Tag: chronic physical pain

Random Sleepless Post

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, cauda equina syndrome, chronic physical pain, depression

Random Sleepless Post

I took my meds a couple of hours ago and then took my pain meds afterwards. I should be sleeping by all accounts but I am not. I think it is because I had coffee late in the afternoon. I am tired but my brain keeps going.

Last night, I was feeling the same way when an alter, or some part of me, came out and wrote my therapist some nasty, commanding, stuff. It scared me. I was going to type it up and blog form it so she could read it, but I am scared that part of me will write again. I thought Hyde was writing but it wasn’t his style. His is usually a goodbye message. Not an angry, commanding tone to it. I don’t know what to make of it. I might have an appointment with my therapist on Monday but it’s not definite. She said she will let me know if she has the time available. Otherwise, I won’t talk with her till Tuesday.

I know I have an angry self. Everyone has one. But nothing provoked this side of me to show, I wasn’t angry until I was writing and the weird thing is, after he wrote, least I think it was a he, I fell asleep for a little more than 8 hours. I didn’t have any weird dreams. I didn’t sleep for a few hours and then wake up, none of the usual sleep pattern that I have been having for weeks, least since I left the hospital. I didn’t sign the letter. I just don’t know what to do or who to talk to about this. I am not in danger to myself. I don’t feel suicidal. I am upset but not horribly. I just am confused. This has never happened before. And I am pissed off because I don’t have a name for this person or this person didn’t tell me its name. I am so mad at myself for allowing this to happen. I knew someone wanted to come out. It was on the surface, I felt it. But it was unfamiliar to me. I would read what it wrote but I am so afraid of being triggered. What if it writes again and is more nasty? I don’t want that to happen or worse, what if I lose control and totally dissociate and it does something?

If I remember the argument, it was something to the effect of letting me be a female rather than a male. It was arguing with the notion that I am not really a male, but a female, and my therapist needs to stop giving in to the transgender idea. Least I think it was referring me as a she, rather than a he, and it was calling himself a he, if that makes sense. It is so bizarre. I don’t know if the handwriting changed as I haven’t looked at the page. Once I get enough courage to look at it, I will type up the letter and blog it for my therapist. Now that she has mastered password protected blogs, I can do so without having to send her snail mail letters.

Ankle is killing me and I am hungry. I think I am going to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on scali bread. It is my favorite types of bread. Tomorrow I am going to get a fricken burrito. I have been craving it for a while now. Actually, I have also been craving burgers but I can’t have them because I am watching my weight. My sister was supposed to bring home a black bean burger from her work. I hope she did because those were so good. It was like Spanish beans with spices but in a burger patty (no meat just beans). I don’t know how they make them. I tried looking for the recipe online but none had refried beans as an ingredient and I think that is what held the patty together. I also love refried beans. I am going to keep hounding my sister until she brings them home again or at least gives me the recipe for them. They are very yummy!

My ankle is still being a bitch. I don’t understand why. I haven’t done anything in the last few hours to warrant such pain. I just wish it would go away and never come back but that isn’t going to happen. So I just have to take more pain pills because otherwise, there is no chance of me getting relief. Nothing else works for me, not even the nerve pain meds. If the nerve pain meds aren’t touching me, obviously it is not nerve pain. I have tried explaining this to my PCP before and it just falls on deaf ears. But I know it is physical type of pain, a tendonitis like my physiatrist thinks, coupled with complex regional pain syndrome. I don’t know how I got it or the tendonitis. Well, the tendonitis is because I don’t walk correctly and I still have foot drop. That was caused by my initial injury of Cauda Equina Syndrome. I still have weakness in my foot, which causes me to walk incorrectly. I have to wear an orthotic to walk right. But even then, my ankle still hurts. It constantly feels like someone is trying to rip it apart like you do a chicken wing. Or it feels like someone is jabbing me with a knife. Either way, it sucks feeling this pain every single day, 24/7. Right now my pain is an 9 on a scale of 1-10. I just took a couple of pain pills so it should quiet down some. If not, I will take some more in an hour or two. Last night I was hurting so bad, I had to take a stronger pain pill. I hate having to take that pill because it constipates me to no end. And I hate being backed up. But I took my senna tonight so I should be ok for tomorrow. Sucks that I have to take a pill for this and that, just for normalcy. It sucks having a chronic pain condition on top of mental illness. Just makes you want to harm yourself sometimes. And people just don’t understand the chronicity part. They think that once you are out of surgery, you should be healed and be okay. Well, you aren’t. I have scar tissue on my nerves so I know that is the reason for my pain all the time. And there is nothing that can be done about that. Removing it will just cause more scar tissue to form.

Rest Day

by Midnight Demon, posted in chronic physical pain, depression

Rest day

I decided today would be my rest day for the week as I did too much yesterday. I was in a lot of pain and I think I wrote some interesting stuff to my therapist that has me worried. Mr. Hyde wanted to come out, least I think he did, but what was actually written was not his style. I don’t know who it was. I was really tired when I wrote it so maybe it was my deep, dark, true feelings about myself. I don’t know, it was just creepy. Then after I wrote it, I feel asleep for eight hours straight! I woke up around 7ish. But I didn’t get out of bed until my mother left the house around 9. I really didn’t want a conversation with her. I made breakfast (no coffee) and then took my pain meds and slept until about an hour ago. I had something to eat and then went to visit my sister. She is babysitting her friend’s baby and he is adorable. I want to see his baby toes. They are so cute! And he loves when I tickle his feet. He cracks up. So funny!

I haven’t worked on the TG paper at all the last few days. I am trying to make it shorter but am finding it hard to do. Plus every time I edit it, I seem to make it longer. I gave a copy to a friend for her opinion on it and to see where I should make the cuts, but I haven’t heard back from her. I probably will tomorrow. Least I hope so. But it’s not like I am in a rush. I still have a few weeks to work on it. I have taken the blog down and placed it as private so no one can read it. It will be available whenever it gets published on the suicide blog.

It’s really hot in the house, even hotter outside today. I still have time to walk to the post office before they close, but my ankle is bothering me so not sure I would be able to walk that far. It’s like three, maybe four, blocks to the post office. I really want to get this errand done today but not sure the pain afterwards is going to be worth it. I just took another pain pill so maybe if it settles down, I will go. I hate walking in the heat though. And it will be silly to take my sister’s car for such a short distance. Maybe the walk will wake me up a little more, though I am debating making coffee. Thing is, I don’t want to be up all night if I drink it now, though I usually have my mocha, latte, or coffee at this hour at Starbucks so I don’t know why I am so finicky. I will make the coffee and then go to the post office. Sounds like a plan to me! But so much for this being a rest day if I go out. I did rest most of the day and being out for 30 mins isn’t wasting the entire day, right? Right.

Foot and ankle hurting

by Midnight Demon, posted in blogging, chronic physical pain

Foot and ankle hurting

I really wanted to get out of the house today, but my ankle and foot were really hurting me today. I woke up in pain, took some meds and fell back to sleep. My back was also hurting, which it never does so I hope I didn’t over do it on Monday going for that long walk. So I just decided after therapy I was going to stay in and go back to sleep. Trouble was, I couldn’t friggin sleep. Brain was on high power and I couldn’t shut it down. Didn’t help that voices were ramped up. They were curious on what I was talking about with my therapist.

I talked to my therapist about my diagnosis. She said that I could be either Bipolar II or III. Great. More confusion of what my diagnosis is. But she doesn’t have the latest DSM and neither do I. I usually buy one just to keep abreast of the diagnostic criteria for certain disorders but this time I am not going to buy one because, I can’t afford it. It’s like 80 bucks or more. I haven’t even looked at the price on amazon. Nor do I want to.

I am glad I didn’t go out today as it is hot out. I didn’t have coffee today. I just didn’t feel like making it. Besides, I thought I would be going to Starbucks later in the afternoon. I suppose I could have left the house and gone to the post office. That wouldn’t have been too strenuous. I need to send my book to my editor as a thank you. I will try and do it tomorrow when I go out and meet my friend for coffee. I haven’t seen my friend in a couple of years now, though we usually just keep in touch via email. I am really looking forward to meeting her.

I have been feeling frustrated lately. I can’t seem to get it out of my head just how suicidal I was a month ago. I was reading my journal and there was no indication in what I was writing that I was suicidal until the 21st of July. Then things went from bad to worse. I still feel out of it at times. And the fact that I stayed so long in the hospital was a bit frustrating because nothing got done while I was there. I still felt like my needs weren’t attended to. No wonder people often attempt after a hospitalization. They feel hopeless when they get admitted and still continue to feel that way after they get discharged. My therapist has a packet of letters of my admission. She is going through them slowly but surely. It documents my stay and the treatment or lack there of, that I received. Even when I told them I was experiencing PTSD symptoms, all they told me to do was to take deep breaths. Not helpful.

I still don’t know how I am alive today. I am beyond amazed. But yet most people don’t realize just how suicidal I can be. And it doesn’t take much to get pushed in that direction. I don’t know if I am suicidal now but I know that it wouldn’t take much for me to do something. Today my niece called me a woman and I wanted to say something but I held back. No need to confuse her. I don’t ever think I will be called a man.

I slept pretty good last night, even though I still had some weird dreams. But I feel so tired right now I could fall right asleep. My brain is shutting down for some reason. Maybe the pain meds are finally hitting me. I am in a lot of pain and I have noticed that when I am, I can’t think straight. It’s like I go into another dimension or something. Maybe I just dissociate because I am hurting too much. I have done that more than a few times. Sometimes, when the pain is this bad, I will think my ankle is someone else’s, that it doesn’t belong to me. Pain changes you and no one knows it because they don’t see it. Sure, expensive tests will reveal the damage (fMRI’s can detect these changes) but not everyone can afford them. Doctors won’t order the tests because these changes that are seen, are seen through research only and don’t really have clinical value, meaning even if revealed, won’t change a clinical course for the patient. It is just so frustrating to live in chronic pain all the time. But I just take what works for me and hope that tomorrow I can go out to meet my friend. It is going to be an early day for me but that is ok. I have no plans for the afternoon, aside from writing my blog.

Mockingbird won’t sing

by Midnight Demon, posted in bipolar, blogging, chronic physical pain, depression, mood disorders, suicidality, writing

Mockingbird won’t sing

I spoke to my therapist about my pw protected blog. It is about my coming out as a transgender. She liked it and recommended that I send it to my psychiatrist. I have no intention of doing so because I just think it will be a waste of my pdoc’s time. I know she enjoys my writing but sending her something she already knows seems redundant to me. We had already discussed this (TG issues) when I saw her last. I took down the blog but have it saved in my trash bin, should I decide to send it out again.

After my session, I was a little hyper. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I did some journaling and that seemed to calm me down some. I think I drank too much coffee. LOL It is weird that on days that I don’t have coffee I can function fairly well but am not as productive and on days that I do have coffee, I am more productive and can think a little more clearly.

I just had my lunch, a bowl of cereal. I really wanted a bacon sandwich but I am trying to lower my salt intake. Plus it was cinnamon toast crunch and I know cinnamon has some health value.

I seemed to have done something to my right hip between changing my sheets on Sunday and walking yesterday. I took a trip to the basement to freeze some bread as our freezer was full and by the time I got there, my hip and sciatica was acting up. I was having pains in the buttock going down my leg. Soon as I rested it went away. I want to do another walk tomorrow, the same distance I did yesterday. I need to try and do more exercise but I also don’t want to hurt myself in the process. I am going to try stretching those muscles to see if that eases the pain. It might just need a gentle stretch as I am out of shape. I haven’t walked long distances in over two years. I wish there was a Starbucks I could walk to but there isn’t. There is no way I can walk to my Starbucks place in the square. That will be my goal one day but not off the bat. It still depresses me that I can’t walk far without pain. I used to be able to walk anywhere I wanted to. Now I am so limited that even a walk more than a few blocks hurts me. But if I don’t test my limits and move past them, I am never going to know what I can and can’t do. I want to be more mobile but not to be in pain all the time. I am NOT willing for that to be the price I pay for increased mobility. And I know it will take time. Maybe walking halfway and back is what I need to do until I can do the 1.2 miles again.

I have titled this “Mockingbird won’t sing” because it was the song that I was listening to when I started my blog. It is a song by Rob Thomas. It reminded me of the time when my therapist and I were not on the same page. No matter what we tried, we just were batting heads. I wasn’t making much progress in what was being said. I felt like I was at a stand still and was doubting whether I should stay with my therapist. That was when we decided on consultation, and even then we had different opinions on what kind of consult we needed. She wanted me to see a DID (dissociative Identity Disorder) specialist and I wanted to see a suicidologist. We ended up seeing both, though not at the same time.

I got nothing but bullshit from the DID specialist. She denied my hallucinations, called them “parts of self”. If they were parts of me, why did they respond so well to medication?? I felt like I was back in the old ward of the Trauma unit of the hospital I was just discharged, where they wanted me to name my feelings and “talk with them”. This person had some pretty eclectic ideas about how trauma works. But I guess she got the idea from Europe and brought it over to the States, where it didn’t catch on. And the reason for that is because DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) takes precedence. My therapist did like her style and I hated it. I still think it is a crock, though, I will admit, there are some merits to what she was saying. I don’t remember them now but I remember the specialist’s papers were interesting.

The suicidologist was more my type. He was analytical, complete with a couch in his office. We had a few sessions but I found that transference (my feelings toward him) was getting in the way of our therapy so I stopped going. He is still available to me should I need him again. Unfortunately, he doesn’t accept my insurance so it will be a hefty bill, if I do see him again.