Saturday, June 13, 2009

Update on Health Issues

Trigger points are marked by an x, pain refferal is the red pattern.

So a quick update on whats going on with health issues. For the last eight months or so, I've been not sure about whats going on with pretty severe pain in my left breast. It streaks into my armpit and down into my ribs when its bad. We found a lump twice, but both times, it dissolved.

At first we were thinking it was a mastitis, because it feels really similar to that. (Which I was fortunate enough to experience several times while nursing my kids for six and a half years straight!!)

Finally, after several different treatments and exams, I went in for a diagnostic mammogram. Pain is very rarely a symptom of breast cancer, but we just were stumped, so in I went.

The mammograms came out clean, so there are no signs of cancer at all, which is very relieving and exciting. Whatever the source of the pain is, its not cancer.

Now the question comes, is it a trigger point? Is it just soft tissue pain, like I'm experiencing all over my body?

So, since my accident, I've been in a lot of pain, all over my body, and its intensified in the last three months since ski season ended and I'm sort of allowing myself to feel whatever it was I had blocked out all winter long to make it through the three.

I definitely have a personal bias against complaining about how I feel, because I don't hear other people complaining, and I was raised in a very strong SUCK IT UP tradition. However, there are times its appropriate to suck it up (you are three days out in the back country and your blisters hurt, what are you going to do about it? SUCK IT UP and get out. Deal with the owie part of the injury when you get home. And here, I tend to add (in the privacy of the bathroom so no one can hear you.) which may not be the healthiest choice.

But your body knows the difference between good pain and bad pain. And if you are not in a situation where you need to suck it up, you should examine whats going on in your body so that you can help let go of pain you are holding, and work towards health.

So my body hurts, all over, all the time. Exercise makes it much better, massage makes it much better, soaking in hot water makes it leagues better, and eating well helps. Water helps a lot. I have a nest of trigger points all over my body that constantly refer pain down my legs, down my arms, across my back, into my head, everywhere. I have had a headache since October 8.

SO, my massage therapist and some of my teachers at school have looked at these symptoms and are leaning toward a diagnosis of Post Trauma Induced Fibromyalgia. Which doesn't really matter, if it is labeled or not, because there is no cure for Fibro, and it doesn't change my life at all, except maybe for me to focus on the necessity of making SURE I get exercise, massage and soaking in, and that I'm a bit more focused on my food and water because I see the correlation to pain management.

So that's where we are right now. I'll keep you posted if this gets any clearer than mud!

1 comment:

Liat said...

I still think it's a bummer. I'm glad you shared this. I care about you and your pain!