Hi again! Well it’s been a few days since my last post but I needed to take a bit of a break! The last week or two have been getting tougher to manage and it’s probably because things are so crazy around my house. The added stress hasn’t been easy as of late, and to make matters worse the last few days have been filled with even more stress. Not only is my basement torn apart due to the flood that we had, but my youngest daughter has been really sick. Two doctors and an emergency room visit and she’s finally on the road to recovery!

After a week my daughters cold started getting a lot worse. With her pediatrician being away I took her to a walk-in clinic where two doctors told her she was ok and sent us on our way. I knew full well though that she wasn’t and that she needed to be on antibiotics. It wasn’t until I got her to emergency that the doctor told me that she had a ragging secondary ear infection. After spending several hours at the hospital we were on our way with the medicine she needed. One day later and you can already tell she’s feeling better! This brings me to what I wanted to talk about with today’s post. Like what happened with my daughter, the same happens to people suffering from CRPS or chronic pain. To often sufferers are told there’s nothing wrong,  and that there’s nothing that can be done about their pain.

If you ask someone who suffers from CRPS about their diagnosis, most would say that they’ve had some sort of trouble getting a doctor to take them seriously when it comes to trying to get to the route of their pain. The phrase “it’s all in your head” is all to common for most of us who deal with chronic pain. Half the battle is trying to find someone who knows something about chronic pain, and if they don’t caring enough to put you in touch with someone who does. That can be very difficult and time is against you when your dealing with CRPS. It’s getting better and chronic pain more doctors are learning how to diagnose and treat chronic pain but there is still a long way to go.

It’s frustrating when I think back to the number of doctors I had to visit in order to get to someone who could diagnose me. It shouldn’t have taken me flying to another city half way across the country to get my diagnosis, when the ultimately the doctor I had to see was right here in my city. I don’t want to come across negatively but this is what happens all to often and this is what has to change. What I’m pleased with is that over the last few years this has really started to improve and early diagnosis seems to be getting better.

The message I’m really trying to convey in all of this is don’t let someone tell you your pain isn’t real! Keep knocking on doors until you find someone who’s going to listen and help you. There are lots of great doctors out there that do know and care about those of us dealing with all of our chronic pain. It’s just like this latest scenario with my daughter, I kept going back until someone would listen and final I found that one doctor that would. Don’t give up and stay positive!