One way to help with chronic pain… rescue an animal

I want to introduce to you … Jake the dog.

Jake is known in our house as; Dude, Jakeimus Maximus, or Mr. Jake. He is the son of a rescue that we adopted late last year. His mom, Layla, is now in another home and happy as she can be.

Jake loves to fetch. When he and I are out in the yard he helps me to learn to throw left handed.

 When we are laying on our favorite chaise lounge chair he helps me by comforting me.

He loves to give “kisses”, otherwise known as slobbering your entire face. He is officially our third rescue and I can honestly say our entire family loves him. So, one way to help with chronic pain… rescue an animal! Any animal! If you like cats, then a cat. If you like birds, snakes, reptiles, whatever; get out and get a companion animal. They help you by making you get up and move. They also help by comforting you when you don’t feel so well.

Since tomorrow’s post will be heavy, I thought we needed a break.

2016 Between now and OK

Disclaimer: Not a pity seeking post!

I posted about the promise God gave me in an earlier post (https://michaelmyrickblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/between-now-and-ok.html). So let me follow up with that.

I am currently in “between now and OK”. After my surgery I soon realized that many of the nerves to my neck, shoulder and arm were affected. I experienced mild to extreme pain daily. I kept telling my wife, son and myself that it would go away over time. I prayed for it to go away, asked others pray, and continued to believe it would subside. I took the medicines the doctor prescribed, only to find that I walked around in a fog. Fast forward to now, 3 ½ cancer free years later.

I got up yesterday and had a hard time moving my right arm. When you go to the doctor they ask you to rate your pain from 1 to 10, 1 being no pain and 10 means to go the hospital. As I drove myself to work I began to cry. Yes, a grown man driving down the interstate crying! I could not help it; the pain was at a 10.  Many of you would ask, “why did you not go the hospital?” Well honestly, there is nothing they can do. This happens multiple times a week and I have to get it together before getting to work. After all, I drive a stick shift and it just so happens that I have to shift with my right arm. The pain also makes it difficult to get ready some mornings. Many of my friends ask how I am doing and of course I tell them I am doing “fine”. After all no one wants to hear about my pain all the time, although if my wife is around she will not let me get away with that. I don’t and won’t let the pain stop me from doing much, but I have started to learn my limitations.

So why am I sharing about my pain now? I want others to realize that no matter what pain you are in or what type of pain, Jesus is there to hold you and let you cry. He understands when we get mad about it and sometimes raise our voice at Him. He has no problem with the “why”, because He will help you to understand.

In other posts I will talk about the extreme emotional side of chronic pain. That subject may have to be multiple posts.

Dealing with Chronic pain?

Many people in the U.S. deal with chronic pain daily. “According to data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), 11.2 percent of American adults (25.3 million people) have experienced some form of pain every day for the past three months. The study also found that even more people — 17.6 percent of American adults — suffer from "severe levels" of pain.”** These numbers may seem overstated to some, but as one that suffers I see truth in these numbers.

The vast majority do not talk about it and “deal” with it privately. I have a friend that suffers from cluster headaches that would put most in the hospital. He quietly works through the pain. I watched, as a young man, seeing my father hurt so bad from migraines that we had to take him to the emergency room a couple of times. I could go through a long list of people that are in my life that suffer daily.

I keep using the word “suffer”. Merriam-Webster defines it as “to experience pain, illness, or injury”. Dictionary.com defines it as, “to endure pain, disability, death, etc., patiently or willingly”. Patiently or willingly? I don’t know of many that would endure it willingly. Maybe patiently, because we have no choice.

Over the next days (or so) I will unfold how I and others are learning to “experience pain, illness, or injury”. We will visit a promise, “It will be OK, but the time between now and OK will be tough”.

Stay tuned.

**  www.medicaldaily.com 8.11.15

Change is Consistent!

I have been told for years that the only thing in life that is consistent is change. So once again, I have changed my blog. There are so many things I want to say, but FaceBook and Twitter just seem inadequate. I will be covering some interesting (to me) topics. I hope that you follow my blog. I will be finishing the cancer discussion soon, as well as covering other topics. If you find it interesting, let me know. If you would like to discuss or debate with me, please feel free. All I ask is that you respect each other. You can disrespect me all you want, but not the visitors to my site. I will cover topics like hunting, fishing, cancer surviving, chronic pain and many other topics. If you have a topic you want more information on please let me know. I will keep the posts short, I promise! If a topic will be long, I will make it into a multiple day post.

Thank you for taking some time out of your day.

Michael Myrick