Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is defined as being pain that lasts a long time. In medicine the difference between acute and chronic pain is 3 and 6 months, some use 12 months as a marker, 12 months is a long time when dealing with chronic pain. A popular alternative definition for chronic pain not involving an arbitrary fixed duration is” pain that extends beyond the expected period of healing”. Debilitating is a good word to describe what is going on. That is a better definition. It effects you mentally, emotionally, physically. It in some ways takes over your life. It is always there. There were days before acupuncture that I just did not want to do anything at all Acupuncture gave me some control over the pain, instead of before where it was controlling me. With acupuncture length of time between visits can be different for each Veteran. For me it depended on the time of year I have gone as long as 5 weeks and as short as 2 weeks .

My days of running when I was in the Army caught up with me and all of those 5 and 10 mile PT runs . Also part of my experience included a ruck sack, along with a radio on some long walks with all of that weight being carried . Knowing what I know now I would still do it all over again, No regrets. I first noticed I was having issues with my knees was in October 2015 when I got home from Montana after spending the summer out there as a fire lookout. Every week I had to carry 12 gallons of water up 4 flights of stairs. This is about 96 pounds of water. I brought it up to my Primary Care Physician during my annual physical. That winter it seemed to have gotten worse. I had a hard time walking standing especially for long periods of time. With some trips to the VA Hospital in Detroit we found out I was losing the cartilage in both of my knees. At that point I was trying to find a study that was using stem cells for re growing cartilage, but could find none they were either done or in the middle of the study. I knew about stem cells through reading and research. They tried cortisone shots. All in all I believe it was 4 shots in each knee. The only thing I got out of that was weight gain, 5 pounds per shot. 40 pounds. For my personal regimen for pain management was 1 gram of Acetaminophen is only offered in 500 milligrams as needed daily. I wanted to take Ibuprofen because I could get 800 milligrams, but I could not take Ibuprofen because it is filtered through the kidney, I have one, because I am a Living Kidney Donor. On 21, August 2000 I donated my left kidney to my best friend. and my Dr. did not want to tax the only kidney I had. Acetaminophen is filtered through the Liver, I have to be careful with that as well. Anything above 3 grams and you could damage the liver. My first Primary Care Dr. taught me to research, and be an informed patient.

The middle of June 2016, I am at my whit’s end dealing with this chronic pain, I am at 3.5 grams of Acetaminophen, not sleeping, and irritable. I think it was 03, July 2016 I have had enough, so I went to the Saginaw VA Hospital to urgent Care, wondering what the hell I am doing there as I am waiting to be called. I am thinking, I do not know what to expect, I just know I have had enough. I am called, the nurse takes my vitals, asks me a bunch of questions, then leaves the room to probably fill the attending Dr, in on what is going on with me. Dr. Joseph walks in, she is calm and soothing as she talks and asking questions to me. Somewhere in the discussion I compare Chronic Pain to Torture, because in both cases you will be willing to do just about anything to get it to stop. She smiled in agreement. Then she asks me what I thought about Acupuncture, I told her I really do not know much about it but I have heard of Acupuncture, I am willing to give it a try. I am willing try anything at this point. She explained to me that this is Battlefield Acupuncture done in the ear, 5 points in each ear for controlling pain. Battlefield Acupuncture, that was self explanatory for me considering all of the gear that is worn by the modern soldier on the battlefield these days. After about the third point I could tell that it was starting to work, after the fifth point I hugged her, I was so happy I cried the pain for the first time in three weeks, was bearable. after that I was getting it done most of the time every 5 weeks and as little as 2 weeks since then up to 2020. This was the beginning of my journey.

As I had said before I had gained weight while all of this was going on with me , In 2017 I was at 235 pounds, it works out to about 5 pounds a shot. 4 pounds of pressure is on both of your knees for every pound of weight you are carrying, my weight was 235 pounds, that is 940 pounds of pressure on each knee. I worked with my Primary care and we came up with a plan. It was three fold , one was obviously was weight management, physical therapy and the other was knowledge based. I signed up for the MOVES class, after about a year and half I lost 45 pounds. The VA had this thing what they called the Pain Tool Box that was powerful information there. that was about 6 weeks long, then there was Pain School that was 10 weeks long some more powerful information. Then there was this thing where there was a Pharmacist, Psychologist, Physical Therapist and somebody else. Later on i found Whole health. I was doing all of this trying to wrap my head around what is going on in my body and head and how they both deal with pain. Physical Therapy was very intense, we did different exercises, then at the end of the session they did this laser thing on my knees. There I received a Tens Unit and some stretches I had to do at home. Tai Chi and Yoga really helped a lot. Through Yoga and Tai Chi and meditation. Then mindful Warrior. let it get that far.