If you've never heard of CRPS or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, you're not alone. It used to be known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and before that causligia. It is essentially where the sympathetic nerves start sending false pain signals to the brain usually after a minor injury like a sprain or hairline fracture. No one knows why it happens exactly. It took me six months to be diagnosed in the first place. The FDA has it list on their Office of Rare diseases webpage. Most people who have never had it don't know how much pain it really causes. This is my go to method of explaining how much it really hurts:
I have been on medication for a while now that keeps it a manageable levels, but sometimes I still get really bad pain. It totally warps your sense of pain. It's especially annoying at the doctors office when you say that you have sore throat then they ask you to rate on a scale from one to ten and you say a four they think your over exaggerating. I have wanted to yell at a nurse once that she should rate a sore throat after someone cut off her finger without anesthetic. And there's also times when some gets injured (i.e a burn) and it doesn't register as that very painful to me. It's not that I mean to be insensitive, but I have to wear 2+ socks on my right foot because the cold aggravates it so much. Most times in class now I take off my right shoe to get through the day easier. Another thing about CRPS is that ice makes the pain so I bad I feel like I might pass out. Even those with the condition who are not sensitive to the cold still do a lot of damage by icing. The approach to treatment that works follows the "to hurt is not to harm" motto. It's the only method that works. And to any gym teacher that thinks I'll be fine in their class, I'll make sure pass along the medical bills and have you deal with the pain and suffering you caused because you couldn't listen. I don't make this shit up. If amputation would get rid of the pain instead of spreading it elsewhere, I would've been an amputee years ago.
Another thing I recently figured out is that at best I'm at least intolerant to corn, most likely allergic. Luckily I don't go into anaphylaxis, but I do get shaky, nauseous, have stomach pain, and break out in hives all over my torso. Now I have triple check ingredient labels to make sure they don't contain corn or any corn byproducts. I don't know about elsewhere, but in the US everything, and I mean everything, has some corn in it. The last time I had a reaction was from canned beans. I didn't associate beans with corn syrup, but I checked after feeling ill and enough corn syrup was the third ingredient. I also can't just pick up a soda either. The lucky thing for me is the only food I eat that comes from a package is pasta, rice, beans, and flour tortillas. The rest is fruit and vegetables.
To add to that I've developed cystic acne to the point I had to go to the dermatologist. She put me on high dose amplicillin (which I happened to know a lot about because I worked with the drug in my biology class last year. The only drug the bacteria was more resitence to was penicillin) and prescribed to high strength creams. If that doesn't work in 2 months it's onto Accutane, which I'm not against at this point. She also suggested I go on birth control. I'm not terribly bothered by that since I have other issues that would be helped by it. The only thing is that I rather have a patch then to have to take another freaking pill, no matter how small. My mom seems to think another pill is not a big deal. I know she's had to take a lot of them before, but 7+ pills a day is a lot for a teenager. I know with Accutane as a female you have to either be on two forms of birth control or swear not to have sex with a man. The later is would not be hard because I'm gay, like no interest in guys even if the FDA's website says they strongly recommend against not being on birth control. (I'm actually questioning if I'm asexual because I haven't been sexually attracted to anyone, though I have a romantic attraction to girls exclusively. I'm the last person they need to be worried about having sex).
I know this blog is just a long rant and makes me seem a lot more sickly than I am. I'm just frustrated. There are some times I just want of go to sleep and not wake up. When you're in agony having uncontrollable muscle spams or really wishing you could just grab a snack from the vending machine or munch off a friend whose food looks good without having a reaction, it's not easy to see the light. I am not suicidal, just wanted to make clear.