Re: Is there anyone who can still work?

From: Rita Steele (steelerita@yahoo.com)
Fri Dec 6 21:10:11 2002


Mary Lou, I really empathize with you. I am being forced back to work because my employer sent me to an indepent panel of Drs. & they decided nothing was wrong with me despite me being in severe pain. I was on long term disability for a year & I had to fight every month to get my check after working for the same employer for 21 years! I had surgery on 7/29/02 after going thru numerous unecessary tests & over 15 Drs. in the time since I had my gall bladder removed on 3/22/00. This surgery did NOT relieve my pain but it did prove that I wasn't crazy as so many Drs. insinuated. I had dense adhesions adherring my pancreas, colon, duodenum, etc. to my liver. The surgeon used Seprafilm but this did not help. I am mentally & physically exhausted & don't know how I will make it thru an hour at work let alone a day. My job is physically & mentally demanding with strict deadlines. I worked for 15 months after my first surgery until the combination of the pain & work related stress almost drove me crazy. I wish I could give you a glimmer of hope, but I am still looking for some myself. I was put on oxycodone but it made me sick to my stomach. I can not sleep at night, either. The pain seems to accelerate when I lay down. I wish you luck in your quest for pain relief. Take Care, Rita in Az

Mary Lou <klischma@plu.edu> wrote:Dear fellow adhesion sufferers, I have not posted to this message board since last March because so many things happened. First of all, I took a leave of absence from my teaching job to fly across the country to take care of my dying mother. 42 days 24 hours a day, with some help from others but not enough. I pushed myself too hard, running on adrenaline, and when it was all over and I returned home, I had to pack up our house. Now I am in complete physical misery. My husband daughter and I moved this summer from a place we had lived 16 years, to San Jose, one of the most expensive cities on earth. I took a job, but the adhesion pain was so intense I had to resign after 3 days. Please if there is anyoone out there who can still go to work 40 hours a week, hide their pain from others, do their job competantly, please respond. I have tried all the things mentioned except oxycontin of MS contin. Those of you who take that, are you clear headed enough to work? I am now on celexa for depression, amytripteline at night, and also Clonazapam twice a day. I sleep a lot, fitfully, I cannot find a posture or comfort. I definitely have to get off the clonazapam in order to focus if I ever get a job. THe latest is I went to a pain clinic, where they took me off vioxx (for arthritis) because of some new published risk of stroke or heart attack from vioxx. So now my joints are screaming in pain as well as the adhesions.Sorry to be so detailed, but I am desperate for suggestions and help. One thing I found of benefit is water exercises in a pool that is heated to at least 91. I am going to a pool at the Easter Seals. It is expensive but worth it. Back to the oxycontin. I am very sensitive to anything with codeine--those kinds of meds make me very dizzy, in fact intolerably dizzy. Is oxycontin a codene-based med? Please someone write back to me, even if to say there is not hope for us to "have a pain-free day"> Thanks. Mary LOu

--
Mary Lou (desperate)

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