I have been very busy preparing rental houses for sale with the passing of my mother in-law that has brought on intense and migrating R hip, leg, and knee pain.
When I searched online, the closest thing that I could find that matched my symptoms was a R-hip Larbral Tear, much like a Rotator Cuff Tear in the shoulder. It described the migration of pain, as my body's attempt to protect tissues from further injury by using different muscle groups in misaligned compensations. I began using NSAIDs almost continuously and stretching with little benefit or improvement.
When I went to my doctor, he looked at my gait, and my hands and said he wanted an Ex-Ray which revealed in Doctorese...
"Severe osteoarthritic changes of the right hip with decrease in the joint space, subchondral sclerosis and cyst formation with prominent marginal osteophytes..."
Well! I was very surprised that I had accomplished so much since retiring! No wonder people were complaining and laughing at me when I walked funny and slow.
Strangely I had minimized my loss of sleep and my reduced productivity and mobility and just kept plodding. I had racked the symptoms up to the manual labor and was expecting a natural recovery ending in a stronger me. Dismissing difficulty was natural to me because of my experience in working through the "Recovery Process," for the emotional dysregulation, of my, " Explosive Anger." There I had worked with other people experiencing a variety of types of dysregulation including drug, alcohol and sexual addictions like the young man who recently shot the massage workers.
As a young person I had experienced episodes of constant pain but as I aged I also matured in my ability to move past them.
As a nurse I know my pain is often an 8, but I have been able to function as if it were a 4 or less, (when focused). I am grateful for the degree of freedom that my peers and I have discovered through the Celebrate Recovery process, but I will also be starting into physical therapy program which will probably be much like the program on the radio talk. I assume this because of my painful stretching routine. Eventually this all may lead to hip replacement.(oh bother). Regardless I know that I will be ok.
So why am I writing all of this?
I recently heard radio talk and thought it was good. It is about a BDT approach, (not stated as DBT, but it is definitely dialectical) for Accomplishing Accommodation by lessening the Pain Amplification Process and raising the resilience and toleration threshold.
A very Interesting talk that describes dealing with pain both positively and negatively.
And also... Seemingly off topic... But it seems to me that these principles apply to cultural pain as well?
In fact, I believe that Dr. MLK Jr. would certainly agree! I believe he demonstrated this in his resolve not to overreact against the extremes of social injustice of his time. Extremes that took his life.
How would you describe the strength of character that MLK talked about and demonstrated in his choices of action?
And if you didn't already listen,