Chronic Pain

greetings everyone,
im so glad to have found this place..
so about me and my pain stuffs...
im 22 and have carpaltunnelsyndrome in both hands (post surgery on both) and something quite rare called tarsaltunnelsyndrome in my ankles (very similar to CTS i guess). i also have a lot of upper back pain which is worse than both of those and i havent figured out what it is (i hope this place can help!!) i also suffer from panic attacks and ptsd and stuff like that but i think thats pretty common with chronic pain (when will the medical community start taking the emotional/mental connection more seriously?)

anyway, dunno what else to say. i am new to all this, only in the past 1.5 yrs really. getting used to disabled life and fighting this rotten healthcare system we have. but im learning a lot and growing from the experience. i also have friends now which helps a lot. um, yea i cant work cause of this stuff so im reallly broke. but i find my way around and have stayed off the streets so im happy about that. i really like gardening right now, its kinda painful but oh man nature really makes me feel great and reminds me of the goodstuff still around. im growing veggies for the first time and its really beautiful. ok well i guess this is long enough. cant wait to get plugged in here!
tom

Hi Tom,

Welcome to ChronicPainConnection! I just responded to another post you did, so I won't repeat myself here. I just wanted to let you know we're happy to have you here with us, although sorry that you have a reason to need to be here.

I agree with you that the medical community needs to pay a lot more attention to the body/mind connection. In fact, I forgot to mention in my other post to you that stress can make many pain conditions worse, including fibromyalgia. Of course, lack of adequate pain control can increase our stress level, which in turn can make our pain worse. A vicious cycle!

Your veggie garden sounds wonderful. We'll look forward to hearing more from you.

Best,
Karen