Tag: chronic physical pain

Patriots win!

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, depression

Patriots win!

I watched a nail biting, painful football game tonight. American football, not soccer. By the start of the 4th quarter, I was seriously doubting my home team. But we pulled a win out of our ass. And a win is a win, even if it was ugly. I can’t wait to watch the OSU vs Oregon game Monday night. I lost 11 followers on Twitter. Every time I swear during the game, I lose followers but I don’t care.

Sometime during the 4th quarter, I started getting dizzy, even though I was sitting down. Even now my head is spinning and I am up in my room. I think it maybe due to either dehydration or exhaustion, or both. I woke up very early this morning and have not really rested. I am wicked tired and think I am getting another cold. My cough from my previous cold is still with me. It has been more than a month since I have had this cough. It’s not all the time, but it gets annoying when I try having a conversation with someone.

I thought a lot about my therapist today because it is our anniversary. I have been with her for fourteen years. And this depresses me because I know in a month my surgery anniversary is coming up. It was a tough time and I was losing my mind. I ended up in the hospital and my back gave out on me. I left AMA to see my chiropractor, which turned out to be a huge mistake. I ended up with CES, cauda equina syndrome, 12 hours after the adjustment. This has changed my life forever.

I guess this is why I have been so down lately. I have been thinking where I would be had not had a neurological injury. My back probably would still hurt. But I think if I didn’t get the chiropractic adjustments, it eventually would have gone away. Too bad it took 2 surgeries for me to be on medicine that helps my pain.

It’s 330 am and I just woke up in pain. Yay me. NOT. I started reading my Twitter line and then I started crying. I don’t know why. The stuff I was reading was mostly about Scotty McCreery, nothing too provoking. I was also crying during the football game, but those were tears of joy. I don’t know what these tears are about. I am just feeling wicked emotional right now.

For most of the day, I had been dealing with a low level sadness. It was my mother’s bday and I didn’t have money to get her a card or anything. Course, I think cards are a waste of money anyways. People don’t keep them like they used to and then if they do, they get thrown away anyways. I just don’t have “extra” money. I spent most of my money on meds this month and a few grocery items. That was it. I need a fucking job. But I can’t work the way things are right now. It would kill me. I would be in too much pain.

I don’t know why my right ankle is bothering me. Usually it is just my left. The pain seems to have gone away, which is good. Maybe I was just sleeping in a bad position or something.

Monday I have physical therapy and it is going to be snowing for most of the morning. Just fucking wonderful. I am tempted to cancel the damn appointment. But, we’ll see. If the temp is about 25 degrees, I will go. If it is less than that, I will cancel. I am not going to go out in the freezing, snowy weather. The reason for this is because the cold causes my back to cramp up on me. It happened yesterday while I was waiting for the bus after I left my father’s place. I was pretty bundled up, too! It was only 20 degrees out. Not as bad as the other day but still cold enough to hurt me.

I hope I can go back to sleep. I really don’t want to stay up all day. It is almost 430 am now. I have been up for an hour. If I don’t get back to sleep, that will so suck. I think with the pain medication and Ativan, I should be able to go back to sleep. I don’t know what I will be doing today. I think there will be a broncos game. The winner of that game will determine who the Patriots play next week. I hope it is the Colts. I really don’t want to see Manning’s ugly face. I can’t stand him because he is not a team player. He is only out there to do stuff for him and if it doesn’t happen, he yells at his teammates. That isn’t right.

Looks like I will be going back to sleep. YAY! Thank you meds!

Random 245

by Midnight Demon, posted in chronic physical pain, depression

Random 245

I am will be done with the new blog post on CAMS hopefully tomorrow. I am brain dead today for some reason and can’t motivate myself to write up the last page of notes I took. It is stirring more ideas about what to write about than what is actually in the notes, which is a good thing, but is distracting as all hell! I am thinking about writing a new post about the reasons for living and reasons for dying article that I am quoting. So many ideas about suicide risk assessments.

I did too many stair climbing today. My ankle/foot is killing me profoundly. I got the mail a few minutes ago and that caused the throbbing to increase. I would insert a photo of where it hurts but I haven’t been able to find one. Monday I have physical therapy so that should be fun. I will get it all nice and calmed down by then only to aggravate it some more. I really don’t think PT is going to help me. But I will give it one more try before saying nay. I think I might have to ice my ankle though. I see swelling forming .

I haven’t gone out today at all. It was snowing all morning. I say we got about ¾ of an inch. It is warmer by at least ten degrees today. I posted to my FB page that we should go to the beach as it was a balmy 24 degrees.

My mood still sucks, though I haven’t thought about killing myself today. I still feel like what I am doing is no good. But I got a few likes from my last post and that made me feel a little better. I shared Shneidman’s commonalities of suicide. It is an important piece of work. But anything by Shneidman is important to me. I don’t know if others think the same way. David Jobes probably does.

I don’t now why my mood has plummeted. I might have to increase the remeron. But I think I will wait until my pdoc is back in the office. I still don’t know when that will be though. I have inquired several times now and have gotten no response. I guess I just have to wait until she lets me know when she is back in the office. If I don’t hear from her in the next two weeks, or if my mood worsens, I will email her and ask for the increase in remeron. I am on a low dose and it might have lost its effectiveness. I don’t want to stop taking it as that could be disastrous. I really don’t want to end up back in the hospital.

Now, not later

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, depression, suicidality

It is very cold in Boston and will be colder tomorrow, like much of the US. It’s winter so it is expected to be cold. I just wish the coldest day of the year wasn’t when I need to go out. I should have rescheduled my appointment so I can stay nice and warm. But I will brave the elements because I need to see this doc. I need him to evaluate my hip and see if he can do something about it. I might need some more PT. I don’t know. I just know that it has been weeks since pulling the muscle and though it has gotten a little better, it still hurts. I also cramp up if I stand too long, say to wash dishes, which never really happened to me before.

I am very saddened to find out that Grant Mickelson is no longer a part of Taylor’s band. He was let go a few month ago and I just found out. I feel so bad. He was a talented musician and I loved his guitar playing.

Had therapy today. I told my therapist that I had the pangs of suicidality. She wants me to keep her updated on how I am doing. I don’t feel like it. I just want to die. I don’t have a specific plan. I am just wishing myself to death at this point. There is a recent study that came out that said those with severe mental illness are more likely to die younger because their medical illnesses are not treated properly. I would fall into this “severe” mental illness category. I don’t see how I cannot. I have multiple medical conditions that can kill me and I am at increased risk of having a heart attack because of my depression (another study that came out not too long ago). My being overweight and having hypertension doesn’t help these factors. I could wait to have one of these cardiovascular events to occur but I fear they might not happen soon enough. I want to be gone NOW, not later.

I am freezing. I put on a sweatshirt and now I am thinking of wearing a long sleeved T shirt AND the sweatshirt. I did it and now I am warmer than I was a few minutes ago. I might be dying of heat once the heat kicks in but right now I am toasty. Sounds like the wind is picking up. Just great. More cold air being knocked around. I have thermal socks on to keep my feet warm.

Pens and Coffee

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, depression, suicidality

Pens and Coffee

I waited almost an hour for the bus to the square today. It was snowing and freezing cold. Luckily, it wasn’t windy or it would have been more cold. I don’t know why the bus was late. I didn’t get the text alert for it being late until I got to my destination. If I didn’t have to put in some paperwork for my student loans, I wouldn’t have ventured out today.

Starbucks had a new latte, which I had today. It was different than a normal latte. I added hazelnut syrup to it so it had some taste. The barista that made it has not tried it yet and wanted my opinion. Once you got past the overwhelming espresso taste on the first sip, it was pretty good. It is called a Flat White latte. It was expensive though, so I don’t think I will order it again. It cost about a dollar more than a regular latte. I am still waiting for them to come out with a good Clover coffee. They have new ones and I want my java back! I hope the spring time coffees bring it back. I miss having a Clover coffee.

There was hardly any seats available at the place when I got in. An old man was hogging up three seats across from him. He got very rude and indignant when I tried to sit down in from of him. I told him he was wrong and walked away. Luckily, a person was leaving so I took her seat, at the end of the long table. I couldn’t believe the nerve of that guy. He made me very angry. He could have been more polite and I think that is what made me angry, his rudeness.

After I settled in my new spot, I got out my reading material and notebook for the blog post. I then realized I forgot to bring a pen with me. I can’t believe I left the house without a pen. It’s like the AMEX card, I never leave home without one. But this time I did because I changed jeans and didn’t check the pockets before leaving my room. Luckily, my bag had my favorite pen. It had actually several, which was good. The first pen I chose however was blue ink and I can’t stand writing in blue when the rest of my notebook is in black ink. Yes, I am particular about the inks and pens I use. The second choice was the one kind that I have been using the past several years. I use Uniball Jetstream pens, black ink, for the past several years. I love them so much, I that it is the only type of pens I buy. I used to buy different kinds, from gel inks, ball point pens, etc. but now have settle on the Jetstream brand. I was browsing through Amazon and found that they came out with a BLX kind that I am hoping to get my next paycheck. These have different color tops but are the same black ink. They look really cool! But I digress…

I did some work on my blog post. It is so hard trying to write about this stuff because it means so much to me. I hope the Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) that read this blog take some information from it and use it in their practice. I have realized today, that it’s not going to be a short blog. There is no way it can be. There is just too much information to share. I love working on this as it is refreshing my memory on what it’s like being in research. And I am learning more about the SSF’s inner workings than ever before.

Today, while I was sitting at Starbucks, I had a pang of suicidality. I can’t help but think why am I still here. I don’t want to be here, at all. Yet I continue to be alive for whatever reason. My writing partner said that I am here because I have things that keep me here. I will also be fighting my suicidality, which is the main reason I found the SSF and Jobes’ work. I really don’t think I will be here if I didn’t find that article by Dr. Shneidman. I would have fell into despair and given into the statistics of all the reasons why I should be dead. Because, after all, everyone is a statistic in one shape or form. But as my writing partner and therapist have stated, I am the outlier. I still haven’t figured out where that point of data lies though..