ILX, What's Our Pain Level Today?

Just for people who have some pain stuff. chronic pain came into my life circa 2008-9 with some repetitive stress stuff which evened out a little over time and also as I grew older I increased my capacity for just goin "welp, guess this hurts now" without freaking out. over the years there's been more hand/wrist/back stuff including a completely bizarre "oops, coughed too hard" thing last fall that tweaked my back and had me unable to stand up straight for several months, which was funny it its way because my job involves a lot of standing up straight. (I did find that, at work, after an hour or so upright and moving I'd be much looser; then when I got home from work I got a new PT who's great and we've worked out most of the back stuff over the past year.) I also have dual achilles tendinitis which sucks so bad because I was running for distance before this and now I'm lucky if I can do a slow 5k 2-3x/month. But today's thing is a Mystery Foot Ailment -- and it's not the foot I completely fucked up when I slipped on an old stair in upstate NY last month and kneeplanted on the street in front of God and everybody! It's the other foot, very acute and constant pain seemingly unrelated to the achilles which is at about 4/10 24/7 -- this is along the interior arch and is at "fucking yowch" 6/10. I'm stretching and taking conscientious amounts of NSAIDs and maybe applying a little heat.

Who's with me? Who's in pain?

Played two hours of tennis yesterday, so my ongoing hip/leg issues are about a 7/10, but I should be fine tomorrow.

6/10 in the feet after a bar shift — Crocs have helped, though I hate the way they look. Pain subsides to stiffness after I get home, and I generally feel ok the next morning.

yes I also have a crocs allergy. mornings are so hilarious for me, walking around all stooped over

My insoles have been doing well by me … 4 hours standing on concrete floor on Halloween, my feet did great. … My knees are acting up now, and it’s genetic… so I was expecting it around now.

Trying to get more range of movement back in my neck, constant low-level aching and stooping, tried a Mictimony practitioner and she sorted my much smaller back issues out completely but not the neck, I think I need something a bit more robust.

My wife has a pair of bone coloured crocs with ghibli themed charms and it kinda works for her :)

bookmarking

I pull the heating pad into bed before I have to get up and walk around, and it helps a lot! I heat treat all the sore/cramped/stiff places like my lower back and hips/quads. Bit fan of the heating pad.

well, whatever's going on with this foot is not getting better -- really resentful that I might have to go see a doctor over it, just because my experience with doctors and pain, in middle age, has largely been "what can you do? take some ibuprofen!" and I don't want any painkillers at all -- I have some but I avoid them, I'm kind of in a straight edgeish moment right now -- and plus, I have OTHER health appts (ongoing dental stuff), having to carve out space to get the "who knows? ibuprofen!" treatment is a grim prospect. and yet, as I said before, fuckin' ouch for real

Right Achilles tendonitis 5/10 today which is nice - I was expecting worse due to being on my feet at work a lot on Friday. Right knee (from what turned out to be a hamstring injury) has dropped recently from 8/10 to 3/10 with persistent PT for a year and recently added stretches.

gratefully bookmarked for future advice, love to all

In 2018, I herniated a disc in my neck using kettlebells (I am dumb). I had numbness in a couple of fingers and terrible nerve pain to the point where my entire neck and shoulder would be on fire just walking from my office to my car. PT and drugs did nothing. After a few months I got control of the acute neck pain by getting an injection, but I have continued to have shoulder pain and tightness in my neck. It's manageable; the worst aspect is it interferes a bit with my sleep (can mostly only sleep on one side). It also sucks that basically any core or upper body exercises now cause the pain to become unmanageable. Been back to the doctor for various x-rays and MRIs and they can't really find anything definitive and PT basically makes it worse. Kind of resigned to it at this point.

I find the chronic-ness of chronic pain almost operates outside of numbers. The number gets amplified by the psychic toll of having to push through the pain all the time.

damn pbkr that’s rough. hope you can find a way through it. same for all you other pain-addled ilx0rs

The number gets amplified by the psychic toll of having to push through the pain all the time.

This is so very, very true. All the nice parts with patience and kindness and tolerance get scraped away and what's left is my easy frustration and intolerance. People with chronic pain who are still patient and kind have BEEN THROUGH IT and have attained a higher state imo.

So rough...may the pain ease for all

https://eyalshifroni.com/blog/how-i-healed-my-knees/

Quite interesting blog about pain as psychological, and managing it, from a yoga teacher I like.

I've suffered from mysterious joint pains since the beginning of Autumn. Through summer I was active, going on runs, camping. Then the season changed and bang.

Achey feet and ankles, hips, Elbows, shoulders, even chest. If i carry a basket of shopping round the supermarket, my arms suffer for days. I tried swapping running for swimming, but then I developed a terrible shoulder pain.

Been to the docs and the rheumatoid clinic and they couldn't really figure out what it was, just gave me naproxen and said hopefully it will go away. The naproxen doesn't really do anything though. I've had things like this before, especially seasonally, but it's usually mild and goes away after a few weeks. This is powerful and frustrating

really sorry to hear doglatin! i hope you can get to the bottom of it.

I know it's probably wives tales, but my joints and things do get more achy when it's cold, grey & damp

I'm beat down after two marathon pre-xmas weeks at the bar, back and right leg yelling at me, so I'm spending this week in my recliner.

I get chest & back pains a lot. Sometimes I spend all day in bed. The doctor couldn't find anything after six days in the ICU. I had a breast tumor & biopsy but it was benign.

Re first post in thread: did you get any clarity around mystery foot issue? I've had a Morton's neuroma between the second and third toes of left foot for around 8 years now; have been very slack about getting it treated other than occasional deep tissue massage which calms it vaguely for a few hours but doesn't really touch the sides.

Now have Bupa through my work so recently went through steroid injection process to hopefully reduce inflammation and size but the neuroma is pretty huge at this point and it hasn't really done much. 2025 plan is to have it surgically snipped out. A bit of foot numbness is preferable to the perennial sensation of a sharp item under the skin digging into the toes at all times.

The neuroma does move around a bit and is fairly calm when I'm not on feet a lot, and I've def normalised a level of discomfort over the past decade, but it stops me from running/long walks/cycling/bits of yoga/lunges etc - anything where ball of foot bears weight or pressure.

Welcome to... Thoracic Park

Neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome is no joke. Thankfully it's in my non-dominant side but damn when it rears up it suckkkkks. I definitely want to get off the "tylenol everyday" diet, so I've incorporated new exercises* to alleviate some of the pain. It *seems* to be lessening but I might be deluding myself. Oddly, sleeping seems to be a contributing factor so I've been experimenting with removing pillows and sleeping on different sides.

*weekly swimming, daily chest fly, nerve gliding stretches.

That sucks. That's the one that did in Matt Harvey iirc.

Hope you get some relief!

Re first post in thread: did you get any clarity around mystery foot issue? I've had a Morton's neuroma between the second and third toes of left foot for around 8 years now; have been very slack about getting it treated other than occasional deep tissue massage which calms it vaguely for a few hours but doesn't really touch the sides.

I didn't! and it came and went and then came back with a vengeance, I'm really torn up but I'm also getting better exercise anyway -- my position is "resting isn't helping," I can't take it any more, so I'm back with a running coach. very short walks-with-running-intervals for now. Pain in achilles about 4/10 on the right and quite variable on the left, overall stiffness really intense. The foot is suuuuuper bad this week. It's what it is! is my attitude right now I really can't be letting this stuff get in my way. I'm grateful to have arrived at this mood because over the years I've had some bad times with pain.

I definitely want to get off the "tylenol everyday" diet

because I'm doing Dry January, I'm actually taking generic acetaminophen and loving it... I usually avoid it and take too many ibuprofen which is not as benign as I thought, apparently can be a factor in stomach ulcers

when i got trigeminal neuralgia i was on a many-ibuprofens-a-day streak and my stomach has never hurt so bad in my life. (and i have had innumerable stomach issues and even fully shit my pants on a schoolbus once! this was way worse than that.)

I'm on the last day or so of a cold or sinus flareup or whatever it was*, and everything is pretty much gone but the occasional cough and a headache, but that cough makes my head feel like it is about to bust open. Also, the painful eyelid spasms that I got after a bout of Covid a few months ago are back, and I'm having them about once every five minutes or so.

* not Covid, I tested and it was negative.

lol same! my voice sounds so croaky and awful which is great because i have two jobs and they both require abundant talking