The new normal. (Pain management)

Over the past three weeks, I’ve developed pain in my legs which quickly spiraled into excruciating nerve pain in my left leg and muscle pain in my right hamstring. In order to cope with this pain I started with CBD, then quickly moved into ibuprofen and prescribed muscle relaxers. For a couple days I was bedridden because it was too painful to sit in my wheelchair. After going to the ER to get an emergency MRI and bloodwork I was told there was nothing out of the ordinary. I had no other choice but to move on. I got back to working out more and trying all the remedies for the pain I could find online. 

Among the things I have tried for my pain include, e-stim, massage, stretching, hot/cold, various oral medications, making sure I’m hydrated and eating healthy, and being active/doing things to occupy my mind. While I was researching pain management I came across this hour-long spinal cord injury pain management video from 7 years ago. https://youtu.be/QG4SKNZOJzE     surprisingly much of the information is still relevant today, but the most important fact I picked up was that there are only so many things you can do to manage your pain, the trick is finding out how to live with it. 

The same is true for my injury as a whole, I can only go to therapy and get out of my chair so much. For the rest of the time, I need to live my life to the fullest in the chair. In other words, if I spent my entire life doing therapy and managing my pain I wouldn’t have lived much of a life at all. I have aspirations, I want to help people, and I want to have a family and try new things. Of course, I can make my pain management and therapy techniques leisurely but only to a certain degree. 

Therapy is an integral part of my life because it keeps me healthy and now reduces pain levels which, in turn, help me lead a better life. Right now the focus of my therapy is to keep me healthy, manage my pain levels and progress my functional standing and walking abilities. 

On a psychological note, chronic pain is taxing on my mind. It makes me angry and pessimistic which doesn’t feel good for someone who is usually optimistic and positive. When the pain came on I felt the same emotions I did when I got into the accident. Things like “this isn’t fair that nobody around me has to deal with this situation.” Luckily it seems to be getting more manageable, probably because of some combination of the remedies I’ve been practicing and trying to reframe my thoughts in the same way I did when the accident happened. which is ignologing that "I cant change it" and trying to stay as present as possible.