Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Pain Management Aftermath

The pain management program had four more weeks, with different fellow sufferers. A is a comedian, larger than life and with a theatrical way of talking and behaving. M is a fairly withdrawn man, very quiet but when he does speak he's been thinking about it. V is gorgeous, a lovely woman with myriad medical issues, who has led an amazing life.

C had surgery, which has left her in pain and with nerve damage to her foot, she started the program with a tendancy to obey doctors and believe in them having authority. By the time I'd finished, she'd decided that she'd delay the further surgery her surgeon wanted, and was working with our physiotherapists to regain proper function in the foot - and was having significant success there!

The physical side of the program got harder and harder, but kept just below the point where I would begin to flare. At the end, I was doing the hydrotherapy with resistance boots with fins in all directions, and finned water dumbbells. I moved to the weights, and then to free weights, in the dry land physiotherapy.

The other subjects were much the same - oh, different topics for each week, but still the same basic thing.

I finished the program a lot healthier and more functional physically - and exhausted and emotionally drained.

Then we tweaked my medication. I'm still in the 'let's try to get this right' medication adjustment phases, and feeling like utter crap. But the long term benefits should be worth it. Right?

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