PAIN

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vynsane
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PAIN

Post by vynsane »

okay, seriously, is this the way the rest of my life is going to be??? constant pain in my big toes on each foot if i so much as walk a quarter mile, my right elbow has bothered me since the 2nd day of this month, now my right shoulder is keeping me up at night after all the demolition of my house. at least the knees haven't done that build-up of pain until it's too excruciating to sit still (although, now that i'm going to be back in the office three days a week, that's going to start again due to my legs being JUST a bit too long for the seats on the train to be comfortable...)

seriously. i'll be 34 in two months. at the outside i've got another 70 years ahead of me, if not more due to the supposed advances in medicine that should be coming down the pike. as long as those advances include curing whatever is causing the pains i'm experiencing, awesome. but if i'll be in full health until i'm 140 or whatever but they can't cure the pain for whatever reason, FUCK THAT!
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anarky
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Re: PAIN

Post by anarky »

I thought this was going to start with "____ hit me in the crotch two days ago and my sack is still bruised."

Look on the bright side, vyn. At least you're not Ran.
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Diabolical
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Re: PAIN

Post by Diabolical »

I hear you, man. I've been dealing my own pains for close to half my life thus far.
You have been seeing a doctor about this, right?

I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis around my 17th birthday, which quickly developed into lots of knee problems. Physical therapy, leg braces and nothing says fun like a fluid-swollen knee the size of a grapefruit and having to get those knees drained a few times a year. And the limp had to impress the ladies.
And then there was the similar (but less often) problem with my elbows. And the constant stiffness/soreness in the hands. And the persistent ankle soreness, which can make walking a (literal) pain.

Thankfully, my Rheumatologist has found the medication that works for me. A few years ago I started Remicade, which I had to have a 2 hour IV infusion once every 8 weeks, which worked great...until I started to have reactions to it. That was a little over a year ago, which is when he switched me to Enbrel, taken once a week with an EpiPen auto injection. So far so good with the Enbrel.

I'm still stiff and sore (especially) in the mornings, which passes in an hour or so. The only real problem I have is my occasionally sore left ankle. The only other medication I'm on is Tylenol Arthritis for the pain. I used to be on 800mg Ibuprofen up to 3 times a day (which is like taking 12 Advil a day).
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Rollo Tomassi
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Re: PAIN

Post by Rollo Tomassi »

I wake up with a sore back and stiff knee joints in the morning, but nothing like what you guys have.
My only real problem is that I get seriously winded after about two minutes of any strenuous excercise and my heart is beating like a jackhammer. I know that isn't a good sign for longterm health.
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Re: PAIN

Post by jdr3 »

Vyn, I think it's our generation and the water we grew up with :) Why else do you think I have been out of contact, besides the usual, that I'm not usually good at keeping in contact. I've had some serious health issues (at least I think so) that my doctors can't seem to figure out, and I'm younger than you. They keep telling me that I'm too young for this or that but damn I feel pretty gosh darn old.

Anyway, hope you feel better and that the pain subsides. Gettin' old sucks. I think that's why humans used to die so damn young.
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Ran
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Re: PAIN

Post by Ran »

anarky wrote:I thought this was going to start with "____ hit me in the crotch two days ago and my sack is still bruised."
Me too. And I still get a tear in my eye when I think about when "my daughter hit me in the crotch two years ago" when we were standing in line at Disneyland.
anarky wrote:Look on the bright side, vyn. At least you're not Ran.
For the record, Kidhuman, Mabs, and I were born within about a 3 month span. I believe JJ is a year older than us, but good luck finding him.

I haven't been having as many weird pains lately. My ears have been ringing for about 8 years now, but I'm used to it now. I haven't had any chronic knee pain like I was a few years ago. And the whole tomato-based thing still bugs my stomach on occasion. Other than that, I'm fine.
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mabudon
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Re: PAIN

Post by mabudon »

I think maybe splitting my previously heavily damaged right kneecap was my ticket to lifelong pain, it has been over 3 months and the pain and the damn limp still persist.

So I guess I am saying that pain sucks :ducks:
Vince, NO!!!!!

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anarky
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Re: PAIN

Post by anarky »

Ah, I just picked your name at random, Ran. No offense intended.

I don't so much suffer from pain (aside from occasional migraines and minor arthritis in one knee), but I've got high cholesterol and am probably at high risk of diabetes. And I'm going gray. Sigh.
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vynsane
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Re: PAIN

Post by vynsane »

Diabolical wrote:You have been seeing a doctor about this, right?
i've been to the doc for the toes and knees, as they're more chronic. i have 30% mobility in each big toe due to bone spurs. the knees show signs of pre-arthritic degeneration. i have osteoarthritis in my family, so that's that. the shoulder is very transient, and usually these days occurs when i sleep wrong (in high school it would occur when i swam wrong). i've been sleeping wrong because of the elbow, which is a totally new thing and happened relatively randomly, seemingly without any good reason. the work we've been doing on our house only exacerbates the elbow/shoulder pain.

a friend of my wife was having knee pains and was told to go on a gluten-free diet which has seemed to work really well for her. we're slowly finding gluten-free foods and adding them to our repertoire.

the only medication i'm taking for it is aleve. i'm not ready to go full-on with a prescription this early in my life, though maybe if it works it would be worth it, idk. i could also easily stand to lose about 25lbs. i also have borderline high triglycerides, which might also be helped by gluten-free. the more you look into it, the more you see these things are all inter-related, but medicine has become so specifically targeted that most doctors can't see the forest for the trees.
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anarky
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Re: PAIN

Post by anarky »

Mrs A had gestational diabetes (again). We've both decided that, as soon as we can get onto it (which isn't really a procrastination the way I know it sounds, but it's unrealistic for the next couple of weeks), we're going to go with foods that are as cholesterol and diabetic-friendly as possible. I'd cut out cholesterol almost entirely, but have slowly slid back into them--maybe not as bad as before, but definitely not good.
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vynsane
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Re: PAIN

Post by vynsane »

so, to update - last august we started this new regime of eating (starting with a cleanse that let us only have fruit/veg smoothies for breakfast and dinner, healthy solid food lunch). until the holidays rolled around, we were pretty on-track the entire time, but fell off the wagon recently and are going to do another week-long cleanse to get back on track before reinstating the diet.

BUT, in the interim, we both lost upwards to 25lbs each. it took some time for noticeable change to occur, but the pain in the big toe on my left foot all but vanished, and the one on my right foot is much better than it had been (the right was always worse than the left for whatever reason). it seems to be aggravated by shoes with a higher heel than front - i have a pair of sketchers shoes that straddle the line of casual and dressy that have a very flat sole and they're a lot better for the pain than another pair of shoes i have with a greater incline. they're rather porous, though, and my feet get wet if it's raining, so i only wear them in dry weather. we had rain and snow this week so i had to wear the other shoes with the inclined sole, and my toes hurt, but not nearly as much as they would have last year.

the pain in my knees that seemed to coincide with the change of seasons didn't happen this winter - at all.

i attribute it to both the weight loss and the benefits of de-toxing from the reported build-up that occurs when eating processed foods.
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Diabolical
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Re: PAIN

Post by Diabolical »

Its amazing what changing your diet can do, huh?

Since I've had to go gluten free I've a had a dramatic improvement with my rheumatoid arthritis. I rarely take any pain meds for it anymore. I think I've taken more Tylenol for headaches than joint pain.
I know that one of the many symptoms of a gluten allergy is joint pain and I assumed I didn't have any because of the arthritis, but it now appears that the gluten was exacerbating my condition. This is the best I've felt in many years.

Also, I'm losing weight. It happened rather quickly at first, but has slowed these last couple months. Overall, close to 30 pounds so I think (I've never kept a close eye on my weight). I'm sure it would be more but without the breads/pastas filling you up, you tend to want to snack more.
And I'm sure losing weight is also helping ease my joint pains.

Sure, there are times I REALLY want real pizza or Subway or Taco Bell or even a hamburger bun, but I've been pretty good in sticking with this new diet. The only way I've cheated at it is by eating things that have "trace amounts" of gluten, like the occasion order of fries at McDonalds.
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vynsane
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Re: PAIN

Post by vynsane »

Diabolical wrote:Since I've had to go gluten free I've a had a dramatic improvement with my rheumatoid arthritis. I rarely take any pain meds for it anymore. I think I've taken more Tylenol for headaches than joint pain.
I know that one of the many symptoms of a gluten allergy is joint pain and I assumed I didn't have any because of the arthritis, but it now appears that the gluten was exacerbating my condition. This is the best I've felt in many years.
there are schools of thought that rheumatoid arthritis is caused by/a symptom of gluten allergies, as opposed to the other way around (exacerbated by). the similarities to other joint pain issues stemming from food intake (like gout) are compelling. it's like lactose intolerance - we shouldn't be worrying about that because we shouldn't be ingesting lactose. there isn't a species on the planet that ingests milk later than the most early stages of life - much less drinks the milk of another species all-together.
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Diabolical
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Re: PAIN

Post by Diabolical »

vynsane wrote:
Diabolical wrote:Since I've had to go gluten free I've a had a dramatic improvement with my rheumatoid arthritis. I rarely take any pain meds for it anymore. I think I've taken more Tylenol for headaches than joint pain.
I know that one of the many symptoms of a gluten allergy is joint pain and I assumed I didn't have any because of the arthritis, but it now appears that the gluten was exacerbating my condition. This is the best I've felt in many years.
there are schools of thought that rheumatoid arthritis is caused by/a symptom of gluten allergies, as opposed to the other way around (exacerbated by). the similarities to other joint pain issues stemming from food intake (like gout) are compelling. it's like lactose intolerance - we shouldn't be worrying about that because we shouldn't be ingesting lactose. there isn't a species on the planet that ingests milk later than the most early stages of life - much less drinks the milk of another species all-together.
And that is also the big problem of Celiac disease - it can be very tough to diagnose because it can mimic a large number of other diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, which was something I asked my Rheumatologist: do I actually have RA, or is it a result of Celaic? He said I really do have RA, as they have tested for it specifically, and it came back positive, and that my assumption that the gluten was making my RA worse was probably right.

Until recently, many doctors did not test for Celiac (many still don't) just because knowledge about it is still emerging and most doctors are uninformed/under informed.
I've read that 3% of the population is allergic to gluten and out of those, 97% are undiagnosed. I just happened to get lucky when they found it with me, especially since I was considered a "silent" victim of Celiac (no obvious symptoms or sensitivity).
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anarky
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Re: PAIN

Post by anarky »

Fuck y'all. I'm going to go mix up a big bowl of gluten and lactose and eat the fuck out of that shit.
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