Justed joined the forum

After doing a Google search I found this forum. I've been looking for a local support group but haven't had any luck. I don't have family close by so no support system in place. I'm being treated for CP due to arthritis in left hip, left shoulder and both knees. Up to recently I'd had pretty good control of the pain then I apparently torn the meniscus in my left knee. I've spent the last month in so much pain I'm ready to do like the animals do and gnaw off my leg. I'm currently on Robaxin, Vicodin (very limited) and OTC anti-inflammatorys. I have a past history of addiction (prescription pain meds that a doctor in my past doled out like candy) so am very careful of narcotic meds but lately the pain in my left leg has just been totally out of control. I have no medical insurance and not old enough to get Medicare yet (have 2+ yrs to go) and work for myself as a pet sitter ... which means I'm very active in my job. The torn meniscus happened as a result of a very busy Christmas with pet sit clients that live in 2 story homes and I was doing a lot of stairs ... multiple times each visit. Good for weight loss and good for building muscle. Terrible for bad knees and I blew out the left knee. Because money is so tight I've been doing the RICE treatment for the knee but it's not doing any good. And I won't have any extra money to go to the doctor for another 2 weeks (it's a low cost clinic and in order to get the reduced cost you have to pay at the time of the appointment).

I live with 9 kitties and several of them have health issues themselves which keeps me working to provide the care they need. I have a diabetic cat and a hyper-T cat ... the meds for them alone are almost as much as I spend for myself. But they are what keep me going during the bad times and I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have them.

I'm not looking for answers ... just looking for support and others who understand what it's like to be in constant 24/7 pain. Depressed? darned staight ... but it's the CP not anything else (OK .. maybe the crappy dark dreary days!)

       Dear Marci,

       Good morning     My name is Dani and it is very nice to meet you. I am glad you found the Healing Well Community. As you can see it is a great place for knowledge and support. The best part.. well all understand. The ups and the downs. There is never any need to hide what you are feeling or how you are feeling.

     I am terribly sorry to hear about your knee blowing out. How soon do you think you can get in with the clinic? I hope it is soon, all the extra inflammation will do quite a bit of damage until you can get it under control. I know you mentioned money is tight.. but I wonder if you have a university hospital near by? Often times the university hospitals offer sliding scale insurance. You would have to been seen only by doctors within the university... but it might be enough to get you in with a pain management doctor so you only have to come up with co pay.

~~>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_university_hospitals

     Again, it was very nice to meet you. I hope you can find a few moments to rest today.

*hugg*
     dani

Hi Marci and welcome to Healing well. I am glad you found us, this is a great place! I am now a cat lady too..lol I never really was, I didn't dislike them I just preferred dogs and big dogs at that! Well now I have two little girls, one is all black named Cheech and a black and white one named Gizmo. They were both strays (kicked out when they were tiny, from 2 different litters) and my kids found them wandering around town and brought them home.

My sister and I also both take care of numerous strays. This town is full of homeless cats (it's so sad). We even built a couple of cat houses on our front porch, insulated with blankets and all. So we have 2 fulltime strays that live on our porch, plus we feed a whole bunch of others! So my kids now call me the cat lady!

Anyway, once again welcome to the family. I hope you keep coming back...take care.

"Maybe try some aspercream or a topical cream and massage it in.
Sometimes my heating pad helps better than a cold pack."

I found some liniment (Max Freeze) that has been really helpful and use it several times a day. And when I'm here in my office working at the computer I use a heating pad which is also very good.

"I currently have 3 kitties, Chartreux is a cat breed, and by chance I adopted
one from (Hope) which I think is a Chartreux. It's a pretty cat breed.
I also have a black kitty (never had a bad black kitty, I've owned 3 black)
and adopted a snowshoe from the local animal shelter. all boys, my lil
boy toys..hahaha..."

The Chartreux breed is absolutely gorgeous as are the Snowshoes. Years ago before I started doing feral rescue I bred and showed Balinese. Then as my Bali's dwindled in number I started doing the feral rescue. One all these kitties are gone I'd like to again have Siamese or Bali's ... yup, I'm one of those strange cat ladies who love the gutteral Oriental voice. My kitties are my babies and they are spoiled beyond belief. It's really them that own the house ... they just let me live her and play servent to them.

Marci & the Camp Happy Cat gang