westerneventsandweddings.com

To my surprise having a hysterectomy didn’t eliminate the pain I was experiencing in my abdomen. It continued viciously, and got worse day by day. For months, I sought specialist at major universities, visited high-profile clinics, had multiple surgeries, tried numerous medications and tests, read every book on the market, joined support groups, became a guinea pig for any new technology or medications and yet I still was in pain.

The most frustrating part for me was that medical science could validate my pain, but they couldn’t resolve it. Doctors came to the conclusion there was not much more they could do for me. So, off I went to a pain clinic where I found continued support through drugs, psychological and physical therapies and numerous people willing to listen to my story.

It wasn’t until the doctors suggested they could establish a morphine pump within my body that would provide me with continual pain medication, which in theory would allow me to function in society, that I finally woke up. I knew in my heart if I had to go to this extreme for relief for my pain I was going to die.

At this point is where I sought out unconventional methods of dealing with my pain. I will share more of those details in other articles, but for the most part I have learned and discovered for myself ways of coping, and in many instants, letting go of the experience of pain. Yes, I’m talking about relinquishing my control. A big issue when it comes to working with pain management.

I’ve come to the conclusion one of the biggest challenges facing a person with chronic pain is how they deal with the issue of control. Pain, by it’s very nature, forces you to relinquish any control you might think you have; it stops you in your tracks, brings you to your knees in tears and presents you with an illusion that you are powerless. People in chronic pain, feel their lives are completely out of control and they usually will stop at nothing to regain any of that control back.

I use this word control lightly, because most people think of it as a negative, but it’s important to establish a positive force in the management of physical pain. A certain amount of control is one of those positive attributes. Feeling in control is vital to our mental and physical health. Studies have shown that people who have a feeling of control will have an increase in their immune systems.

Hospitals now use equipment where by a patient can administer their own pain medication. Having the opportunity to use one these machines I found that I used less medication, my dosages were lower than nurse administered narcotics and I experienced a quicker recovery period.

For most of us controlling our surroundings brings us happiness, but it’s when we insist on the extreme compulsions to bulldoze our way into getting everything any anything we want is when the issue of control takes on the negative. The trick is, like anything else in our lives: to balance! Equal parts of control is good, even necessary.

My own experience in dealing with chronic pain has evolved over time and I will share those experiences in this series. But from what I have observed and learned most about people living in pain they usually are willing to find new and creative ways to cope with it. They tend to establish a level of acceptance that allows them to function with a guaranteed quality in their lives.

This acceptance comes only after they’ve learned to “let go” of some of their control. The point is we require certain amounts of control in our lives, it’s unnatural to leave life up to chance or luck. But it’s when we can give up some of that compulsive control with the premise that just maybe an enabling higher power can steer the boat a bit better than we can, that’s when pain becomes less of a dominating factor in our life.