CherryQueen

Hi everyone! I've been lurking here for a long time, and I finally decided to register, so I just wanted to take the time to introduce myself and tell you my long and probably boring story.

I've had chronic kidney stones (14 so far) and UTI's since I was 15 years old. When I was 21, I had ovarian cysts and have had excruciating chronic pelvic pain ever since. I've moved around a lot and had a lot of different docs, all of whom-- urologists and gyn's both-- would put me on pain medicine for a little while then snatch it away because I was "getting addicted"-- in reality I was just constantly in pain without it. The one GOOD urologist I had who listened to me and allowed me to have the medications that would help retired shortly after he started seeing me. No one would take the time to continue to do tests to get to the bottom of what was going on. In April of last year, I had to quit my job because the pain was so bad. We then moved to Aheville, NC. This past January, I had a staph infection in my urinary tract, for which I was put in the hospital for 7 days, during which time I couldn't eat at all. Even after I left the hospital, I was constantly nauseous. I was still in pain and my doctor would give me 30 Percocet 7.5's every 2 weeks. Then, yet again, he snatched them away suddenly after over 2 months of taking them because I was "addicted" without doing a taper at all. No matter who I told, no one would listen to me when I said how much pain I was in because they couldn't find a cause. Even my husband and my mother stopped listening to me and believeing me. I was horribly depressed, going through monster withdrawals, and in terrible pain. My husband and I nearly seperated. Then we made a return move to Northern Virginia from Asheville because my husband got a new job. I started seeing a new gyn who started me on Toradol, then added Vicodin ES, then bumped me up to Percocet. The Percocet worked beautifully, except that I couldn't sleep through the night: when the meds wore off, the pain woke me. Finally, he did a laparoscopy and found that my uterus was tipped and I had pelvic congestion syndrome-- basically varicose veins in my uterus. Since there are no support hose for your girly parts (lol), the only option for a complete cure is a total hysterectomy, and that's not a sure cure. So he sent me to pain management. My life has started to improve from my first visit with Dr. G, my pain doc. He started me on Oxycontin 20 mgs 2x a day, then bumped me up to 40 mgs 2x a day. We're currently at 40 mgs twice a day and 2 Oxy IR 5mgs every 4 hours as needed for breakthrough pain. FINALLY someone listened, and I'm pain free for the first time in over 5 years. My husband is very remorseful that he didn't believe me (and tried to put me in drug treatement... I tried it for his sake, and it didn't work, because I wasn't addicted, just in pain), and our marriage is stronger and better than ever. Some of my family isn't on board with the treatment because all they hear is "narcotics", not the part where the narcotics don't make loopy or sleepy or "high".... they just make me, ME again for the first time in years. I went to a job interview the other day, and the lady interviewing me said, "Are you always this happy?". UP until recently, I haven't been. I felt like I was standing in the middle of a room full of people, screaming at the top of my lungs, and no one could hear me or wanted to listen. Now, I know I'm not crazy or a junkie, and I'm so happy. I'm working on getting a new job, and I'm finally myself again.

This seems like a really good group and I'm glad to be a part of a group of people who know what I'm going through. Sorry about the novel up there!