Hello I am finally taking the time to sit down and tell my story....My pain story! One day I was driving...just in front of the Stony Plain Library...I wasnt driving very fast when out in front of me, all of the sudden...a black Subaru.... I had not even a moment to think....to stop. My car hit his car and I was immediately, and suddenly thrown forward and then backward again. I realized then, that my car had come to an immediate halt and I seemed to be in a bit of shock, when I looked up and saw the other driver unconscious slumped over the wheel of his car. Being a nurse, my first instinct was to take off my seat belt and rush to see if I could assist him. As I went to do this, I felt a sharp excruciating pain in my back. I was sure! My back had been broken. I then heard the ambulance siren coming our way and was so thankful. I was placed on a back board and life has NEVER been the same since. I was offered an amazing charge nursing position at the Misericordia Hospital the next day after the accident. I didnt know if I should laugh or cry. I had been waiting to hear about this job for quite some time. They kindly held this job a year for me. I had sustained a broken knee and suffered a severe whiplash in this accident. The whiplash left me unable to hold my head up on my own for at least 2 weeks. Literally, if I would take the cervical collar off, my head would flop over like a Raggedy Anne doll. This caused me to lose about 20 pounds as I my appetite disappeared. I realized gradually, that the pain in my knee was healing but that the back pain just seemed to continue. It was a severe burning sensation that never stopped. It travelled down my left arm and into my left breast. It felt like my bare skin on rhe upper left hand side of my body had been pulled along the gravel roads. This pain is, and has been relentless despite trials of many different medications and treatment modalities. Eventually, with great trepidation, I agreed to trial an opioid despite all I had been indoctrinated to know about them. I could not believe it! I finally was starting to have some reduced pain levels....Finally some control of this pain! My Dr. adjusted the dosing and medication to a point that I was finally able to consider working again. This after Two long years (feeling depressed towards the end of the 2 year period). I had always taken great joy in my nursing career, but the charge nurse position (that had been held for a year) was unattainable as I simply could not fulfill the responsibilities with this ongoing pain (despite the pain medication, a surgical floor was just too heavy). So I took a peri-natal course and worked in labor and delivery and post partum nursing until Dr. Boughen thought he saw a fit for me...helping to establish the Parkland Chronic Pain Clinic. I do not know what I would do if it were not for this clinic and the Family Practice Clinic that I have been blessed to be a part of. The Westview Primary Care Network has really given me the opportunity to utilize this chronic pain experience in a positive way by offering education to others who also suffer. I would have never known the plight of those who suffer with chronic pain if I would not have been afflicted myself. There is no way to truly know it unless you live it. I feel this allows me to connect to patients in a very unique and special way. So that takes care of the professional life, but I certainly have all the concerns that any other woman with chronic pain has. My husband has been extremely supportive....he literally does laundry, cooking, cleaning...he seems to understand my pain for the most part. Most nights I come home after work, I eat supper, and literally pass out from exhaustion. The pain seems to steadily grow in intensity during the day and is much worse if it is a high stress day or a very cold day outside with high humidity. I truly feel very inadequate most days as I watch my husband perform many of the duties around the house. I truly see the issues facing us, as there stands the possibility that we may not have access to a physician to care for our pain properly, when the physicians that presently are doing so, retire or for whatever reason, are no longer able to prescribe for our pain management. As pain sufferers and those who care about us at all....We must wake up! We must take a stand together to show the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the government that there are patients who are working and living a higher overall quality of life, due only to the fact that they have a physician willing to prescribe an effective opioid dose that allows them to do so. Please join in on sharing your pain story so that it can be used for the good of the people who need it the most, including yourself! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my pain story and please for the good of all.....share yours!!!!!!
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 05:57:38 +0000
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