According to the NIMH depression affects over 21 million adults and adolescents in the United States and is the leading cause for people age 15-44 to be “disabled.” Oddly enough, New Jersey has the third lowest incidence of depression when broken down by state (I have lived here all my life and find that […]
Read More »It happened again- poor treatment in the emergency room. But, this time I am doing something about it because I am fed up with being treated like a drug addict, or a “crazy person” just because of the medications I HAVE TO take in order to move, or the incorrect diagnosis codes that are in […]
Read More »t When you are living with CHRONIC PAIN, it is vitally important to try to have a sense of HUMOR about your situation. I live with pain and I know that it is no laughing matter, and this is not intended to make light of a difficult situation, but I have also learned that if […]
Read More »Part of my gym membership includes two personal training sessions with the handsome trainer at the gym who seemed nice…until he tortured me for half an hour, that is. I recently took advantage of one of my sessions with the trainer, whom I had spoken to on several occasions while working out. He had given […]
Read More »When you are living with chronic pain, there are many days when you wake up and think: “Today is going to be one of those days.” You know the day: you wake up feeling anxious, annoyed, cranky…the kind of day where you feel like if you have to answer one more question from anyone, you […]
Read More »Coco as a Baby! “A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a […]
Read More »This is a guest post by Cassandra Russom relating chronic pain to a traumatic experience and how fighting chronic pain can lead to a type of “Survivor’s Guilt.” Survivor’s Guilt. Wikipedia says, “Survivor, survivor’s, or survivors guilt or syndrome is a mental condition that occurs when a person perceives themselves to have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did […]
Read More »In keeping with the topic of theories about chronic pain, I would like to present “The Flip Flop Theory,” written by Cassandra Russom. This theory is geared a little more toward how to HANDLE pain ourselves, as opposed to explain it to others, but the more we educate ourselves and the better we understand hot […]
Read More »What can you do when your doctor won’t look past a previous diagnosis? This is ESPECIALLY common (and sometimes detrimental) in cases of diagnoses involving mental illness or emotional distress, like Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Somataform Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia. This can be frustrating because a patient may have their concerns of pain passed off […]
Read More »Written with Cassandra Russom In a moment of frustration I posted this on my Facebook page dedicated to Chronic Pain, Tracy Rydzy- Oh What a Pain: Sometimes I wonder, when something comes up that is difficult to accept or hurtful or upsetting because of living with chronic pain, do people try to be jerks about […]
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In the past 2 years I have had the misfortune of dealing with doctors who have left me feeling like a drug addict trying to get my fix due to the stigma attached to taking opioids for pain. I have felt the judgment, been grilled by pain management doctors about my behavior and use […]
“Thank You.” Why is that so hard to say? Why is a compliment so hard to accept? I have never been great at taking a compliment, but since my surgeries, I am even less able to simply say, “Thank you.” I have difficulty taking credit for my accomplishments and yet find it astonishingly easy to […]
