Chronic Pain: It is Real!

As an advocate for chronic pain, and with the diagnosis of a herniated disc and bone degenerative disc disease, for several years I have endured chronic pain. During these many years of constant, horrible pain, I have learned some things from suffering with the pain.

People seeking help for their pain from the medical community are often treated as if their pain at all. This is due to a lot of reasons. Some of these reasons are that the physicians are fearful of new government policies, addiction, and basically the lack of wisdom when it comes to treatment. This all too often causes the patient to be under treated for their chronic pain.

Sadly, it's a fact that healthcare professionals abhorrently undertreat chronic pain. All too many patients are needlessly tormented with chronic pain. It also seems as if doctors are cautious about what types of treatment are best for those suffering from constant daily pain.

As in my own case, my doctor recommended surgery. After many 2nd opinions, and after talking to those who had already had the surgery with no decent results, surgery was not an option in my opinion.

Failed back surgery is quite common, and surgery from damages and complications from the first surgery are numerous. I decided against the surgery. My pain would still be there, my mobility probably would be worse than before, so this didn't seem an option for me. It does seem that physicians try to put pressure on you to have surgery to justify their giving prescriptions for long-term narcotic pain therapy.

After attempting physical therapy, steroid injections, NSAIDS, biofeedback, and many different over-the-counter medicines with zero results, I felt powerless. Thankfully, I found a doctor who finally understood the pain I was having, and I am now on a narcotic drug therapy regimen. I don't feel like a drug addict anymore. I finally feel like a human being who is a chronic pain patient. After years of suffering, I know that there are millions of people that are in pain as they read this. There is still some desperately searching for any kind of pain relief.

Those who suffer with chronic pain are discriminated against greatly. I feel that if a person has tried everything to treat their pain, they are entitled to the correct pain medication to alleviate their pain so that they can enjoy a more productive and better quality of life.