pain

[patsy10]

Is chronic pain one of your significant symptoms?  

[Hope75]

Pain is my main complaint.  Mostly my feet burn like crazy.  It can go up my legs to my knees, knees achy, arms can prickle and elbows hurt.  I have only taken Pamelor, which helps you sleep and helps with the pain.  I put my feet in baths of Epsom salts that sometimes help, but they can really really hurt and test my patience.  It makes me tired/fatigued instantly.  I have really considered narcotics lately.  I'm growing weary of the pain.  I think it is alot of pain too, that I have become accustomed to.  I think that if a healthy person was to "step into my shoes" for a moment, they would ask for narcotics.  I have held out for a couple of years...I hate taking meds and have never had to take heavy painkillers.

[patsy10]

Agree and you're right I just said chronic, not severe.  I live with the pain just as you described.  I don't take anything.  I've just learned to adapt to it.  I can't even remember what it is like to live without pain.

[JackieCalifornia]

The question specifies 'chronic' pain, which can be severe or not.  I think the human body learns at a certain point to ignore pain in order to function, so that what is terrible today may recede to merely awful after a few weeks.  I had chronic intermittent pain when I was younger from another condition, and after a few years, I had learned without thinking about it to separate my conscious self from the pain:  it was a 'thing' that I could look at and think about, but it was not 'me'.  A form of unintentional self-hypnosis, I suppose, but it evolved gradually over years.

The same way I think chronic pain can be filtered by some people over time -- you 'learn to live with it' is one way of saying that.  Adaptation for survival.

However now this little skill doesn't help me in some ways, because I can be in a significant amount of pain and carry on a normal conversation, so drs tend to think I'm just a whiner.

Thus 'severe' pain is in the eye of the sufferer, and after long periods of pain, many of us may simply adapt to survive.  My index finger right now feels like I slammed it in a drawer, but I'm typing anyway and just not thinking about it.

[patsy10]

Interesting poll.  I have read that most people with lyme have severe pain.  I'm surprised to see it at about 50/50.  I'm really glad for those who don't have it.  I didn't have bad pain at first either (except for my eyes).  It took a few months to set in.

[EricaO]

With the change in abx I now have pain that runs up and down my spine, and when I am herxing I have horrible knee joint pain, and chest pain. The knee pain and chest pain are so bad that I am in tears.

I have started doing the elliptical 3x a week and lifting 3lb. dumbbells 3x a week and I have noticed some improvement.

[Stephen898]

Not really pain but feeling achy. Day in day out symptoms would be ringing, stiff neck, facial tingling, achy jaw, and shoulders. Energy can go up and down through out the day.

[wonko]

Yes, but my situation is not the same or as severe as what patsy10 describes.  Thankfully, as I approach my 3rd month of treatment, some of my pain issues are improving.

Not counting joint pain/stiffness, stomach aches, and headaches, the other "everyday" painful symptoms I get include burning sensations in my skin (esp. on my face and forearms), roving pains traveling up and down my arms and legs, and pain behind my eyes.  On bad days, I can have  a very low tolerance for any sort of touch.  Even blankets on my legs or a light tap from a person can be awful.  Thankfully, that extreme sensitivity happens only at my worst and is not a constant daily issue.

Though it was the last to appear (started getting bad  around Sept/Oct '08), my joint pain/stiffness seems to be one of the last symptoms that hasn't really been touched  by my treatment.  If anything, it seems worse than a couple of months ago, as now my knees and ankles have off and on visible swelling that never showed before I began antibiotics.  My ankles, knees, lower back, and hands are the most stiff/painful.

[patsy10]

Yes for me.  I have chronic, unrelenting pain.  It never really goes away.  The worst pain is in my shoulders, hips, upper back and neck.  I have generalized muscle pain as well.  I have just learned to live with it.