Chronic pain--when the light at the end of the tunnel dims.You sprain sprain, stretching or wrenching of the ligaments and tendons of a joint, often with rupture of the tissues but without dislocation. Sprains occur most commonly at the ankle, knee, or wrist joints, causing pain, swelling, and difficulty in moving the involved joint. your ankle and it hurts like the devil Adv. 1. like the devil - with great speed or effort or intensity; "drove like crazy"; "worked like hell to get the job done"; "ran like sin for the storm cellar"; "work like thunder"; "fought like the devil" . But you know given a little patience and some rest, usually the swelling will subside, the pain will lessen to an ache, and the day will come when you notice that it doesn't hurt anymore. That is the normal progression for most injuries. Pain is actually a therapy in itself Swelling functions as a natural cast, and the pain keeps you off that foot long enough for the injury to heal. Chronic pain, on the other hand, is another beast altogether. Whether the cause is arthritis, nerve pain nerve pain Vox populi → medtalk Neuralgia, see there such as sciatica sciatica (sīăt`ĭkə), severe pain in the leg along the sciatic nerve and its branches. It may be caused by injury or pressure to the base of the nerve in the lower back, or by metabolic, toxic, or infectious disease. , or soft tissue pain following an injury, it can last such a long time that the light at the end of the tunnel flickers and fades, and despair sets in. For those whose pain keeps them from working out, feeling out of control can be devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. . Pain that doesn't go away in a reasonable amount of time can impact your life in virtually every department--sleep, relationships, work, and often your ability to exercise. We all know how irritable we get when we can't work out. Add pain to the picture and it gets pretty ugly. If you have a condition that has caused significant pain for more than three to six months, and hasn't responded to standard treatment, you may benefit from the expertise of physicians who specialize in the management of chronic pain. Sometimes it's only the pain that remains to be treated, because the original condition has healed but the pain signals persist. Pain management is a medical sub-specialty and if you have persistent pain, you need their resources. These pain doctors have more than just medication in their bag of tricks. In addition, there is hypnosis, transcutaneous transcutaneous /trans·cu·ta·ne·ous/ (-ku-ta´ne-us) transdermal. trans·cu·ta·ne·ous adj. Transdermal. electric nerve stimulation, prescribed exercise and physical therapy, relaxation techniques, injections, acupuncture, massage, and biofeedback biofeedback, method for learning to increase one's ability to control biological responses, such as blood pressure, muscle tension, and heart rate. Sophisticated instruments are often used to measure physiological responses and make them apparent to the patient, who . Managing your pain successfully might rekindle the light at the end of the tunnel. (The American Pain Society and the American Academy of Pain Medicine, Glenview, IL, www.ampainsoc.org and www.painmed.org) |
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