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Avatar universal

Curiosity question

I'm just wondering what people attribute their pain to?  Was it genetics, malpractice, a bad outcome, bad karma, etc?

I seem to have got the short end of the stick genetically in my family.  My mother had extremely bad osteoarthritis starting in her mid-forties.  She suffered for years and years and had it everywhere.  I have had a similar course where I've had arthritis (though minor) since my twenties.  It was bearable then and only flared up once in a while.  But it started getting really bad in my late thirties.  I tend to be prone to gaining weight like she was, too.  (Though I'm finally where I want to be ... at least in clothes.  Bathing suit is another story!)  There's a strong genetic component with the arthritis on both sides of my family for women especially.  My brother and sister so far have escaped the arthritis.  (We also, on my mom's side, tend to go prematurely grey.  I have yet to find one grey hair while both my sister and brother, younger than me, both are totally grey!)

I also feel like part of my pain is due to the fact I had seen an ortho who gave me way too many cortisone injections.  I didn't know any better at the time.  All I knew was my hands felt better and I could diaper the baby, tie hockey skates and do what I needed.  Little did I know, my joints were actually breaking down and I ended up way worse off than I would have been.  Now I have great care and I learned a lot along the way ... to not just blindly agree to things without doing a little research of my own.

I also got caught with the implant I had in my thumb.  Apparently everyone who had this implant put in had to have it taken out.  The manufacturer screwed up somewhere along the line.  I wouldn't be surprised if I get a letter from some lawyer planning a class action suit at some point.)  But because of that, I was left having to try to recreate the joint with other things and ended up with not only having all of that fail but also with the RSD.

The RSD, even though it will never go away, does seem to be able to kept under pretty good control with stellate ganglion blocks.  Hopefully they're not going to find out something bad about them in 10 years.

The other thing that's kind of strange is that I'll never ever give up my Advil (unless I develop a bleed or something.)  Even though it doesn't help my hand pain alone, it does work in conjunction with other meds I take.  And even though I'm on so many strong medicines, if I get a headache, nothing works except for Advil.

When I step out of all my pain and depression surrounding all this, it really is interesting.  When you think about all the differences with people and their chemistry and such.  What works for me might not for you.  I think it's why my family has a hard time with me.  They know I have a diagnosis so they wonder why I can't just be "fixed."  They don't realize that every person is difference and the doctors have to work out the puzzle with every patient they have.

Anyway, just my mind thinking about things today.  I'm taking it easy after having a busy couple of weeks.  Tomorrow I need to start organizing my paperwork and things in general.  
8 Responses
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1187071 tn?1279369698
Mine is malpractice, plain and simple, I had dentist really mess me up, well 3 of them. So all my pain I blame on them and I didn't ask for this to happen to me but it has happen to me. Everytime people ask what happen to me I will say 3 dentist really messed me up. I know of about 8 people that the first dentist has also messed up really bad. So I don't go near her at all. No way!
Jamiew
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Avatar universal
BOTH Genetic and MALPRACTICE!!

I believe that my problems MUST have been genetic but I have NO way of knowing. I was adopted when I was 6 months old in  January, 1947.

My diagnosis of Osteoarthritis in my left Hip happened when I was 28 years old and by the extent of the damage my Doctors estimated that I'd probably had the arthritis since I was at LEAST 15 years old. This was in was in 1974 and the hip implants were relatively knew back then They had me put it off NOT because I was so young but because the hip joints weren't good enough to withstand all of the stress that a young person would be putting on the joint and I would wear them out and have to have it replaced at LEAST 3 times before I was 60 years old.

So I put it off just like they asked and with the help of Tylox was able to last for 7 years until I was 35 years old. When I went in I was using a cane to walk and had been for 3 years. My Doctr did an X-ray right before surgery and it showed that I still had a hip-bone in my hip. When they got in surgically they discovered that the X-ray DIDN'T show EVERYTHING that was present. There was NO hip joint WHAT-SO-EVER. Right here is a PRIME EXAMPLE why you need and MRI to show EVERYTHING that is going on with your Hip, Back, etc. An X-ray DOESN'T show it all.

The hip joint that they put in was so much more SUPERIOR than the one that was available back in 1974 that this one lasted for 26 years! HOWEVER, the terrible drawback to putting OFF the surgery was the way that I had to walk because of the pain I had caused my disc to rupture in my lower back AND the surgery to repair THAT caused the side-effect of Arthritis in my lower back AND DDD. (The Surgeon warned me of the side-effects BEFORE I had the surgery, but I chose it as it was going to be pain EITHER way.)

So, that's why I assume that mine is genetic as I haven't had ANY accident of ANY type and yet wound up with Osteoarthritis at a VERY early age.

The Malpractice comes from the SECOND hip implant. As you've seen me post before, it was put in at a wrong angle and the screw were put in IMPROPERLY and NOW the ENTIRE Hip-Joint is LOOSE!!! My hip POPS in and out of the cup and the pins are rubbing against the veins and arteries, up against the colon AND cutting the MUSCLES with "EVERY step that I take and EVERY movement I make"!! (WOW, that last part ALMOST sounds like a song----LOL).

However, I'm looking forward to PART of my pain being alleviated when I have my hip surgery CORRECTED on September 8!! I can HARDLY WAIT!!

I hope that everyone has a better time and has their pain eased.....Sherry





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1301089 tn?1290666571
My neck and hand problems I believe are genetically linked.  My oldest sister has the exact problems I do in this area.  Also, my father had neck problems.

The adhesions, I don't know.  I've tried to get fellow adhesion patients to answer a few questions about whether anyone else in the family had them, allergies and other things that may indicated a predisposition to adhesions.  No takers.  I do know my sister had them after an appendectomy.  They tied up her fallopian tubes and had to have surgery to be able to conceive her 2 beautiful children.
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Avatar universal
I'm pretty sure my back problems started when I fell at work about 5 & 1/2 years ago. I slipped on the wet tile floor and fell right on my butt in a sitting position. I had severe pain for a few weeks but did not have insurance so I never went to the doctor. The pain for the most part went away until a year ago. I think what set it off was when I put 2 of those big water cooler water bottles on the office cooler. I did it twice in one week and my back was wrecked after that.

So basically from the fall I got a herniated disk and from not taking care of it, 4 years later it turned into arthritis and early DDD. I don't think anyone in my family had back problems. My sister does have back spasms but that's pretty much it. My family has a history of cancer. Mainly breast cancer and pancreatic cancer. Alcoholism also runs in my family but so far I'm the first generation to break that pattern.
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Avatar universal
That's so sad!!  Freak accidents scare me.  (My second daughter, who's now 12, had a freak accident in one of those bouncy things they have at birthday parties.  Her two front (permanent) teeth got caught in the netting and they were totally extracted.  They reimplanted them but she has had a long road with it and still a very long way to go.)

My dad, when he was young, and I was a baby, had an accident like yours.  He was playing something with two of my older cousins, and one of them jumped on his back unexpectedly.  He was never the same.  For years he suffered.  He'd be in and out of work.  Looking back, I can understand why he was cranky at times.  He wasn't very social most of the time and could be very serious.  Part of it was probably his personality but I'm sure a lot of it was chronic pain.

But 16 years after the accident, they did a new surgery (not sure what) and he was like a new man.  It was unbelievable.  He still (at 82) has some flare-ups but he hasn't been in day-to-day pain for the last 30 years.

Maybe something will come up for you.  I guess that's what we can all hope for, that with new developments in treatments and medications, there may be something that will work for us.
Helpful - 0
655875 tn?1295695107
My pain was aquired from a freak accident.  I was playing monster with my children, as I did every night with my husband.  

I was on my hands and knees chasing my daughter as fast as I could down the hallway.  Hubby was planning a surpise attack/scare from the master bedroom.  Well, he did scare her and my daughter screamed, turned around, and ran into me full force as fast as she could straight into my head.  

I heard a crunch in my neck, which resulted in 3 herinated discs with spinal cord compression.  This happened 3 days before our Disney World trip.  My pcp was trying desperatly to talk me out of going just by the xrays.  I went on the trip and didn't realize the extent of the injury until I returned.

Before this happened, I was a very healthly 34 year old and I ran 36 miles a week and raced in triathlons.  I was extremely active and always on the go.  I was loaded with energy and exercise was a big passion of mine.  That's how I came up with the name RunningMom.  

I will never run again.  I can't even hardly walk without going into severe pain.
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Avatar universal
I look at my kids and wonder who will end up with what, if anything.  I had very bad eyes with being nearsighted and a really bad astigmatism.  I had LASIK when I was 38 and it was amazing.  I think genetically the chances of my kids wearing glasses are 75%, as it's the dominant gene.  Only one of my kids needs glasses, and he can get by without them (and usually does; he hates them and he's too young for contacts yet.)

I'm thankful I didn't get the grey hair that my siblings did.  (I do color mine but I'm told not one grey yet :)  My sister refuses to and it ages her a lot.  My brother did an at-home hair color to cover his grey but we all laughed so hard he went back to being grey.  And truthfully, like a lot of men, it looks good and doesn't age him at all.)

I just find the whole thing interesting.  I have very bad alcoholism on my mom's side, but none of the women ever were afflicted but every single one of the men were.  The women (myself included) don't tolerate it well and don't really like the taste.  It just is strange to me and fascinating.  

We were talking the other day about nature vs. nurture on things and my brother thinks it's all nurture.  But he walks and stands exactly like one of my uncles (one that he wasn't around too much.)  I'm sure we all have habits that are the same as someone in our family, even if they aren't around us much.
Helpful - 0
547368 tn?1440541785
Hey Mellie,

Sounds like you are doing some serious thinking and some soul searching. It's good for all of us to reflect now and again.

I have some bad genetics. I inherited the bad knees from every female member on my mother's side. Not one of us have escaped a knee problem, most have required or will require surgery. I have the "best knees" in the female family members and that's not saying a lot.  :)

But for me I can trace 95% of my medical and pain issues back to a very serious non-survivable MVA that I miraculously did survive. Had that loaded dump truck not hit my little red sports car head on I would be a very different woman today. But I wouldn't be as wise and I wouldn't have met all you wonderful ppl. There are blessings hidden in every tragedy.

Indeed as you stated, we are all different. That's what makes us all so interesting and unique. I am thankful for that. Family and friends cannot begin to know what we go through or what our lives are. No one can unless they have been there. So we have to cut them a little slack.

You have a great week. And thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Peace,
~Tuck
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