Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!ox.com!yale!bunker!wtm
From: jqtaylor@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (John Taylor)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: A Pain in the Neck
Message-ID: <15407@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 5 Nov 90 15:32:53 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: jqtaylor@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (John Taylor)
Distribution: misc
Organization: Hewlett Packard - Boise, ID
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Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 11505

One has to begin somewhere, and I feel I am among friends.
I have just joined the Net today, and this is my first attempt
at vi, notes, &tc.

I have had chronic pain since a C-spine injury in 1972.
I take the usual plethora of Rx for the pain, and I don't have
to describe to most of you how 19 years of chronic pain can
affect everything in one's life: marriage, children, divorce.
I'm always "right on the edge," so to speak. Don't get me wrong;
I do have good days. About 10% of the time it's unbearable (1500mg
codeine & 50 mg diazepam a day), 80% of the time I'm in mild
discomfort, and the remaining 10% of the time I feel great.
As an aside, I think the psychological aspect of being occasionally
able to be "normal" is the hardest thing for me (and others who
know me) to deal with.

No doctor has really been able to say, "You have blah blah blah
wrong with you" but from all my research, and since I am the one
who deals with it, it seems to me I have a disk problem, maybe
in C1 or C2 (I occasionally lose feeling in my fingers in the right
hand). Other symptoms: pain always in right jaw (near TMJ but the
joint itself has been ruled out), some loss of hearing (ringing)
when in severe pain, pain episodes occur after chewing, talking,
and most interestingly enough (to me), before stormy weather, i.e.,
when the barometer is falling rapidly.

What I'd really like is two things: 

1) Being new to this Notes beast, could you give me some pointers
toward other areas within notes where I might find relevant
information. Remember, I'm just a beginner (oh, yes, I know what
a :*] is -- something I did a whole lot more of before 1972, but
I digress...), so bear with me while I learn to master this Net.

2) Maybe this note could be continued by others who deal with
lives that are "normal" to the extent that it allows them to
let their mind's aspirations write checks that the body cannot
always cash, i.e., the emotional aspects of living with pain
that may come at any moment.

Thank you for listening. I go home now. Ciao!

                             -- In essence, JQT