How I Healed From Chronic Pain
How I Healed From Chronic Pain
Health Is PowHer's Podcast Episode 90
How I Healed From Chronic Pain.
From A Pain Doctor
Pain Free Life Academy Group Coaching 8-Week Program is starting Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 and the first clients get a very special discount (one time only). This program goes through my 5-step "Take Back Your PowHer" framework on how I healed from chronic pain. You can too!
So don't delay, this is a true gift of a lifetime.
If you are a woman with chronic pain, fill out the "Ideal Life Without Pain" quiz below, leave your e-mail and I'll reach out to you!
Ideal Life Without Pain Quiz
This is a story I never thought I’d live.
I remember the days when I barely felt pain even during the worst of conditions, like when I was 14 years old and had a severe infection of the entire abdomen from a burst appendix that lasted several months. But I just went to school every day while telling no one I had any pain.
And I survived. And I recovered quickly after a couple weeks in the hospital and stat surgery.
And then when I transitioned careers from an integrative functional integrative medicine physician in an academic medical center to a headache pain physician, I recall doubling over and vomiting after getting the mandatory flu vaccine - the pelvic pain was so severe I felt someone was crushing me from the inside. I lived with that for about a year, working with amazing urogynecologists, gynecologists, pelvic floor physical therapists, and pain specialists, over time I healed.
I breathed better, learned how to void appropriately, let go of stress and tension affecting my pelvis, and doing lidocaine bladder infusions, taking amitriptyline, tizanidine, and baclofen to help calm the severe muscle spasms that felt like it would rip apart my entire pelvic floor and lower abdomen.
But then, I got the flu vaccine again - not knowing it was related in any way, shape or form. For how could it, it didn’t have an indication that it could cause pain? And then my whole body felt the pain. I also couldn’t breathe, felt dizzy and had muscle weakness, and then vomited. I had that pelvic floor react again like it once did, but this time all my muscles throughout my body felt the pain, and I could barely walk from so much weakness. I recall some of these symptoms happened during allergy shots when I had anaphylaxis to the higher doses of allergy shots and I had gastrointestinal anaphylaxis along with the more common symptoms of anaphylaxis. However, after this episode, I felt like I was going to die. But, I survived this event too.
My medical team did some research and found there could be an association especially with the anaphylactic episode to possible mast cell release, autoimmune reaction, and neuropathic pain subsequent to a medication or injection.
But I knew I couldn’t live with this pain forever. It was excruciatingly painful. How could I have lived through worse, and then a measly vaccination got to me.
We tried several different medications and therapies, including duloxetine, acupuncture, trigger point injections, osteopathic manipulation, massage, yoga, meditation, therapy, psychoanalysis, hypnosis, aromatherapy, infrared sauna, red light therapy, nutritional changes, and tons of supplements! This all got me about 40% better.
Well, this may sound strange, but after searching for answers and medicalizing my condition to the point of nothing really helping (and tens of thousands of dollars later…), I met someone who said something I’ll never forget. “Because you were forced to do something outside of your will, your body and your spirit rejected it.”
And that, my friends, rang true. A big weight just fell off my shoulders. My heart opened up. My eyes grew big and wide. I just knew that was the answer.
Deep down inside, my essence, my true authentic self, never wants to be forced into anything. Because my body is a temple. Because I own my body. No one else does. I have always felt in my heart and spirit that being coerced or intimidated or forced to do something “or face the consequences” goes against my very being.
And recognizing that was the cornerstone for complete healing. But first, I had to connect with me again. My spirit. I had to forgive myself and all others who had harmed me. I had to nurture that side of myself that I hadn’t talked to in so long. That I hadn’t let out for fear of retaliation, because the real me is so different than everyone else. My beliefs, my opinions, well, they don’t always go with the status quo. Because I’m meant to push beyond the realm of the known and into the unknown. Where real healing and a strong connection with our true selves, our spirit, can take place, what is called clairvoyant healing. Strengthening my connection with God and Christ and the Holy Spirit. For that is my spiritual belief and nature, and whatever is yours, it is time to strengthen that connection with yourself. Your true self. The one that’s been put to the side for so long so that you can thrive in this society and work and career.
And that took time. That took daily meditations and working with a mentor to help me reconnect with my limitless energy and spirit. To let go of the ego and pride. To walk on my path, where my true gifts are unearthed. To let go of impressing everyone but myself.