Advice on dealing with pain?

[balsamandash]

So -- people who have issues with pain; what do you do to get yourself through bad pain periods? Particularly when you have work/physically demanding responsibilities that you can't skip or put off until pain is gone?

I have chronic/reoccuring pain of some kind in... practically every part of my body -- feet, legs, back, stomach, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, jaw, temples, headaches, wow this list is worse than I expected when I actually write it out. It's been a particularly bad couple of weeks for it; I'm bad at quantifying pain but I'd say my average for this month is quite a bit worse than my average in general. I work on my feet all nigh, picking up and moving around heavy boxes and then doing repetitive motions that cause pain in my arms even on days there previously wasn't any.

And I am terrible at coping mechanisms or finding things to make the pain better. (Massage generally helps but is not something I have daily access to or anything right now. Being warm helps so I'm picking up something long-sleeved I can wear during work to keep myself from getting as chilly, but that only does so much good.)

So if you deal with anything like this, share what works for you? Either for getting through the period of having to do things or ways to help ease the pain after getting home/before leaving/when I happen to have a decent chunk of time? I would really appreciate the advice.

Comments

[untonuggan]

if you are able to go to a doctor and get prescriptions, topical Rx meds that don't alter my mental state and help immensely are Lidocaine patches (which is a nerve blocker) and Voltaren gel (an NSAID gel that doesn't have to go through your gut so that's a plus). Lidocaine used to be ridiculously expensive but in the US they recently came out with a generic. I'm not a dr, discuss with your dr, etc, but. They help me on days when otherwise I would not be able to move.

I have a foam roller that hurts a loooooooot when I use it and so I don't always use it, but it really helps roll out some of the myofascial tension. I'm not sure what the source of your pain is, but it may or may not help and mine was $15 on Amazon for a giant one. Or you can use a tennis ball in a pair of hose or a sock and roll it under your shoulder muscle. OR if you're at work on break, you can kind of massage your shoulder on the corner of a wall. It is one of the less skilled more painful massages I have ever done, but I do it sometimes when my muscles are getting super tight.

How is your set-up not at work? Does the pillow you sleep on exacerbate your pain? Does your bra dig into your shoulder muscles? Do your socks cut off circulation in your ankles? Do you carry a heavy bag or backpack? Do you have lumbar support in your car and chairs at home, if that helps? These things may be more in your control than your work schedule, and if you can change them incrementally it can help lower baseline pain.

I also cope with pain through dark dark humor. Um, but not dark snarky humor can be good too? A lot of the Facebook Meme advice is all "it's all about your attitude" and I want to HULK SMASH that shit, but it helps me feel less sidelined by the Fates if I can laugh about what the fuck is happening. YMMV. (Sometimes these are in the form of "where is my bionic body, is it on backorder, I ordered it ages ago" or "clearly Professor Xavier needs to recruit me already because I obviously have enough genetic mutations, now when does the superpower kick in".)

Distraction is also highly underrated, IMO. I don't know if you can listen to music at work or if that is something that would help you? Or podcasts/podfics? When I had data entry job I would do music, and also bribe myself with how soon I could stretch with my coffee break, and also change the desktop background to something cheering.

anyway sorry for the wall of text. hope some of this helps.

[untonuggan]

I saw something somewhere also maybe on Captain Awkward that was HULK SMASH haikus, and I keep meaning to write HULK SMASH poetry about my pain. when I'm in the ER with my partner (more often than I would like, but less lately) and waiting forever sometimes we take over the white board and write limericks about how much the ER wait sucks or pain sucks or whatever. So, if say composing HULK SMASH poetry in your head is something that would help with distraction or dark humor, that is also an option? IDK. I have a possibly unique sense of humor...