Massive pain reduction - is it here to stay?

[Elaine77c]

Hi All,

I have been suffering, and I do mean suffering, with a chronic pain syndrome since 2012, it has reduced my life to basically work and being at home - even going to the supermarket takes a lot of mental energy to consider as I know I will have pain either during or after. I have spent night after night with ice packs on my fanny, I am on Pregabalin, Tramadol and Codydramol - nothing normally helps when it is at its worst. I have a Blue Badge as I can't walk very far and my family always consider distance and how close toilets are before inviting me anywhere. I have even taken a wheelchair with me, and eyed the Quingo, thinking it would make life easy. The reason I have explained all this is so you can see the contrast between this and what is currently happening. 21 days ago I started a Very Low Calorie Diet, I won't say what one as I would not want you to think I am just advertising something. From the 3rd day of this my pain virtually stopped. I am now in a situation where I can walk with a normal stride, park the car away from the door of where I am going, put the bins out myself, I actually walked 13000 steps in one day when normally I would be hard pushed to do 3000. I still to have some twinges of pain, but they are manageable, I take extra pain relief (tramadol and/or codyramol) before I take the dogs for a walk, but the real pain shows no signs of coming back.

Can someone please tell me if they have experienced similar pain reductions and has this lasted?

I am scared that when I come off the diet (I can't live on 600 calories a day forever) the pain will all come back and I just can't bear the thought of it. Do you think that my pain is caused by some allergy and that is why it is now reduced or might it be that there is nothing in my digestive system to press on the other organs in my pelvic area? Anyone any thoughts?

Best wishes

Elaine

[Escada29]

Hi I have chronic pain also mine is lower back stiffness and pain along the lower abdomen under my muffin top I had surgery in 2003 to remove an ovary and dermoid cyst I was cut down the stomach so it looks like a bum basically and as I am getting older it all hurts. I notice that when I dont eat much the pain reduces I put it down to weighing less will result in less pain. I think with your dieting you have lost some weight and a nerve is not being pressed so much as before resulting in less pain. Thats my theory xxx

[Foxwalks]

Hi there Elaine,

I am in the Midlands and whilst not on a diet (could do with going on one) I have found that eating certain foods does effect my pain levels. Tomatoes, onions. Mushrooms, peppers, corn and fruit except bananas all affect me. I do not eat sugar bread, cakes, potatoes, biscuits,pasta but still put on weight which is I believe part of the problem of being on Gabapentin. My only puddings are yogurt and a sprinkling of seeds. Keeping a food diary helps. i have rectal neuralgia and getting gas in my bowels causez me a lot of pain. Also have found when I have a cold or when I am stressed the pain levels rise. Unfortunately being your own doctor in England does not help you get treatment. Am researching out of area specialists in pain management but that is not getting mevery far at the moment. Hope your dietis still helping you but I would look at thefoods you are now not eating and question what is causing change in pain level. Could even be your mental process of at last feeling being in more control. Good luck on your journey. We all need it. Joan

[Elaine77c in reply to Foxwalks]

Hi Joan, I think Pregabalin has also helped me put weight on as I don't think I was eating masses but weight was piling on. Currently I am not really eating food - just food-packs, a bit like an astronaut must have to do I always think. When I start to introduce real food I am going to have to experiment to see which ones may/may not cause the pain to come back - I could be gluten or lactose intolerant for all I know. I do hope I am not allergic to potatoes as I love them in almost any form!! Good luck with finding a decent pain specialist. I think they sometimes mention some of the good ones on this site so you might be able to track one down. I find they promise you a cure when they first meet you, then when they realise you might be a bit more complex than they thought they seem to just give up and leave you with psychologist/physio to learn how to 'manage' the pain. Sod that - I want it gone from my life thank you very much and will not stop trying - don't care if it is drugs/surgery/hypnotherapy, or a starvation diet if it is the only thing that works! Best wishes Elaine

[Foxwalks]

I echo your feelings of 'sod that'. Will keep hammering on the door until someone listens. Have left o2 messages on answerphone of Gareth Greenslade in Bristol but even he is now appearing to turn a deaf eat to us sufferers. Even though it was his private practise I was phoning. NHS cutbacks and hospitals in special measures haven't helped. Keep hoping.

Joan

[Elaine77c in reply to Foxwalks]

That is who I see - or rather saw twice

[Susan1-2]

I think you are right. I will be going on a stricter diet. I have been on whole foods diet eliminating fairy and grains except rice. Still not working. Getting rid of nightshade and corn now. I will be taking enzymes with every meal. You are right about the fruit. My go to fruit is banana. Everything else kills my gut.

[Susan1-2]

Sorry not fairy but dairy, ha.

[jjmac]

Interesting. I have just tried not eating any solids during the day until 6pm because I think that matter somewhere in the rectal area might be pressing on nerves and aggravating the pain. I had a mesh for a bowel prolapse. And neuropathic pain ever since. I can't sit and am never without pain. My bowels are now a mess and everything i eat stimulates them. So far have only done this for a few days but the days where I have had good bowel movements in the morning have been a lot better. If i don'the eat there is very little bowel movement and the rectal area feels emptier and freer. And things are less painful. Today that didn't happen and things have been much more painful. So I am going experiment a bit longer. It does mean I have to make sure I still consume a lot of calories. But there could be something in that pressure on organs or nerves idea.

[jjmac]

PS. I am slim and had no bowel problems before the operation and the mesh and I am absolutely certain that my bowel is reacting to this and the pain. I have tried every FOD type diet there is and thrown in the probiotics. No difference. My poor old bowel has just reacted to the situation I think. I have actually been losing weight so I really don't think the pain is weight related.

[Elaine77c in reply to jjmac]

I have found probiotics and the probiotic drinks have given some relief in the past as they seem to speed things up, I also tried Aloe Vera tablets as they are meant to soften what is going through which I thought might be helpful - it may well have been so but I was beginning to rattle with the amount of vitamin etc. tablets so I stopped that one. The only diet with real food in it that I found worked well for me in terms of reducing what was pushing down on things in that region was one where I ate almost entirely fresh, uncooked food, apart from some potatoes, eggs and quorn. Stuff went through enmass (but solid) in a very cleansing way. Tried to put that as delicately as possible! I had a lot less pain when doing this diet but found it really hard to keep up without following the online diet plan - which was expensive if you were going to follow it forever. I regret my decision to stop it now, but I don't think I really linked my lack of pain to diet at that time - don't think it was quite such an instant response, and also don't think the water retention disappeared in quite such a dramatic way!

[electricjaws]

Hippocrates believed all illnesses started in the gut!, and I think there is a lot to be said from that, we now live in a world full of fast food outlets, packaged processed foods filled with all kind of rubbish( but extremely tasty though!) fizzy drinks etc..

I have a really large readers digest book that I have had for years but not really read , so a few weeks ago decided I would start reading it and it is called "you are what you eat" and it makes a lot of easy sense really

Also I was reading ( I read a lot!) a smaller book and it says if twice a week ( 2 consecutive days) you aim to eat not much at all , no more than 600calories ( that is including drinks unless you have water which is better)

Your body goes in to shock mode( don't freak out you are not yourself going to go into shock!)

And when the body goes into this mode it starts getting rid of old cells and build up of toxins and starts to produce new healthy cells , so if you like imagine a sponge mopping up the rubbish and new cells building up

I am going to try this myself for a while , for me it will probably be two consecutive days juicing , I will come back at a later date to see feel any benefit from it , so stay tuned!!