What's Wrong With Me: Theory #7

Here’s how we’ve come to the current theory:

Both my fibromyalgia and Crohn’s docs claimed that all looked great on their ends and that they couldn’t speak to my continuing pain.  As a last ditch effort, my Crohn’s doctor gave me the option to get a nerve block from a Pain Management doctor; and fortunately that doctor is best I’ve ever had.

He’s told me that from Day 1 that he had my case figured out, but didn’t want to break the news until he knew that I trusted him.  So after weening off the more extreme painkillers and celebrating the successes of the nerve blocks, he referred me to a Pain Psychologist, because 

*drum roll please*

They believe I’m suffering from Learned Neural Pathways.

So few know of this condition, that when I look for resources, Alan Gordon, the director of the Pain Psycology Center that I go to, comes up in every article (like this) that I can manage to find.

....so I'll try to explain it: My brain thinks I am in danger.  Brains use pain to express danger.

For instance, if you put your hand on a hot stove, you feel pain and thus know not to do that again.

The danger that my brain senses, however, is not a physical danger, so it has to make that part up.  It decided to use a familiar pain, one which I always respond to: my pain from my Crohn’s Disease.

And that’s why my current symptoms act and feel exactly like my Crohn’s disease, without there being any discoverable evidence/inflammation.

And my pain and symptoms are real, it’s just that rather than treating it with Crohn’s remedies, I’m having to treat it with mental ones.  I’m naturally still a bit skeptical, so a lot of the time with my Pain Psychologist has been spent learning to notice when my symptoms don’t always make sense for it to be Crohn's.

For instance, my nerve blocks keep me from feeling my stomach pain.  I’ve said that when I can feel them wearing off but still can’t feel abdominal pain, I’ll instead develop severe neck and back pain.

How does my stomach or my Crohn's Disease relate to my neck….?  It doesn’t.  That's a weird thing.

Personally, I think LA is  or at least is part of the great danger that my brain is sensing.

After all, I was abused here for 18 years and culprit is now nearer to me.

And another strange symptom: within an hour of my flight landing, returning me back from glorious Philly to this stressful city…I was throwing up and  had a fever.  That just doesn’t feel like a coincidence.  That seems like another symptom relating to Learned Neural Pathways

Now, being sick for this long starting with my real Crohn’s flare in November/December, which developed new hospital traumas, and blossomed into not being able to eat for months, and being in too much pain to function:  is definitely a clear warning signal.

Ironically, however, spending that much time spent taking care of my health, depleted most of my financial and emotional resources….Making my situation worse than it was before I was sick.

It’s cute that my brain is trying to protect me…..but Learned Neural Pathways is definitely a maladaptive response.

One that I am excited to be done with.

(Oh, and we've also realized that my rheumatoid arthritis has been getting worse and responsible for my other symptoms....I bruise from standing...)