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A Lesson For Us

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Chronic Pain
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Posted 3/13/2015 1:41 AM (GMT 0)
Howdie All,

For the past 4-6 months, I've been having pain behind my left eye, across the left side of my face, as well as dizziness and major fatigue.

I assumed that the above was just due to my cervical scoliosis. I have pain through the left upper back, left arm, and left side of my neck. I also go through bouts of cervical vertigo once in a while. So, with pain through the left side of my face, I figured it all had the same cause.

After months of suffering, I finally decided to see my GP, and explore the possibility that these new symptoms were caused by something else. We discussed a range of possibilities and decided to explore the easiest to treat -- a sinus infection.

He prescribed a course of Augmentin, and within a couple of days, the eye pressure significantly diminished, as did the face pain, dizziness and fatigue. A few more days, and they were all gone!

So, while all my long-standing pain issues remain, those that cropped up in late 2014 have now gone away -- a simple sinus infection!

I see this as a good lesson for all of us. Given the overwhelming impact of CP on our lives, we may readily assume other symptoms (especially if they are contiguous with existing CP issues) have the same cause.

As a result, we may not discuss the symptoms with our GP our pursue other possible causes and treatments. While it may not often be the case that there is some easy fix to a new problem, the possibility shouldn't be ignored.

Something to keep in mind.
Posted 3/13/2015 7:17 AM (GMT 0)
Since Cogito took the opportunity to tell the positive reasons for not ignoring pain of a new or different nature I'm going to give you the horse of a different color reason.

As Cpers and unfortunately a class of folks who have had to learn to desensitize ourselves to pain,distract ourselves from pain,and grown accustomed to living side by side with pain we have tendencies to rationalize all pain. Add into that mix that we for the most part use strong pain medications of various natures designed not to be specific but target pain in a general sense.

Cogito has a wonderful outcome by the Grace of God for making an assumption that the new pain was related to the old cause but over the years I sadly have seen the opposite of this scenario...

Ignoring new symptoms or even exaggerated old ones can be dangerous!! Keeping in mind our defense mechanisms,the meds we are on,pain gets downplayed in our lives as much as possible and we can end up ignoring our body's natural response to something very wrong.

Prime example is Cogito could have been experiencing TIAs leading up to a major stroke,similiar symptoms of which he has described,many cardiac patients give those very same symptoms right before a major cardiac arrest. Remember our meds are going to remove the pain factor to some degree.

Women who suffer cardiac issues never report chest pain of any kind but rather back pain,neck pain and facial pain sometimes with arm and shoulder numbness and tingling. See how those symptoms can get blurred with our diagnosis and add to that the pain can be dulled,tuned down,even masked by our meds.

Although he's suffered far longer than necessary his assumptions could have had a very different outcome since long-term sinus infection can lead to encephalitis,meningitis and damage to the nasal septum and sinus cavities.

Myself,Susie,a few other of our folks with medical background are those usually saying to newcomers and oldtimers to get it checked out!! This is our reason.

Flip side to the coin and Cogito I'm glad to hear your better and this was nothing more.

Just remember to be safe,we don't interpret pain as our non-cp brothers,our meds have a tendency to diminish all pain and doesn't just target your specific issues,if it's new,different,continues longer than it should or just doesn't feel right? CHECK IT OUT
Posted 3/13/2015 11:58 AM (GMT 0)
yep. thought i had indigestion symptoms, bad, doc refered me to gastro. in the end i was having NSTEMi and then had a double by-pass. don't muck about with new pain.
Posted 3/13/2015 12:33 PM (GMT 0)
I walked on a leg with two broken bones for two months; it was nearly healed by the time I saw a doctor. It had to be re-broken and set straight. It's so hard not to push new pain into the same hidden place as we put the chronic pain.
Posted 3/13/2015 4:49 PM (GMT 0)
Not only do we patients ignore new pain and symptoms, but so do our regular, and even ER or new doctors!

My ENT has missed my sinus infections several times and they have been found by CT from other doctors, a couple of times by a neurologist, where I was sent for my headaches. I see my PCP for sinus now. My last infection caused dizziness and antibiotics from the PCP fixed that up too.

I was told by 3 doctors my chest pain was just from being out of shape, and had a heart attack a few weeks later. (To give credit, the attack was triggered by a food intolerance, but the clogged artery should have been diagnosed.)

My gastro doc didn't (still doesn't) believe my gastric reflux was triggered by food intolerance, but when I tracked it down I got it stopped by avoiding the foods. The cardiologist doesn't believe the tachycardia is from food either. My allergist does though! (I made myself sick this morning from eating Rice Chex. Didn't read the label carefully enough. Molasses = tachycardia, nausea and diarrhea.)

Trust yourself, and maybe your PCP, if he believes you aren't making things up. Keep a written diary/journal.
Posted 3/13/2015 6:20 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the heads up. Zebras and horses. I'd rather go find out it's something minor than ignore something major. Always good to have a reminder.
Posted 3/13/2015 11:21 PM (GMT 0)
Judy, That sounds like me...I had a bad fall a few years ago, thought I'd just jarred my back a bit and that the pain was mostly due to the central sensitisation issues I get. Two or three weeks of pain later, finally see my doctor ... eight fractured vertebrae (oops!) Am just so used to pushing through pain that it didn't really occur to me to do anything different.
Posted 3/16/2015 9:17 AM (GMT 0)
Hi cogito, glad to hear your symptoms have gone! Also, thank you for respinding to my thread about the pain I have been having. I am going to the doctor today and am going to ask for anti biotics. The thought of this pain finally going and being something so simple as a sinus infection seems like a dream!
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