 UPDATED 6-22-06! UPDATED March 2007  
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Updated 4-5-07
2. Now I only added this one because it's talked about a lot and it's a fact of life that some people lie about being in pain and are in pain management to get pills to sell on the street, that's a sad reality of the times we live in. However a person suffering would never dream of breaking their agreement they signed with their Pain Physicians because they NEED the medicine to get through each and every day, for people in true pain this is not even a thought other then to see it in the news and be saddened that another person was caught doing it, giving the rest of us CP'ers (people in Chronic Pain often call ourselves CP'ers) a bad image. 3. As I said above, I do not get a buzz, the medication goes to the pain and tackles what hurts so I can get through my day. I am not alone in this, most of us do not get buzzed off our meds and because we take meds we do NOT drink-EVER. Drugs and Alcohol do NOT mix PERIOD. 4. While Physical Therapy can help loosen tightened muscles, which can give nerves a rest, it's only a temporary fix. One thing I learned from my Therapist were some good exercises to do to work on loosening my shoulders where most of my pain is located. They can help you pinpoint the locations of your pain just as the Pain Management Doctors can, and the Therapist can use deep tissue massage to help give temporary relief to cramped muscles. While Physical Therapy is nice to have insurance varies on how long of a run it will cover and it's a personal decision in my opinion, as to whether you and your Pain Management Specialist think it could offer you some needed relief. 5. There's more then one kind of pain. There is burning pain, and numbing stinging pain, ringing stinging pain, stabbing sharp pain, dull achey pain, cramping and strained muscle pain feels like having the fibers ripped of the muscles, there are lots of types of pain. I probably have overlooked a few, but I wanted to name the ones I could think of at the moment that I have endured over the years. So there is not just one kind of pain, to that I can attest to. 6. This last myth is one I hope that none of you reading this page believe, it takes a great deal of courage to admit that you're suffering horrible pain. You know it's there when you go to bed, and it's there when you wake up in the middle of the night and it's there when you wake up in the morning. You feel weaker when you're in pain like that, so if you're suffering in silence, please, don't look at yourself as being weak for wanting relief from it. It's out there waiting for you if only you can bring yourself to talk to your Primary Care Physician and ask what they think about referring you to a Pain Specialist. It doesn't make you weak to get injections or to take medications for managing pain levels. It takes courage in my opinion to stand up for yourself and ask your doctor for help. 7. Just because someone doesn't appear to have a disability doesn't mean that they aren't disabled in some unseen way. People can be in excruciating pain and you can't see a thing wrong with them, so don't judge by appearances alone. If a person is walking like they are in pain, odds are they are. People shouldn't be judged because of the pain they feel, it's bad enough they suffer that pain, but that they have to be told by total strangers, "What? You're disabled? But you don't look sick..." or whatever is just wrong. I would hope that anyone reading this page realizes that people can be disabled and not look it, because of how cute my son is, he doesn't look disbled but when you see him you can tell something isn't quite right. There might be little cues to tell you someone is in severe pain, like shuffling their feet as they walk or grimacing when getting up from a seated position. But I'm not here to lecture anyone. I just want to raise awareness about something close to my heart.
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