A New Page In My Chronic Pain Journey

Oro Cas Reflects

My name is Oro Cas and I am a chronic pain sufferer. A fifty foot fall in my 20’s, a lightning strike at 40, and 30 years of driving tractor-trailer have taken a toll on my body and nerves. As of my last spine series, I have 3 dead discs, 2 ruptured discs, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and degenerative disc disorder. Needless to say, I am a patient at a pain clinic where over the past two years I have gone from 10mg of Oxycontin once a day to 20mg twice a day.

I’m getting close to a time where there will have to be some major decisions made. Decisions that I dread. Do I have surgery with the hope of better mobility and pain relief? The opinions from two neurosurgeons were no help. One said call me when you’re ready for surgery, the other said you have a 50-50 chance…

View original post 319 more words

Catch 22 Is Alive And Well

By Paula & Oro Cas

pain/ painkiller pills / capsules medicine and text on white background

Catch-22: A dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.

I sit looking at this document wondering how to write about the craptastic Catch-22 that has appeared in my husband’s life. My husband is one of the millions of people who suffer with chronic pain. His journey to where he is today began 35 years ago when he worked for a traveling carnival. While working to repair a ride, the clutch holding the ride’s car opposite the repairmen failed sending the cars around the track. Hubby and two other workers fell 50 feet resulting in multiple fractures and life threatening injuries. Combine those injuries with 30 years of commercial truck driving, a near fatal lightning strike resulting in damage to his nerve sheaths and joints, along with degenerative disk disease, stenosis, scoliosis, and osteoarthritis … We have a perfect storm of chronic pain.

Continue reading “Catch 22 Is Alive And Well” →

Open Letter From A Chronic Pain Sufferer

As Oro’s spouse I watch as he wages war everyday with his chronic pain. There is nothing like the feeling of helplessness when you know you cannot ease the pain of the person you love.

Oro Cas Reflects

This article is copied in its entirety with links to the original site I discovered this post on. I didn’t write this but it is amazing to me how much it mirrors what I have been wanting to say for a long time.

Having chronic pain means many things change, and a lot of the changes are invisible.

Unlike having cancer or being hurt in an accident, most people do not understand chronic pain and its effects, and of those that think they know, many are actually misinformed.

In the spirit of informing those who wish to understand: These are the things that I would like you to understand about me before you judge me.

Please understand that being sick doesn’t mean I’m not still a human being. I have to spend most of my day in considerable pain and exhaustion, and if you visit, sometimes I probably don’t seem…

View original post 1,167 more words