Home Community Member Stories Panda's Pain Clinic Journal

Panda's Pain Clinic Journal

gads@iprimus.com.au  

August 6, 2001  

Well I have finished the 3rd and final week of the Pain Clinic. I am sad in a way that it has finished but it will also be good to get back into some sort of normal routine. It was great going there, you really felt nurtured, everyone there on the team (physio's etc) were there to look after you. I would like to say I have more control over my pain at the moment but I think I am going through a rough patch. I certainly have other ways to deal with it now and I know I am not alone and I hope I am also a little fitter. My tens machine will be here later in the week and I am hoping that will also help. All in all for anyone thinking of doing a pain clinic it was a very positive experience. I think it is something good to do to help us learn that we are in control of our pain instead of our pain controlling us.

 

July 28, 2001 

Second week is finished, I am feeling a little sad about this as we only have a week to go. In some ways it will be good to get back into a normal routine, but spending time with people who really know how I feel has been great. We had a busy week, hydrotherapy and fitball. The fitball is great don't know if you have heard of them but it is a large ball and following a video you do a lot of stretching and exercises that don't put a lot of strain on the joints. The psych sessions I guess are all about acceptance meditation and living for the moment. We do meditation involving breathing that teaches us this. Occupational therapy this week was relaxation and goal setting. The physio was good stretches, exercises and hands on massage and sort of manipulation. I will give you a final update at the end of next week :(

 

July 22, 2001

Well I have completed my first week of the course. I am really enjoying it although it is exhausting , I am in bed most nights by 8pm! Pain medications are working a little better so with a little more mucking around I think they will work as well as they are going to. I have overdone it this weekend trying to be superwoman so that the house is organized for me to be away from it all week again.
As to the course we have done a lot of meditation, lots of fitball, a little physio and some hydrotherapy. We spend a fair amount of time just talking about ways to cope and sharing ideas. The scariest thing is going to be ending the course, I would like to spend 1 full day a week with these people just to keep me in line.

July 16, 2001
Pain Management Course Day 1

Today was orientation, we met each other and also met with the occupational therapist, physio and psych. There are 5 people in my group, 2 men and 2 other women. They are all a little older than me but the oldest is about 54.They seem like a nice group of people and it was great to meet other people that live their lives with daily pain. The psych seems to think I am normal so that was a relief lol.

Wednesday July 11, 2001  

I have seen the pain doctor another 2 times, we are still mucking around with pain medications.Dont seem to be getting to far at the moment but he said different drugs work on different pain. I am trialing 30mg's of MS Contin at the moment so we will see how it goes. The doctor has taught me 1 or 2 relaxation techniques, one involves the rapid eye movement we use during REM sleep. You use it to desensitise yourself against stressful things for example giving yourself your methotrexate injection. It can also be used to relax the muscle fibres around a sore joint. I start the actual program on Monday so I will keep you updated :).

July 3, 2001  

Time for a short update, I guess this will get more interesting once I start the actual course. Saw the pain doc on Friday he increased the oxycontin to 20mg's twice a day. I am feeling a little disappointed as I am still getting no pain relief. We also talked a lot, I guess he is like a shrink. We talked about my feelings of guilt over my husband doing most of the cleaning and also about how the children frustrate me when they are bickering. He said he will teach me to relieve my stress. Anyway I see him again on Friday and I hope he can do something about the pain relief, I will update this again then.

June 27, 2001

First a little about me: I live in Australia, I am 38 years old married with 2 children, a dog (panda), a cat and a tropical fish tank. I have had Psoriatic Arthritis for about 9 years. It first started in my lower back in my sacroiiliac joints and for the first 6-7 years was diagnosed as undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy or serum negative arthritis. Around 2 and a half years ago my elbows started playing up, they said I had tennis elbow until they operated and surprise surprise it was arthritis. At the same time my ankles started hurting, strangely I get no swelling but that is due to the fact that it is mostly tendon involvement. Around the same time as all this happened I developed a small rash on both feet and some nail pitting. The rheumy just about jumped for joy and changed my diagnosis to Psoriatic Arthritis. I have been on methotrexate for around a year now and although it has helped greatly I still have a lot of pain. Had a pretty rough year, I started zoloft for depression and that helped a lot made me decide to fight this disease not give into it. The logical next step was to look into ways to reduce my pain. I have been using panadeineforte and mersyndol forte with the occasional valium. Needless to say these ended up just like I was popping lollies. Last week I managed to get an appointment at the Wesley Hospital pain clinic in Brisbane. Saw a lovely Doctor there who spent an hour talking to me and reassuring me that my feelings were normal. He wrote me a script for oxycontin 10mg's twice a day, booked me 3 more appointments to see him and then following that I am booked into a 3 week pain management course. Unfortunately the oxycontin has not helped but I see him tomorrow and I think he may increase the dose. The course involves physio, hydrotherapy, counseling and occupational therapy. It also goes into relaxation. The aim of the course is to get you physically as well as possible and on as little medication as you require. I feel I am taking a very positive step by doing this course and I will keep you all updated.