve blockers in my abdomen to see if that helps. I’ll find out what the result is of this one in 2-7 days, when the steroid shot takes effect. The numbing agent, which should have given immediate relief, numbed a bit of it, so the doctor is hopeful that in the next appointment, she can get down to a deeper nerve and take care of it all.
That would be lovely, because I haven’t had an entirely pain-free day for about two years now, and it really wears a person down.
