Pain Management

It was the busy season at work. I was lying very still in my bed, feeling paralyzed, unable to move. The level of pain in every square inch of my body was severe. I was petrified, unable to work, and worried sick about my family, health, and future. In my mind, I reviewed the previous years for what caused this, and what I was going to do for my pain management plan.

It was that day I vowed to:

CHANGE MY LIFE!

Origins and Causes of Pain

The pain I have experienced involves an adventurous life consisting of years of playing football, construction work, and thirty-seven years of oil field work. There have been different types of causes, that have had differant types of answers. For example, physical challenges that involved long hours of work, injuries, smoking, and a poor diet.

Other causes were mental and emotional which involved long periods of high stress to perform at work, very little sleep, and unnecessary worry about life issues. Pain management for me has taken on many methods, some failed, some worked. 

Football injuries at a young age involved numerous concussions, sprained neck, and separated right shoulder. I have a partially torn infraspinatus, subscapularis, and permanent damage to the head of the humerus. As the years passed, severe arthritis developed in my glenoid cavity (shoulder joint). Pain management for my shoulder has been extensive as I’ve been successful in avoiding surgery.

The damage to my lower back involves the lower lumbar (L4) being dislodged (forward) to the point of being unable to walk without severe acute pain. The right knee surgery included removing 50% of the right medial meniscus. This joint has become arthritic and painful.

Mental and Emotional Stress

The mental and emotional stress of our lives and occupations are directly related and contribute to physical pain. Expounding on my personal experience with years of oil field work, extensive travel to several destinations, hours of driving, living in trailers that were not always sanitary, severe weather conditions, and working long hours was Mentally Stressful!

As we raised the kids, spending time away working, and keeping up with tuition, medical, and tax payments over a long period of time was Emotionally Stressful! The constant stress caused my body to finally shut down! It was a major contribution to my issue with Polymyalgia Rheumatica.

PAIN is a signal that something is WRONG!

Chronic Pain Management

She was a young, pleasant doctor, doing her best to help me with my chronic pain management. At that time, my pain level was so high that I had trouble sitting straight up on the patient's table. I was desperate!

I had severe pain in my neck, back, shoulders, arms, and knees. As she listened, she followed her flow chart for different issues and then prescribed the medications.

My blood test showed Rheumatoid arthritis, which was the first diagnosis. She also had me tested for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which revealed that I had a severe case in the right wrist and a moderate case in the left wrist, for which I had surgery. 

Four months later, I was finally meeting with the Rheumatologist. The result was a diagnosis of Polymyalgia Rheumatica. That’s a long-worded definition for (Total Body High-level Pain). 

The cause of Polymyalgia Rheumatica is vague. As I’ve mentioned involved a high level of constant stress, long erratic work hours, lack of sleep, smoking, no exercise, worry, and eating the wrong types of food.

There was more than ONE answer. First and foremost, I quit smoking and drinking sugary soda. Next, my wife and her sister collaborated in changing my diet. Meditating improved my sleep pattern! When I was able to move again, I continued my workouts and started practicing Qi Gong and then Tai Chi.

The Arthritis Foundation has published an e-book that is FREE.

45 Ways to Tame Your Pain 

The Best Methods that worked for me are summarized here:

1 – Quit smoking cigarettes.

2 – Stop drinking sugar-based soda.

3 – Changed my diet. This was a process.

4 – Exercised at least three days a week.

5 – Meditated every day.

6 – Studied performed Qigong and Tai Chi.

As I mentioned the issues were physical, mental, and emotional. There are different ways to create a pain management program. For example, Arthritis is a very serious, debilitating condition.

I retired and changed my life!

During this journey, I retired and developed into an advanced Personal Trainer. My title is Functional Aging Specialist. My passion is to inspire functional movements. Movement is medicine, and yes, motion is lotion. However, my pain management program continues to be managed. On a scale from 1 to 10, with one being comfortable and ten being unbearable, most days for me range from 4 to 7.

No drugs…

While coaching in Alaska, I became part of the Integrative Medicine Team at the Alaska Cancer Treatment Center, teaching cancer patients Qigong and Balance skills. I was honored to give a lecture to all the Physician Assistants in the State of Alaska regarding the Art of Qigong and how it can be useful in pain management.

Mitigating chronic pain with a pain management program has many parts and pieces. Different people have distinctive needs and use various methods. For example, Cancer pain is impossible to describe. I trained an individual that had Cancer of the Optic Nerve. It's impossible for me to describe this level of Pain.

My educational experience has been non-stop, with a six-month internship at the Egoscue Pain Clinic as a Posture Alignment Therapist. In June 2022, I completed my advanced training with the Gray Institute, the leader in Functional Movement, with a Certification in Applied Functional Science.

Contrary to what you may have heard: MOVEMENT is CRITICAL!

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