Chronic Pain – a personal journey

Hi everyone!

Today hasn’t been a wonderful day for Nanny – anyone who suffers from Chronic Pain will understand how difficult it is to try to ‘create’ when your mind is foggy, you are in pain, you are tired, your head is aching – anyway, you get the picture……

I knew better but still tried sewing – lol – thank goodness for quick unpicks!!!  I did however, get my hats cut out so still on track with the Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

I have recently joined a support group for Chronic Pain Sufferers  and, while feeling so miserable today, I thought that I should make the effort to record my experiences in the hope that it may save someone else such a looong journey.

My journey in Chronic Pain began in 1988 when, travelling on the job, I was involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) as a front seat passenger.  I was admitted to hospital with a fractured sternum and was told it would take 6 weeks to mend.

I attended physiotherapy and the pain continued.  After a period of time, the Dr I was seeing commented that I was one of ‘ those’ patients and when I questioned him he said – you know, you must have kids at school that just don’t learn!!!  I explained that it was my job to encourage teachers not to ‘blame the child’ but rather  to take a look at their methods and try something different!!  Needless to say, I was admitted to a Rehabilitation facility very quickly!!!

I spent a total of 5 weeks at a residential rehabilitation centre – a long time to be away from my family – where they took all medication from us, scheduled physio, hydrotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology and back specialist appointments.  They told me that I had the worst whiplash they had ever seen, as I had very little movement in my neck – the girls in the pool called me ‘the neck’!

Funny the things when you look back – I used to play tennis – never a Wimbledon champion but enjoyed playing.  I am just remembering the day they gave me a tennis racquet and told me I could play – I said you must be joking – they weren’t!  Playing tennis to them (so they could tick a box – am I too cynical??) was lobbing a ball up against a wall – so I couldn’t run, I couldn’t complete a serve, or a backhand, or a drive but I could lob the ball softly up against a wall.  mmm I could see that working on a Wednesday night!!

So it was in this way that I was rehabilitated – imagine the boxes ticked again – didn’t require medication, could play tennis, oh and I could drive (they took me out for a little drive) – now I’m sure you could see this working in the ‘real’ world – a world where I was a Mum and a wife and working full time in a job that required me to travel sometimes 6 hours a day!!  Surely that would be no different to 2 sessions of physio and hydro each day, all meals prepared and your bed made…….

Anyway, that led me back to work, on to the Medico-Legal merry-go-round and down the long long road of chronic pain, all the time believing that I was ‘getting better’ and it would just ‘take time’…………

I’ll share some more another day.

Until next time
Nanny xx