Living in Chronic Pain

Good morning guys. Today is another one of those days where I woke up at 4 in the morning with numb, tingling, and painful arms and hands. This is due to an injury I sustain last year from nursing an MS(Multiple Sclerosis) patient. I am not quite sure of the nature of this injury. It feels like nerve impingement but it could be other things. All I know is it originates from my shoulder and it somehow messes up my arm circulation. Sometimes unilaterally and sometimes bilaterally. Sometimes it causes my fingers so much numbness I can barely control them. I did try to have it fixed last year. 3 expensive sessions with a chiropractor and some acupuncture which seemed to have worked temporarily.

Unfortunately, the nature of the nursing job is not very good for a mortal human's back. If you remembered a couple of days ago we had a work place accident and l was taking care of that lady who dislocated a shoulder. While I was busy immobilising her arms and shoulder, I somehow unknowingly caused strain to my past injury. And now my tingles are back with a vengeance! It has been 4 days in a row now of disturbed sleep. And my body is really feeling the exhaustion.

I really want to see the GP doctor as soon as I can, but my work schedule is in conflict with it. Tomorrow was supposed to be a day off, which I badly needed, but my manager wanted me to come for an important training, which I also did not want to miss. Hence, pushing back my GP visit dreams. Since I am new in this part of town I would need to register to a GP first before I can even book an appointment. So if I manage to register on Thursday, the soonest I can be seen should be next week crossing my fingers. I am really hoping it can be fixed properly this time around. I am still 31 turning 32 but I have aches of a senior citizen.

On the upside, UK healthcare is free. In Guernsey, every visit to the GP was 55£ and the GP does not even do a lot of tests there. With the NHS here in UK it is free. Hopefully, my future GP can diagnose me properly and get me the cure I deserve so I could nurse for a couple more years and serve humanity.

Bottomline, I really feel for people who suffer chronic pain. It is not easy to have pain as a norm. It takes a toll not only physically but emotionally too. So I really understand how some chronically ill people are more grumpy. It's the pain, the hopelessness, and the lack of sleep. I know there are some worst cases than mine out there and I do feel bad whining about just a none deadly shoulder pain. I hope modern medicine can advance further that we may rid of these chronic illnesses better and more effectively.