Lizze and I met with Pain Management at the Cleveland Clinic yesterday. The objective of this appointment was to find ways to help Lizze manage her dibilating chronic pain.
Lizze is living with Fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos and daily migraines.
As anyone dealing with chronic pain will likely tell you, it’s exhausting, and it has a profoundly negative impact on your life. Lizze’s pain impacts every single aspect of her life and has since 2004, when she was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.
Our reason for seeing pain management was to help her better manage her pain and maybe, get some of her life back in the process.
There was a great deal of discussion that occurred during the appointment and her new doctor is really cool. I liked him but most importantly, Lizze likes him and feels comfortable that he’s taking her seriously..
I’m not going to go over everything but I’ll do my best to summarize things.
Basically, Lizze has had Fibromyalgia for so long that there’s not a whole lot we can do to physically reduce the pain. There just isn’t. Essentially, her body overreacts to stimuli and interprets everything to be pain.
The first thing we’re doing is slowly working to reduce and eventually remove her Fibromyalgia related medications because not only has she been on them for so long that he’s sure they aren’t working anymore, but she’s on doses that are physically unsafe and creating health related problems.
Glad you’re happy with the treatment plan going forward. I noticed you mentioned a couple of times when indicating your satisfaction with the doctor that he took Lizze seriously. The implication there is that in the past she hasn’t been, or at least felt like she wasn’t being, taken seriously. Is that the case? And if so, is it because symptoms of “pain” are subjective?
In any event, reducing medications which no longer have any effectiveness sounds like the obvious way to go, particularly when it seems the dosage she is taking is in the “unsafe” level.
Sounds like this appointment might lead her to a better place physically and mentally. All good stuff. Good luck!
All the best to you Lizze, I hope you will start feeling better soon! Big hug!
That all sounds like good news and it’s good that she was taken seriously. Why can’t she go on blood thinner? Also: look into rebounding to help improve her circulation. As a bonus it will also help with her muscle tone and lymph drainage.
It’s because there’s no medical need for it and blood thinners are inherently dangerous. They can justify the risk if you’re at risk of stroke or heart attack. This would be way, way off lable and the same results can be accomplished through exercise and accomplished more safely. Does that make sense? Not sure what rebounding is but if it’s low impact and easy on the joints, it could definitely be an option.
Rebounding is jumping on one of those small trampolines. I started using one about 2 years ago because I have lymphedema and a history of blood clots. It is very low impact and worth looking into. I wonder if a baby aspirin a day would help? That’s what my doctor has me on.
Oh…. Yes, we have one of those trampolines and Lizze enjoys that. I didn’t realize that’s what it was called but I guess it makes sense.. Lol