Layers

*****Warning***** This post may been seen as whining. You might want to skip it. :P


FIrst of all, I promise I am getting to the end of these posts. Still just mostly talking to myself.

I have been in some degree of constant pain since I was 13. I am 50 now, so that it 37 years.

It started when I had my growth spurt. As I grew, my back curved. This was before routine scoliosis screenings in schools, so I was not diagnosed or treated for a condition that could have saved me much of the pain I experience now.

When I was 18, I was in a bus crash that fractured my back between the shoulder blades. I still have some level of chronic discomfort from that. Add that to the scoliosis.

About this time also, I began having symptoms of GERD. Anyone who has ever had severe reflux can attest to the fact that this can be quite painful. Especially in the days before medications for this condition were common. Add that to the scoliosis and back injury pain.

All of this was manageable. No big deal.

In my thirties I began to experience more severe problems with my back, aggravated by the scoliosis. Bulging discs in my lower back left me unable to walk at more than a shuffle, put on my own shoes, or lift my feet into my car without help. Thankfully, I have been greatly helped by a wonderful series of chiropractors who have kept this pain manageable for the past 15 years. Add this to the scoliosis, the back injury and the GERD.

Shortly before I turned 40, I began experiencing severe pain down my arms. I was unable to hold a glass, so everything I drank had to be through a straw while the glass was sitting on a solid surface. This went on for a year until doctors finally discovered the ruptured disc in my neck and did surgery to remove this and fuse my spine.

My forties began a merry-go-round of medical odysseys. Now I added cervical spondylosis (arthritis of the neck) to the mix, as well as degenerative disc disease ( the discs have eroded, leaving bone on bone), and spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the bones surrounding the spinal cord, leading to irritation of the nerves).

Add short term pain from a total hysterectomy, an appendectomy, a spinal fusion, a complicated tonsillectomy (included some severe hemorrhaging), surgery to wrap my stomach around my esophagus, and injuries to both knees from a fall, I have rarely had a real break from pain in a very long time.

I have been experiencing pain in my hands for about a year that gets bad enough at times to keep me awake at night. Monday, when I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my hands, it was just one more thing. And I was bummed.

I will put on my big girl pants and deal with it. I just have to get it all in perspective.