Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with chronicpain

I'm looking for a good pain-relief strain of marijuana.

Evilspork — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:27:50 -0800

I'm looking for a good pain-relief strain of marijuana. After a bunch of trials with prescription drugs (this is ongoing), I've tried your basic cheap type of marijuana. I found that while it helps with my back pain and lets me be more productive, it's more of a head high vs. the body high I'm after. Looking into it more, I'm pretty sure what I'm looking for is an indica strain instead of a sativa. While I've found lists of indica strains, I'm not sure what's popular or that I could get my hands on in a non-dispensary state. What should I be asking for that I have a good chance of finding?

Mind or body? What's up with these symptoms?

sarahgrace — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:43:57 -0800

YANMD, but what could be causing these bizarre health issues in a previously (fairly) healthy twenty-year-old female? Snowflake details inside. For the past eight or nine months, I have been having strange, unexplained symptoms that don't seem to have any particular trigger other than one panic attack in March of this year. I've been to three different doctors since then and had various tests run but no one seems to have any explanation.

First, some quick background details about my health. As I said, I'm 20-years-old and female. I'm 5' 2" and weigh around 135 pounds. I have a history of anxiety disorders and more recently some depression (the depression coinciding with the aforementioned panic attack and these symptoms). The most serious issue I've had with my health is a strange skin rash occurring on and off from around 2007 until 2011 involving flaky skin patches, redness, oozing, scabbing, and itching. This skin disorder was never completely diagnosed and was treated unsuccessfully with steroid cream before disappearing. I suspect psoriasis, but I'm not a dermatologist. I have also had problems with my joints (pain and aches), especially my right knee which partially dislocates every month or so. The only medicine I am on is generic Ortho Tricyclen. I have been a social smoker on and off for a few years.

After my panic attack in March during which I was convinced I was having a heart attack, I have had chronic chest pain on the left side of my chest. It comes and goes but has never stayed gone more than a few weeks. Two days after the panic attack I went to the doctor after getting an inaccurately super high blood pressure reading at Walmart. My blood pressure was checked (during a complete meltdown it was 138/80 or something around there) and I requested an EKG which was normal. The doctor prescribed me a low dosage of Celexa and I went on my way.

After discovering that Celexa made me feel insane, I stopped taking it (with my doctor's permission) and was fine for a few months. Over the summer, however, I started feeling anxious and the chest pain returned along with fatigue. I went to a different doctor who did blood tests for thyroid disorders and possible other problems, all which came back clean. He suspected depression and anxiety but was not prescribed medication.

Most recently I have been having strange sensations in my abdomen, back, and legs. My legs will ache occasionally when I'm trying to sleep and I can't stand to keep them still. They also fall asleep very easily and my left leg occasionally gets this seemingly nerve related shooting tingle. I know that's a poor explanation but it's the only way I can think to describe it. I have pain in my left shoulder and in my left side, next to my bellybutton. I also have "ice pick pain" right above my left ear, sometimes falling into a dull headache. I had another physical at my gynecologist on October 8 and my abdomen was palpated, blood pressure and heartbeat checked, etc. Nothing was out of place. My blood pressure is checked daily and runs anywhere from 100/60 to 120/75.

The chronic pain I'm experiencing is driving me crazy and I'm not sure what could be causing it. I feel like it could all be in my head from the anxiety and depression, but if it isn't I'm terrified that there is something seriously wrong with my body that I'm attributing to my mind. Has anyone experienced/heard of anyone experiencing symptoms like this? What type of doctor should I see?

Thank you in advance for reading this novel of a post, and for any advice you can provide.

I got what I wanted but the doctor is a quack and I don't trust him. Help?

[insert clever name here] — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:32:39 -0800

The doctor I just saw is a quack. I knew he would be, but I set up an appointment anyway. I've been dealing with fatigue and chronic pain, and regular doctors haven't had an answer. So I set up an appointment with a doctor that practices "functional medicine" as a last ditch effort. How do I reconcile what this doctor told me with what I know about real medicine and the load of bullshit I was just fed? I don't want to go into the long history of my medical issues or I could end up writing a book, and this ask is going to be long anyway. But the short of it is, I've been experiencing fatigue for the past couple years with no definitive cause. Had a round of fatigue a few years before because of low serum ferritin and restless leg syndrome. Got better, but after a while started getting tired again. No problems with serum ferritin but RLS is back. Later started having reoccurring chronic pain no one one could diagnosis, fatigue and pain continue to worsen. Some odd test results, but nothing significant enough to lead to a diagnosis. I have seen 80 billion doctors. (okay, maybe not that many) and the provisional diagnosis is atypical fibromyalgia with chronic fatigue syndrome. This diagnosis, I'm told is only a diagnosis of exclusion.

I'm now being treated at a pain clinic and by a rheumatologist. And my GP and sleep doctor are still involved for good measure. Not to fond of the rheumatologist, but that's another story.

I had my first appointment a few weeks ago with the MD that will be treating my pain. We talked about a lot of things. I liked her a lot, in part because she told me that there wasn't a lot more they can do for me (mainly, because she was honest, and didn't beat around the bush.)

I asked her something that had been bugging me for a long time. "Is it possible it's my thyroid?" I've been asked by so many doctors if my thyroid has been tested because my symptoms always sound thyroid-y. Friends and family with thyroid issues have said "you sound just like me before I was treated". But my thyroid has been tested multiple times and it has come back normal. But there is scores of information on the internet that say that normal results might not actually rule out thyroid issues. But the internet doesn't have it's medical license, and I try to take it with a grain of salt. We chat about this for a bit, she says my symptoms do sound a lot like hypothyroid symptoms, but the value looks normal. But, she goes on to tell me, that she's heard of people with subclinical hypothyroid that get relief when put on a low dose of thyroid medication.

In fact, she tells me, she had a patient a few years ago who had pain very similar to what I'm describing, who eventually went to a functional medicine doctor, was put on a low dose of thyroid, and it cleared up her pain, her fatigue symptoms, and made her a whole new person. So much so that the doctor says it may be something I want to try, because I've tried everything else. She said she doesn't feel comfortable prescribing thyroid meds herself because it's not in her wheelhouse, but seeing an alternative medicine might be something I can give a go since I've tried everything else.

Now, I have considered, after researching thyroid issues, seeing an alternative medicine/woo type doctor, and I haven't been able to get over the fact that I think most/all of it is nonsense. But, after this discussion with this doctor, I decided to do just that. So I find a doctor in the area that is associated with a real hospital, and seems to have the least amount of woo. If I'm just going to get a prescription of thyroid medicine, maybe I can stomach the nonsense.

I had that appointment yesterday, and the whole thing has rubbed me the wrong way. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the place is that they were offering an ionic foot bath to "detoxify". I've never heard of this before but immediately I knew it was snake oil. They showed pictures of people in the foot bath with clear water to progressively darker water. (Having an internet enable phone is a wonderful tool for skeptics like me). The alarm klaxons warning me this is not real medicine are going off in my head.

I finally meet with the doctor. He starts to explain what feels like a speech he's said a million times. I'm not sick, my hormones are out of balance. He prescribes the thyroid medication. But he also tells me my progesterone is low, and I need a prescription for that. And that I need weekly b12 shots. I need to eat better (well, I can't disagree with him there) and I need to cut out gluten. I need to only eat organic food. And I have Adrenal Fatigue and need to take supplements for it. I have Epstein barr antibodies and the eb is what is causing my chronic fatigue (GRRRRR) Further down the rabbit hole I go, trying hard not to just say this is exactly why I didn't want to talk to a doctor like you.

Meanwhile, he's not really listening to me, and keeps talking over my questions and comments. I ended up buying two of the three supplements he told me because I'm a sucker and I honestly wanted to get out of there. He gave me DHEA and Rhodiola rosea. I commit in my head to doing what he says because it's not going to interfere with anything the other doctors are having me do. And why not? Maybe I will feel better.

The problem is, the further I get from the situation, the worse I feel about it. I got what I came for, the thyroid medication, but I feel a bit like I need a doctor I can trust before I go down this path, and this guy wasn't it. But I haven't been able to find a good doctor in the area that is willing to be a little more creative when it comes to considering thyroid. Whenever I look for doctors in the area that specialize in it, it's always the out there alternative medicine types. Outside the area, there are doctors associated with schools and doing cutting edge research, being published, but right now I do not have the money to travel to areas where these doctors are located.

I've already seen an endocrinologist, but I didn't like him much*, and my understanding is that it's the rare endocrinologist that takes subclinical hypothyroidism seriously. (*He rules out two possible illnesses and then became obsessed with my blood pressure and continually ignored me when I'd try to bring the subject back to the pain and fatigue. And he thought my high blood pressure was cured when I was off of blood pressure meds for a week and it didn't go up right away, thus claiming my birth control pills were causing it all along and I was cured. Of course it came up within a couple weeks as one would expect. He was upset with me because I had bad reactions to certain medications, including one that sent me to urgent care. And he'd get mad when I'd probe about thyroid but wouldn't explain why other than "you can't trust the internet." Which, while he probably was not wrong, I would expect a little more patience and willingness to answer my questions than to just dismiss them.)

I don't know it's my thyroid that is the problem, but I feel like it's something that hasn't been tried and it's the one thing that so many doctors keep asking about so obviously they think it's something at least initially. I'd like to have a serious conversation with a real doctor that will take me seriously.

So I don't know. Do I just go along with what this doctor is saying, or do I bail? And if I do bail, do I keep trying to find another doctor, and see if there is something to the possibility of a thryoid issue? And where?

(And since it will probably be asked, my most recent thyroid tests are TSH 2.57, FT3 2.8, FT4 0.87, Total T3 119.4. TSH bounces around 2.2-3.2, but no one has been able to tell me if that is a "normal" variation. Thyroid antibodies negative)

Sigh, It hurts.

kathrynm — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 21:17:06 -0800

Rheumatoid arthritis onset after seve infection? Possible? I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a year ago and have been on meds since (Cymbalta, Gabapentin, Tramadol, Mobic). Memorial Day weekend I was scratched by my cat. I ended up in the hospital for a week with bacterimia, cellulitis, and a septic knee. After the infection, I seemed to go into the worst fibro flare of my life and it's still seemingly going on. But on reflection, the symptoms aren't so in line with my typical fibro stuff. I have a lot of joint pain, which I never had before. It's bilateral. My hand, fingers, wrists, feet and toes are especially painful. I tried to put on a ring the other day and found my finger was too swollen to get it on (sob). My shoulders are so painful, it's difficult to do my hair or write on the board (I'm a teacher). I do have a family history of RA (father, aunt, great aunt: all on the same side of the family).

You are not my doctor. I am going to see my rheumatologist tomorrow, but I wanted to be armed with some information going in.

Help me support him without being his mother.

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:37:37 -0800

New-ish guy friend I've been dating is experiencing a (potential) flare-up of an old, painful and worrying health issue/injury. How can I support him without going overboard into mothering mode, overstepping his/my boundaries, or otherwise screwing things up? It's kind of a weird and potentially delicate time for this to be happening. We haven't been dating that long, we haven't had any serious conversations about it, we're just not there yet, it's still really early. The last thing I want to do is smother him or try to demand time/energy he doesn't have. I want to be cognizant of his and my boundaries also (this is hard since we are still getting to know each other).

I'm very wary of this type of situation because I've gone overboard in past situations. I'm a problem-solver and a people pleaser. My tendency is to do whatever I can, more than I should, etc. I don't want to be that girl.

But at the same time, I really do care about him and would like to help if I can.

I saw this earlier question which is totally along the lines of what I'm looking for; if you have anything to add, great. If you have any advice specific to a new dating/romantic situation, though, that would be extremely helpful.

Thanks so much.

This stoic mask of mine is giving me grief.

patheral — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:23:59 -0800

I don't show pain very well (if at all), and this leads to problems with doctors. But if I try to show how much pain I'm in, it comes off as false and that leads to different difficulties. So, I finally got an appointment with a primary car physician last week, and as suggested in this post, I brought a list of things I've been diagnosed with over the years as well as previous hospitalizations, operations, and all medications I'm taking now, have taken in the past, and what I'm allergic to. Well, she took a look at my laundry list of diagnoses and promptly became skeptical. She suggested that the diagnoses are "generalized" and most likely wrong (see previous post for list of diagnoses). I was so tired that day, and in too much of a pain fog to even counter her or ask why she thought that.

And that's part of the problem. She didn't recognize that I was tired despite my disjointed speech, or how much in pain I was in despite how slow I moved. I get it, I don't show pain. She's not familiar with me, so I understand why she didn't recognize that I was in pain. However, when I mentioned that I was, in fact, in quite a bit of pain, she said, "Really? What hurts?" in an incredulous voice. I explained that my knees hurt, my back hurt, and my head hurt, on a 1 - 10 scale, I put it at around a 7, which is par for the course. To which she replied, "I don't prescribe narcotics." *sigh* I told her I don't take narcotics or any other pain pills (for various reasons). I'm just in pain. It's an everyday fact of life.

So, my question is. If I don't show pain well, how can I get across to a doctor who doesn't know me that I am, indeed, in a great deal of pain? This is not the first time I've run across this problem. I've tried "showing" my pain, but was accused outright of "seeking attention" by a doctor, or like this doctor, they think I'm after drugs. I'm truly at a loss here. Honestly, it's experiences like these that make me want to give up on going to the doctor altogether.

To poke or not to poke; that is the question.

Evilspork — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:35:04 -0800

To poke or not to poke; that is the question...poked with acupuncture needles, that is. I have a messed up back and neck from a fall in 2003 when I was in the Army, resulting in constant pain. The VA I go to outside Chicago just started up an acupuncture unit, and I was referred there by my pain clinic. When I was with the pain doctor we talked about stuff like rib mobilization (I have a separate upcoming appointment for this) and myofascial release, so I assumed this new acupuncture clinic was going to be less woo and more something physiological like dry needling (which I also have not had before).

My first appointment was today, though, and I'm not exactly confident. For the first round the doctor had me lie on my back and she placed needles on the inside of both of my Achilles tendons, the insides of both my knees, both my elbows, the backs of my hands near my pinky knuckle, and a single needle on the outside of my left foot. When she first stuck my right Achilles tendon my foot jerked as if I had banged a funny bone down there. Then she hooked up that needle and the two inner left leg needles to a TENS unit kind of thing and zapped those areas for ~10 minutes.

My first real misgivings started when she was setting up the above-mentioned needles. When I asked her what the needles would do she said that the points were channels connected to my organs and body parts and we were draining the pain energy through them. No, really.

The second round of needles was at the base of my skull and down my traps, none on my back, no TENS unit, for about 20 minutes.

Afterward she seemed honestly surprised that my neck didn't feel at least a little better, but acknowledged that this was the beginning of a long process.

So, balancing chakras and all that aside, and YANAD, how effective could this be? Was the needle that hit funny bone in my ankle a signal that this isn't exactly the best idea? I figure that at least the needles are sterile and I get travel pay for each of my appointments at the VA, and I'm really desperate for anything that might work, but don't want to bother if it's still just pixie dust.

You know what worked for me?

not that girl — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:33:16 -0800

Is this a form of giving advice? I have a question I'd like to hear people's thoughts on. I have chronic pain, and so do a couple of my friends. I regularly experience or witness conversations that look sort of like this:

Me: I have been having a flare-up of my pain lately.

Other person: Dr. X cured my pain through acupuncture.

or,

Friend with chronic health problem: I've been feeling very fatigued.

Other person: I have not experienced fatigue since giving up wheat.

In a common variation, the other person says, "You know what helped me with that? Giving up wheat."

So, here's my question: in a scenario like this, does the other person's comment constitute advice? Does the common variant make it more advice-like?

I ask because a few weeks ago I witnessed a conversation like this on Facebook in which a Friend with Chronic Health Problem explicitly said, "I'm not looking for advice," and got a couple of "X fixed me!" comments. My friend reiterated that she didn't want to hear advice, and the people who made the comments asserted that they were not in fact giving advice, just making conversation, and a little argument erupted. I was inclined to agree with my friend, but thought I might be wrong. So I have come here for a perception-check: AskMe folks, are comments like this, made in this specific context, a form of giving advice?

Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

Anonymous — Mon, 23 May 2011 08:25:07 -0800

How can I cope emotionally/psychologically with chronic physical pain? So, I have several chronic physical illnesses diagnosed by the appropriate medical specialists.

None of them are life-threatening, but they definitely affect my quality of life.

Walking hurts.

Standing still hurts (at times, badly enough to make me sob, at other times, badly enough to make me scream.)

Having sex hurts. Lying in bed to sleep hurts. Driving hurts. Being a passenger in a car hurts.

Sometimes even eating hurts (intestinal pain.)

Pain medication can only do so much: either it doesn't touch the pain, or it leaves me too mentally foggy to function.

How can I cope with the chronic physical pain?

It makes it really hard to enjoy activities, knowing that even if I'm fortunate enough to be low-pain right this minute, I will get a pain-payback 15 to 60 minutes after I stop the activity.

The more physically active I am, the more pain that I have, so sometimes it feels as though I'm being punished for being active and doing things.

and then there are the really bad pain days, when I get dehydrated because standing up to get a drink of water hurts too much...

I have an appointment with a psychologist who specialises in chronic pain management.

But that's in about two months (they have a long waiting list), and two months is a long time when you're in pain every day,
so in the meantime, I thought I would see what Ask Metafilter suggested...

Thank you in advance!

Gallstones are a pain in my back.

so_gracefully — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:27:48 -0800

Recently found out I have gallstones, and I have some degree of back/stomach pain every time I eat, no matter what I eat. YANMD, but what can I do about the pain? Is there anything I can do to relieve some of the pain? It's not, I imagine, full-on gallbladder "attacks" that people describe (it hurts a whole hell of a lot, sometimes worse and sometimes better, but it's not something that's motivating me to go to the hospital). I've had the pain for a few years, but it's worsened in the past year. Last night it was so bad I was just in tears, and couldn't even enjoy hanging out with my significant other because I was feeling so bad.

NSAIDs don't do a damn thing (Aleve works for me for every pain except this). I already eat pretty low-fat, and I do notice that the pain is worse if I eat fattier foods, so I avoid them. My doc asked if I wanted to have the surgery, and I said I had to think about it, because I've read a lot of stories about people encountering even worse problems after their gallbladders are gone, and that seems very drastic if I can figure out some other way to manage the condition.

What I often do when I feel the pain is to drink water, lie down with a heating pad on my back, and go to sleep. This doesn't work if I have pain while I'm at work, obviously. What I'm looking for are some strategies for soothing/relieving the pain a little bit so that I can function better.

Helping a friend in pain...

gnutron — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:49:15 -0800

Do you have any book recommendations for a friend who has been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis? She is dealing with severe chronic pain and coming to terms with a drastic change in her lifestyle and life plans. Seeking recommendations for books dealing with this specific disorder, dealing with chronic pain, grief & loss, and specific nutrition books that may be helpful for someone with this disease. Any other ideas that you think may be helpful or relevant are welcomed as well.

BDSM and chronic pain

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:38:45 -0800

Pain you choose + pain you don't choose. Who is writing (either on the web or in print) about intersections of BDSM and chronic pain/illness? I'm specifically hoping to find writers who are talking about chronic pain conditions (as opposed to other kinds of physical difference/disability that don't cause chronic pain).

My perspective: long experience and comfort with BDSM (mostly as a bottom), along with excellent health (both physical and sexual) all my life. Then, about a year ago, sudden onset and diagnosis of a chronic condition (or conditions; docs are still figuring it all out) that will cause pain and debilitation unpredictably for the rest of my life.

Not surprisingly, my relationship with the idea of seeking and desiring pain is now more complex and unpredictable. Sometimes this unpredictability is fascinating to me, sometimes it's weird and unsettling.

I fortunately have partners I can talk to in depth about all this, but in this question I'm hoping to find any kind of writing on the topic -- practical and/or philosophical, first-person or otherwise.

(If you have thoughts you don't want to share in public, I made an account you can write privately to: chosen.pain@gmail.com )

Trigeminal neuralgia treatment without health insurance

schroedinger — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:30:09 -0800

Trigeminal neuralgia. I recently found out it's the cause of the random, stabbing shocks in my face and I'm looking for experiences and advice, especially with regards to treatment. What helped? How did you deal? Did it go away on its own? I have no insurance, so while I'd like recommendations on ALL treatment forms ones that don't cost as much are especially welcome. It arose about a month ago, and started happening maybe once a week and now the pain comes multiple times in an hour. I just had an episode that wouldn't stop and I was afraid I'd have to go to the hospital. I'll do anything to stop this from getting worse.

(Also, are there any aid plans for people with chronic pain conditions who don't have health insurance?)

Help my girlfriend find a doctor in NYC who will take her chronic pain seriously.

nebulawindphone — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:59:49 -0800

Help my girlfriend find a doctor in NYC who will take her chronic pain seriously. C has had chronic joint pain her whole life. When she was a kid, her family doctor basically refused to pay attention to it. He found no obvious cause, told her to quit whining, and that was that.

She's now in her late 20s, otherwise healthy, and interested in trying to get some help for the pain — but she's worried that she's going to get the same sort of runaround again. AFAICT, it's a valid fear. The internet is full of horror stories about people with symptoms like hers who spent years getting ignored, branded as malingerers or drug-seeking junkies, or just told to suck it up, and I can't blame her for not wanting to go through all that if she can help it.

It would be really awesome if someone could recommend a doctor in or around New York City who's knowledgeable about chronic pain and inclined to take it seriously. (She lives in Greenpoint and works in midtown Manhattan, but an inconvenient doc with a clue is better than nothing.) Barring that, advice on finding such a doctor would be pretty awesome too.

How do I avoid a fight between my doctors?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:19:00 -0800

How do I handle my doctors' disagreement about what medication I should be taking? I recently started seeing a psychiatrist to help with my long-standing depression and anxiety. As I also have chronic pain, he's suggested that I go back on regular doses of a "heavier" painkiller such as hydrocodone.

My regular doc currently has me on tramadol and lyrica for pain control; they help a lot but I'm still in pain every day and it interferes with work, sleep, life. I had also been on hydrocodone, taken on an as-needed basis, but he took me off that as he said "there's nowhere to go but up" with the opiates. The shrink's position is that smaller regular doses of pain meds can be maintained without ruining tolerance, and would have a salutary effect on my mental state.

I like both my doctor and my shrink, and would like to not be in pain, and don't want to get in the middle of a weird doctor fight. What's the best way to deal with this sort of situation?

Helful tools for sewers and crafters with chronic pain?

palmcorder_yajna — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:26:52 -0800

My mother-in-law loves to sew and knit, but fibromyalgia is slowing her down. Can you recommend any tools or gadgets that might help her? My mother-in-law has been suffering from fibromyalgia for quite some time. When she has a good day, the first thing she does is bust out her sewing machine. She also loves to knit. The trouble is, the repetitive motion involved in sewing and knitting is really hard on her body, and it exacerbates her symptoms. The day after a bout of crafting, she aches like she's run a marathon.

Can any of you crafting, stitching, and knitting gods and goddesses recommend some tools that might make her hobbies a little easier for her? For instance, are there especially gentle and well-designed scissors out there? Ergonomic knitting needles? Etc.?

I'm not much of a DIY-er myself: I have a bare beginner's understanding of sewing and no knowledge whatsoever about knitting, so I don't even really know how to look for this kind of thing.

Thanks so much for your help!

Mom N' Pot Business

redsparkler — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:11:40 -0800

Please direct me towards some respectable, wholesome looking websites about medical marijuana usage, especially if they're intended for older folks and/or the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. My mother is in her sixties, and suffers from terrible chronic arthritis pain. I'm convinced that medical marijuana would be a terrific option for her, and at the the very least, much better than the cocktail of various medications that she currently takes. The most recent time we discussed it, she seemed a lot more open to it, especially when I brought up the possibility of tinctures, which a friend of mine uses. The next obvious step is to give her a couple of websites to look at, right?

Fun Facts!
1.) She's super sweet, religious, bakes cookies, and only recently started regularly imbibing alcohol (boxed sangria, at that.).
2.) She's mildly competent at the internet, but probably won't want to read pages and pages of text, like New Yorker articles or the Mother Jones article I found called "Respectable Reefer".
3.) I'm pretty sure she's never smoked pot before, and I haven't, either, so there's no first hand experiential data from either of us, as far as the effects of it go.

Also welcome are anecdotes or cautionary tales about older parents, chronic pain, and medical marijuana usage.

Dealing with chronic pain

pieoverdone — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 11:24:16 -0800

Are there any resources out there for people who are in a relationship with someone that has a condition that causes chronic pain? Books, websites, groups, etc. I’ve only been able to find either info about the condition or support for the person who has it. I'm not mentioning the condition on purpose because that's not what i'm asking about. It's about how to deal with a person who will be in pain for the rest of his life and coping with that long term.

If you want to know the condition, email is in profile. thanks.

Assistive Animation Technology for Creative 17 Year-Old with Chronic Pain

abbyladybug — Mon, 30 May 2005 18:10:06 -0800

I am working with a 17 year-old boy who has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. He loves doing animation on the computer, and he has been using Windows Movie Maker. In recent months, he has been in a chronic flare and is unable to use his hands. He is also very depressed, and I believe that being able to do something he loves may help his current mental state. Does anyone know of any animation software that has adaptations for use with voice commands? (I know about Dragon Dictate for Word Processing, but can it be used with other types of software?) Bonus points if you can tell me about any benevolent companies or agencies that offer this kind of software/hardware at a discounted or pro bono rates. This boy is not from a wealthy family and he has only the most basic health coverage.