Is this Lyme pain, or not. Do you have the energy to decide? With little aches or pains or even the big ones, go through a question and answer process. Part of my Lyme disease journey is learning about the nature of pain. Is it just Lyme’s latest cycle of symptoms that will go away in a few days. Is it serious enough that you need to get help?
Pains get sorted out by location, severity and duration. Do you evaluate new symptoms as they come up? By necessity I started to learn about pain to help me understand what is going on in my body.
Strong Lyme Pain Memories
When I was first diagnosed with Lyme, the pain was severe and immobilizing. I wrote a mental bucket list, sure my body could not survive this level of pain month upon month. I couldn’t hold a pencil or type to write it for real. Too much pain. Thankfully with the help of my health care team and my self-care pain is under much better control now.
8 years post diagnosis, I am in awe of the creativity of Tick Borne Infections and the variety of pain they produce. But it is a continual challenge to experience previously unknown aches and pains in different parts of my body and address them.
Gosh I can spend a lot of energy thinking about this trying to figure things out. Not a good path to follow. It boosts my anxiety, drains my mental focus and does me no good. I want to spend more time on life and less time on Lyme while still caring for my body and myself.
Take Care of Business
The body communicates in the language of sensation. When you feel pain it hurts. Don’t ignore symptoms or pain. Work with your health care team to figure out, is this an injury or something else. Then decide to do what you can to feel better. This may be more than take a pill, a shot or have surgery. Don’t give up or settle into a diminished way of being.
“But know that pain is not always a sign of damage. Pain is an output of the brain designed to protect you.”
Lorimer Moseley, from his surprisingly funny TED talk, Why Things Hurt 14:33
Look At The Long View
Look at your pain from 50,000 feet. We used to believe that pain came from damaged nerves or tissue, not anymore. All pain comes from messages in our brain. Acute pain from injury is damaged tissue messaging the brain through the sensory nervous system. Chronic pain still comes from the brain but has more inputs. Inputs that shape your experience of the sensation the brain creates called pain.
For instance I believe at this point I am somewhat sensitized to pain. My brain has a lot of memories of past pain and can tap them. This may make me feel pain more strongly now. I work everyday to feel good. I want my brains default to be feeling good rather than pain.
This diagram helps me remember that my brain creates my pain in part from some factors that I can influence. My 6 M’s of self-care can help me stay positive, move more, relax, eat a low inflammation diet and get better sleep which all help reduce feeling pain.
The purpose of this blog is to share and educate on Lyme disease recovery strategies. The information provided on this website is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment or advice. All the material here is for information purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.