Pain Management

It’s another week in the life for me so far. I have continued to try to simulate what a work day would feel like, to see if I could do it. Once again, last week and this week so far have been successful-more or less. I actually have some exciting news concerning that progress. But, more on that later.

But, these last two weeks have seen me struggling with yet another aspect of my Long- Covid disorder: pain.

This week, I am dealing with incredibly severe sinus pain and unfortunately, last week, I ran into my monthly menace. I have mentioned before that ever since covid, my menstrual cycle has become very rough. It’s unregulated and way more painful. It also seems to cause a flair up in my long-covid symptoms. Luckily, this month wasn’t as bad as the last two months. In January, I almost called an ambulance for myself.

This month, the pain was more manageable. But, my fatigue felt worse than normal and I also ran into a problem with my medication.

I unfortunately have to take quite a few pills right now. The more you take, the more likely that you are going to run into an adverse drug interaction. I take those pretty seriously ever since a drug interaction most likely led me to develop a functional neurological disorder that I still have occasional difficulties with.

The stimulant that my neurologist put me on doesn’t interact with any other pill that I take. But, it’s only so helpful by itself. It keeps me from sleeping but doesn’t really provide me with the energy that I need to function. I talked about that more in a previous post.

The latest pill that I started taking is the most helpful pill that I have been prescribed so far. But, I am not supposed to take it with my pain pill. I’ve been getting around that by taking the pills at two different ends of the day. I take the new stimulant in the morning and I take the pain pill at night to help me sleep. In the meantime, I started taking pills like day quil and using things like massagers, heat pads, cream, and patches to deal with pain and just muscle through the day.

That wasn’t an option this last week. I had to take my pain pill. So, I couldn’t take my other pill. I asked myself what I would do if I was working and this happened and my answer to myself is “I would do my best to carry on.” So, I continued my schedule as usual. But, it was more brutal than it had been the last few weeks.

I really want to stay on my new pill. So, I started looking into alternatives for my pain pill. That’s when I realized how few options I have and how messed up the pain management system is in this country.

I can’t take normal NSAID pain relievers because I am on blood thinners. So, my primary care physician put my on my current pain pill. She also advised me that if I needed anything stronger, then I would need a referral to a pain management doctor.

So, this last week, I consulted my favorite chronic pain gurus (my parents), and asked how to get started with getting a referral to a pain management specialist. What I learned is that it is very hard. You need to have a clear issue causing you pain (ex-your back), not just general pain. Also, most pain management doctors only specialize in certain areas of pain like back or neck pain.

I also later discovered that even if I did make it to a pain management specialist, there may still not be a pill that they could prescribe me that wouldn’t potentially have a negative drug interaction with something else that I am taking.

So, I am in between a rock and a hard place when it comes to pain management.

I am trying a several prong technique. In terms of dealing with my monthly menace, my hematologist wants to see if I could get away with a lower dose blood thinner in the hopes that maybe that might help with my runaway menses.

I also talked to my gynocologist. But, she wasn’t sure what was going on and has ordered a round of tests.

In terms of my pain overall, I’m looking into other alternatives to traditional pain management.

Just call me the energizer bunny- (with God lighting my way) I am going to try to find a way to just keep going and going.

#treatment #menstration #womenshealth #pain #painmanagement