Chronic Pain is one of the main symptoms I have. There is not a time that I am not in pain. It varies in intensity and seems to be dependent on my level of activity, the amount of sleep I get, sometimes what I eat, the weather and sometimes it just escalates or decreases in severity for no apparent reason at all.
By September of 1995, over a year before I was compelled to stop working, there was nothing the doctors were able to give me to help ease the pain. I had tried everything short of narcotic based pain killers. We tried anti-spasmodics in the hopes that it would keep the muscles from spasming and help with some of the pain that way. Everything was tried from over the counter pain killers to prescription pain killers and anti-inflammatories. Nothing was helping. I was off work at that time for about 2 months. The pain had escalated to the point it was affecting my mobility in my right leg, hip and foot.
When the pain is really bad it is almost like the leg has difficulty understanding the signals from the brain or something. Anyway, by the end of those 2 months I was able to effectively deal with the pain to the point I could resume working. By October 1996, I could barely walk and when I had to I could walk about 20 feet before the pain increased to the point where I had to sit down for a few minutes. The pain would start to ease and I could go another 20 feet or so. The times I was required to walk from the office to the back of the warehouse - it would take me upwards of 20 minutes to get there. The company's unit was only 6000 sq ft total.
I have pain every day in every part of my body. If I sit in a chair for more than about 15 to 20 minutes the increasing pain demands that I stand and move around a bit. The pain will start to ease but if I stand or walk around too much the pain starts to increase again. I have had a lazy boy chair and an executive office chair specially modified in height and padding to accommodate my body and these are the only chairs I can sit in for longer periods of time, but again, the longer period of time is no more than about 45 minutes. My bed I have had adjusted to a height I can more easily get in and out of it. The mattress has a combination of padding materials which allow me to stay in bed for about 4 to 6 hours at night before increasing pain wakes me and I must move. On a good day, I wake up feeling like I have been hit by a truck. The bad days are worse.
In January 1997, after months of going to dentists because it felt like every tooth in my head was abscessed, I decided to have them all taken out. It was a somewhat dramatic move I admit .... but, if I don't put my dentures in, my mouth is the only part of my body that does not hurt. On bad days, even my skin hurts to the point it causes increased pain to wear clothes. On bad days my skin is so sensitive that I cannot wash my face let alone shave, even a gentle breeze causes even my hair to hurt.
Intimacy is almost totally out of the question. If someone gives me a hug the pain will instantly increase with the contact to the point I am almost in tears. Part of the reason I stopped going to massage therapy was because I was in agony during the entire session. Shaking hands has all but been eliminated unless it is unavoidable. But if its a mans hand I shake... chances are it will almost bring tears to my eyes and I will be able to feel the increased pain in the hand for hours and sometimes days. Writing, even with a pen designed for arthritic patients, is also extremely painful. Typing I am able to do for a longer period of time but again, the pain will slowly increase until I am compelled to stop. It is sometimes a toss up on which symptom is going to affect my hands first - the increased pain or the increasing stiffness or the onset of muscle spasms.
As you probably read elsewhere here, in February 2000 I started taking MSM which has helped ease the "head to toe", "hurts to wear clothes" pain. As it eased I noticed more of the "ow, my shoulder" and "ow, my knee" arthritic type pains. The rheumatologist prescribed some Vioxx. When the MSM is effectively controlling the all over pain, the Vioxx does ease the individual area specific pains. But if I am going through a "bad spot" ... the Vioxx doesn't do nothing at all for the pain.
