I've Got Pain: What Now? (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781461069188)

The author, Ms Diane Rustand, is 62 years young. She has experienced chronic pain of one type or another since the age of 25. Early in her nursing career, she was introduced to "back pain." She thought her pain was severe until she had surgery to fix the problem. If she had done what the surgeon told her to do, her back pain might have been cured. However, instead of resting the entire two months, she went back to work against her surgeon's wishes. After working for a few weeks, the pain was worse than before the surgery. The second chronic condition Ms. Rustand encountered came from a birth defect, a "Cavernous Hemangioma" on her right hip. Every few years since the age of 10, she had surgery to thin out the tumor. Finally, at the age of 31, she had a procedure that closed off the existing blood supply. The tumor, with a mind of its own, wrapped itself around the sciatic nerve on the right side, making it impossible to walk. She was non-weight bearing on the right side and took pain medicine to live as normally as possible for the next 10 years. In December 1993, she was riding her Palomino gelding in a pasture. Ms Rustand had only owned this horse for two weeks. During an instructional ride, the horse spooked and bolted into a gallop. She decided to get off before the horse stopped short. She did not wish to sail over his head. Her fall resulted in a broken neck, specifically a lateral mass fracture at C5, a vertebral fracture at C6, and C7 was subluxed or jammed on top of C6. (Incidentally, she also sustained a T4 compression fracture). Surgery was done to fix the neck fractures; however, she still had to wear the Halo apparatus due to the T4 fracture. A few months after this surgery, she underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery. The shoulder pain was so severe, she had trouble sleeping. The next thing she knew she was seeing a Rheumatologist, who diagnosed the pain in her back, neck, knees, arms, etc., as fibromyalgia. Today, Ms Rustand has back and neck pain, headaches, and fibromyalgia. She lives a relatively normal life going out with friends, taking care of her two dogs, and enjoying every day. She says she feels very blessed, and now is the time to help others that are going through chronic pain to enjoy life.