Pain Management :S

Today was the introductory session at the pain management clinic I was referred to. I guess I learnt three things from being there...

1. I am very young
2. I’m actually pretty good at pain management and therefore not so much of a failure for going
3. Its best to check which of the medical professionals is which before explaining to the Physio that I don’t hold out much hope for the physio part as apparently most physio's are scared at me and would rather send me for surgery (this resulted in some rather meaningful yet amusing eye contact when she stood up and introduced herself as the physio!)

Having said that the session, while incredibly frustrating at times thanks to a particular man who only wanted to talk about his wife having pain with no diagnosis so why won’t it just go away (if it did you wouldn’t be sitting there because it wouldn’t be a chronic pain condition...!), was actually not too bad. I have a feeling that the group sessions may not be for me as they seem to be looking at the before pain and after pain lifestyle and learning to pace and not get stuck in depression. The depression aspect is a bit of a button pusher for me, apparently I am supposed to be depressed and every medical person I see checks to see if I am and then gets very confused when I’m not to the point that I am beginning to feel guilty about not being depressed!

However what they also offer is one on one appointments with the members of the team that may actually be able to help (so reducing my 12pages of physio exercises to a more manageable programme or dealing with my specific pain problems rather than trying to treat the depression I don’t have).

So I guess I will officially be attending pain management of some kind, now all I need is some kind of support group-I’m just full of demands me! But seriously I did discover that as far as coping with pain goes I’m actually not doing as badly as I thought. I pace myself, set small achievable targets (yay sticker chart!), accept my condition, try not to let it define me, try to stay positive and even (on occasion) ask for help. I guess this means that I’m going to be ok, its ust might be a bumpy ride!