Akasha, I can definitely sympathize on the pain management for recovering addicts. I had to grit my teeth through some absolutely amazing mind blowing, eye watering, starry eye producing pain last year (mind you newly sober too...quite the combo - but I know I've talked about it before). My doctor was like ya...you can go jump off a cliff if you think I'm going to prescribe you narcotics. Little did he know I was about to go jump off a cliff. After they got my diagnosis figured out, he did feel a little bad though. A nickname for what I was diagnosed with is "The Suicide Disease" because a lot of times it takes so long for a diagnosis (*raises hand*) and the pain is...ugh.
Anyways, if you do end up having something where you need longer term pain management, please do go to a pain management clinic if your insurance covers it. They will be able to get you non-narcotic pain relievers and can better work around your past addiction with ways they will be comfortable with. They see addicts all the time. It's not their first rodeo. They know the difference between someone genuinely in pain and looking for help versus someone jonesin' for a fix.
I hope your MRI shows negative...but I do hope they figure out what is causing your pain and you can get it fixed ASAP.
Hope everyone else is having a good day.
I had (yet another) really great experience last night.
Yesterday I went in to have a lighthearted talk with a co-worker about a boob-off competition I am in (do...not ask). It ended up being an hour long discussion about his sister-in-law and the abuse they are going through with her husband. It's pretty severe. The children are shirking away from my co-worker's speaking voice, when he enters the room, etc. and he's their uncle. His sister in law left the husband again (second time) and got a restraining order (again second time). The entire family is sleeping with guns because he threatened them all. Anyways, with my past family abuse experiences, I gave him some advice/suggestions/directions on where to go, who for her to talk to, who for HIS family to talk to, how to possibly help the children (since I had been in that situation myself as a child who was severely abused), etc.
Last night I got the following text around 8pm from him.
"Lex. Thanks for talking with me. The timing, perfect. Your story, your opinion, and moreover; you! are greatly valued."
We talked for another hour and a half this morning as well on things and I confided in him a lot including my drinking, getting sober, etc. and we went back and forth on a lot of stuff. He cried some too. It was all really touching.
Mike was right. Maybe I did go through all of that pain and abuse in the past in order to come out stronger on the other side...so I can help people that I never even knew were going through things. If I was drinking...I never would have even taken the time to talk to him. I never would have known his hurt, his pain, his plight, his family's predicament. I would have only cared about me, myself, my next drink. No one else.
It's simply amazing once you take the blinders off.