Ow (again)

[cjsmith]

The pain

just never

ever

ever

STOPS

four Advil

three Aleve

what does it take before it

STOPS

"there's nothing wrong with you," says the doctor

"you're perfectly fine"

wonder if he's ever felt like this

and whether he considered it fine

wonder how much convincing it will take

for him to scoop out my guts

so that all this will

STOP

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you want my doctor's contact info. :/

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll give mine a chance to do something other than switch pills or prescribe Vioxx. If that doesn't work, then I may very well go see yours!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

So I'm out this morning, about the 2.5 mile point, walking along some 40 or so paces before my next run point; and I'm thinking it's about time for CJ to have another of those horribly painful days, and hoping that the recent regular exercise will make it all a little less excruciating.

Are you going to need a couple of days off from the training schedule?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Contrary to oft-quoted opinion, regular exercise has never done a thing for me in that department. Too bad. It'd be good motivation to be fit!

I'll see how things go. If I can climb Half Dome with cramps, I can probably run. (Granted, those were really quite mild as my cramps go.) If you do get a report that says "slacked off" tomorrow, though, you'll know why :-).

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you feel the need to assign yourself some light duty tomorrow, do so. I know the effort you put in yesterday and today. If you do decide to run tomorrow, I'll be duely impressed.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Ask about meclofenamate sodium. It's an NSAID I've been taking for premenstrual pain and for dysmenorrhea for about 3 years, now, and it's been a bit of a lifesaver.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

From http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic3/meclofen_cp.htm

"In controlled clinical trials of patients with dysmenorrhea, meclofenamate sodium 100 mg t.i.d. provided significant reduction in the symptoms associated with dysmenorrhea.

In randomized double-blind crossover trials of meclofenamate sodium 100 mg t.i.d. versus placebo in women with heavy menstrual blood loss (MBL), meclofenamate sodium treatment was usually associated with a reduction in menstrual flow.

In association with this reduction in menstrual blood loss, the duration of menses was decreased by 1 day; tampon/pad usage was decreased by an average of two per day on the 2 days of heaviest flow; and symptoms of dysmenorrhea were significantly reduced."

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Interesting!

I suppose it'd be worth trying that before getting all my parts removed. On the other hand, removing stuff would have other advantages. On the other other hand, surgery is no fun...

Re:

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I think your first move should be to find a new doctor. You need someone who isn't going to be dismissive of your pain.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

To his credit, he does treat my pain as bad and important and worthy of fixing -- he just can't find anything wrong with me, and without finding something wrong with me, I have the impression he really has no idea how to proceed. Unfortunately, neither do I.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, the person who steered me to the meclofenamate was my nurse-practitioner. My physician never mentioned it.

[bklyngirl.livejournal.com]

I was just going to suggest a nurse-practioner. I suffered for years while a doctor (Male, for what it's worth) swore he could find nothing wrong with me & just kept giving me increasingly high doses of pain-killers and muscle-relaxers. He was a good doctor & he had an appropriate amount of sympathy, but deep down I always felt like he didn't really believe or understand how much pain I was in. Finally, a friend steered me to a nurse-practioner who worked with me really hard to find some type of relief. We settled on a combination of a (rather mild) muscle relaxer, major dietary changes, some specific exercises, and some "mental imagery" work. I know it sounds a little "new agey" and goofy, but it actually helped me a lot. I am not totally pain-free by a long shot, but it is definitely managable - and more importantly, at least for me, was finding someone who took me really seriously and made the commitment to working with me.

So this is my rather long way of saying: I strongly second the idea of finding a nurse-practioner (or a dietician or another doctor or a voodoo priestess, if necessary) to work with you to figure out what will work for you individually. Don't feel guilty about dumping your doctor - he may be a wonderful, skilled doctor but he's not helping YOU. I really don't know if it's a male thing or a "doctor" thing but I think he's just not taking you seriously enough and he either just doesn't have the time or he doesn't have the inclination to "think outside the box" which is what you need after all this time. You've been suffering too long!!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly Kathy. CJ, I won't presume to tell you about your relationship with your doctor, but I think Kathy has a point here.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

First of all, big, fat, gentle, ::hugs:: to you.

Ouch.

Now, the pratical advice.

Have you been tested for ovarian cysts or fibroid tumors? My mom had fibroids and they caused her a lot of pain. My cysts can cause me lots of pain as well. I had docs be dismissive with me as well, and I know how infuriating it can be.

One doc I had warned against too much Advil as it can thin the blood which he claimed could prolong the period. Also, be careful with the Advil--I used to take 4-6 at a time, with the occasional 8 dose. Then once, in an effort to ward off a looming migraine I took 10 at once. I ended up very sick to my stomach.

Hope you feel better soon

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the hugs and the feel-better-wishes!

My impression is that either ovarian cysts or fibroid tumors would show up when the doctor goes poking around in there, feeling and squeezing everything. My doc has, at least, been thorough with that type of examination; he seems almost annoyed at himself for not finding anything wrong with me. Is it possible that I have those and the doctor can't feel them?

The one thing he has suggested is endometriosis, which also shows up in a manual examination if it's advanced enough but he was willing to go in with a laparoscope and look around for it just in case. The cure for that one, handily enough, is a hysterectomy. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I have made my stomach feel pretty icky with ibuprofen as well. A six-dose, or enough fours in a row, is too much for me. Unfortunately it's not enough for the pain. As I seem to be showing signs of becoming resistant to naproxen sodium also, I really have to find something other than pain relievers to deal with this.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Have they ever done an ultrasound on you? The first one I ever had was for a fibrod tumor which went away.

Although my periods are not painful, I agree with you and once I either can or can not have #2, I'd be happy to have the pluming removed. The second best thing about being pregnant is NOT having periods!

(The first is the baby!)

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Go stand on the doctor's desk until he does something for you. I hope you feel better soon.

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hugs, Ceej. Go home, drink tea, pet cats, and lounge. That's an order!

(Hope you feel better soon),
Dr. Wen :)

P.S. Red wine helps, too.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Time to find a new (possibly female?) doc. That kind of pain is not normal, and there is most definitely something wrong.

For years after I first started having sex, it hurt. It hurt no matter what position, how much lube, how much foreplay, etc. etc. Most of the docs I saw said, "there's nothing wrong--you must be doing it wrong. Relax. Add more lube..." etc. etc. I came to view the pain as a "normal" part of having sex. Naturally, I didn't want to have intercourse all that often. After I met Akien, he talked to me about this problem, came up with a potential reason for it (wrong as it turned out), and got me to see a new--female--gynecologist. Finally, I was diagnosed with a varicose vein in the back of my vagina. Very rare. Almost never seen in a woman my age (about 25 at the time). Hard to see, because of the stupid position they have you in during exams. And a really good explaination of why it always hurt so damn much. This doc performed surgery on me (twice, because the stitches pulled out the first time!), and removed the offending place. I used to joke that I was the only woman I knew to have had an episiotomy without having a baby to show for it! I won't tell you it was a picnic--it took 1 full year for the incision to heal to the point that it was "only" as painful as it was before the surgery. Two years for it to be a positive benefit. But it was, eventually, a good thing.

Don't take "there's nothing wrong" for an answer. Find another doctor, and get an answer. I'm happy to forward the info on my doc, if you wish (though it would be way out of the way for you, since she's in Berkeley).

*sympathetic hugs*