Chronic pain post navicular fracture surgery

[Rosamond19]

Hey, new to posting but I’ve been looking for places with people who may have some similar experiences. I am 2 years post op to correct a navicular fracture which has healed well from a surgical aspect. I do however have chronic, debilitating pain on a daily basis now. I’ve seen surgeons and i’m waiting on an injection (collagen not steroid) which has some success - 50% I’m tons in terms of pain relief. The main conclusion is there isn’t much out there, the pain is easily explained (as in they know it hurts just can’t do much) and to just keep going with the painkillers on offer. I am 34 with a 4 year old and have severe restrictions to my daily activities yet nobody medical really seems to care. I have codeine and naproxen on long term prescription but struggle really with the codeine as I have a high pressured job and find it makes me quite woozy. This really seems like a pity post but I’m just hoping somebody out there may have a positive experience of handling chronic pain or something similar. I am a big advocate of more holistic therapies so have acupuncture and massage in addition to the medication, these provide some relief but normally capped to 24-48 hours.

Any help / advice / similar experiences much appreciated, thanks!

[PainConcernHelpline Moderator Community Champion Pain Concern]

Hello, sorry you're having a hard time. The Pain Concern website has resources for how to best communicate with health care professionals and for how to manage pain yourself. Here's a starting link, hope it helps painconcern.org.uk/the-navi...

[Scotsman53]

I've been dealing with chronic pain for a few years now so I know what it's like. The best resources I've seen recently have been the Flippin Pain youtube channel youtube.com/@flippinpain and the TMS Wiki website tmswiki.org/ Hope you get some relief!

[colourpassion]

Hi Rosamond, so sorry to hear you are having to deal with this. Is this caused by nerve damage or something else?

I cannot advise you, only tell you how i dealt with it.

In 1999 i developed Central Pain Syndrome, nerve damage from a brain injury, it takes many different forms as there are individuals, for me it covered the whole of my right side but manifested in many different ways throughout the body, ie: tearing, ripping, twisting, scalding, burning, skinless, massively swollen, slinters in the eye, etc etc. Because the form it takes hypnosis didn't work. It can be massively debilitating. After a years of horror, different drugs and treatments all with nasty side effects i had to accept drugs were not going to work....or not those drugs.

The only thing that really worked was distraction. I was fortunate that my kids were independent before i had the trauma. I had no partner so everything i did was by myself.

Once i was aware of how well the 'distraction therapy' worked i applied it full on. During my 2 year physical 'recovery' (i was a physical mess) i lost my business and nearly lost my home. There was no help out there. I was on my own!

I rebuilt a business from literally nothing, just a wing and a prayer really. I was still struggling, high pain, low energy, i am totally paralyzed in my right side and blind in the right of both eyes...and my speech was still very poor. But i fought tooth and nail to give myself a voice and a purpose. I ran the biz for another 23 years, i travelled the world, i spent every winter in hot places designing and producing beautiful collections ready for the spring. I also did a lot of volunteer work in Africa, Bolivia, on the Pakistan\india border etc. In Africa i became a passionate and regular skydiver (30K feet).

What i'm trying to say to you is that despite the pain and disability i built a fulfilling life that brought joy to me and countless other people. That is by not letting the pain rule your life. I know how difficult it is at the start of the journey but you will get there, you may have to change how you do things but that can be a benefit.

In 2001 i was the first person in the UK to have a deep brain stimulator fitted, very experimental and cutting edge surgery, i had to be conscious and responsive throughout and was told it was a 50\50 survival. That had served me fairly well with a 30% decrease in pain, but now it's over as there are no new batteries so i have returned to high pain levels. Pretty disgusting in my view but nothing i can do!

I hope you find what works for you, the drug i take now is Pregabalin.

[tomc]

have had Chronic pain for 20 year. I Never accepted and still don`t when the hospital and GP say there is nothing working and pain killers are US.

It is also the feeling that you are not being believed your pain.

THE pain is real and as colourpassion has said Pregabalinis prescribed but I also take 2 Tramadol 4 times a day and still I get pain.

I find just to sit quietly until you get some relief works but I also have have a horrific temper caused by pain and endless going to hospital.

I also suffer with COPD so more medication, IN fact I have more medication than food!!!

Sorry but I think you just have to except you pain or in my case drive yourself nuts trying to sort it out.#

As a footnote, I was told Chronic pain is real and it never goes away .. BAH HUMBUG... Hope you get good help and able to survive without depression.

[Stuart22022023]

Hi Rosamond. Sorry to hear your going thru a tough time.

I’ve been taking codeine on and off for a good few years now… I say “on and off” because with a lot of people, me included, after 3-4 months your body gets used to codeine and you no longer have “the codeine haze” as it’s referred to and along with that is it quite often doesn’t work on pain effectively too.

I have a very pressured job where I need my brain switched onto maximum for most of the day, I also drive to work and back and so for me, codeine is an absolute no-no during my working week. Please don’t drive with it in your system, regardless of any mitigation whatsoever, driving whilst unfit thru drink or drugs will get you banned!!! You know… like we haven’t already got a load of poop to deal with!!!

I look forward to Friday’s when I can get dosed up a bit and not actually worry about feeling a bit drowsy. I don’t know what your situation is regarding work but I had to search for solutions outside of codeine for work time. I found that Paracetamol & Ibuprofen (the ibuprofen with Lysine only) makes the pain a tad more bearable - not gone, but bearable.

Hope you find something or some combination of meds that’s works for you.