asterroc | (no subject)

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Damn I hate having a pain condition. Been dealing with cysts for something like two weeks now - as soon as one heals up, another one blossoms. Maybe once school actually starts I'll stop worrying about it and the cysts will go away.

What's bothering me about them right now is the continual pain. Sure it's mild, but it's always there, and that's really draining on physical energy, emotional energy, and attention span. I regenerate a spoon maybe every hour or two, and then I promptly use it up making lunch. Or washing my lunch dishes. Or rotating some of the toys in Kappa's cage. Or even just making a list of all the things I have to be doing! I keep wanting to just sit down and cry from the pain and the frustration all together. But that would take a spoon I don't have.

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Oy. That totally sucks, and I sympathize. I'm wishing you luck that the near future is better.

*Hugs* Thanks.

One crappy thing is that when I'm stressed it causes flare-ups, and flare-ups get me stressed. One thing I'm grateful for is that it's an intermittent condition, and sometimes I have remissions that last months.

Oh, vicious cycles (so named for their viciousness and their cyclicality)....

::rehugs::

Do stress management techniques work at all for you?

Usually when I'm stressed I don't have the time to work on stress management. :-P More seriously, the best way for me to reduce stress is to complete the tasks that are causing the stress in the first place. But it probably wouldn't hurt for me to look into actual stress management techniques.

I have something similar that pops up when I get really stressed and I found that L-Lysine helps keep it to a minimum or prolongs how long I can go without any symptoms; like over a year sometimes!
You can get L-Lysine 500mg at any vitamin store and it's not expensive. (I get mine at WalMart)
I take one before I go to bed with a glass of water- and if I "feel" the symptoms coming on I double up on the dosage.
You may give it a try to see if it works for you.
Bob

There's no evidence of Lysine having any relationship to hidradenitis suppurativa, but thanks for the thought. Someday I'd like to do a food log to see if anything does make a difference (some people have found that a gluten-free diet helps), but it's not something I want to try right now.

Sorry to hear you've been having a tough time.
Is pain localized to areas of cysts? And can you use local anesthetics on them?

The pain is local to the cyst (though I often end up aching everywhere because the pain causes tension in many other muscles). I can't use a topical anesthetic as the pain is within the flesh of the cyst, not just the skin above it. What I call a cyst is medically called an abscess, and part of how the body creates them is walling off the interior of the abscess from the rest of the body, so it's unlikely topical would be able to penetrate it anyway. Unfortunately none of the derms I've ever used has had good recommendations about pain management (it's just not something they train in), and I always forget to ask my GP when I see her b/c I'm never in pain at the time.

I think I'm going to call up my derm and get a cortisone shot. They hurt like fuck, and the last one I got I broke down in tears as soon as the derm left the office, but I'm afraid this cyst is looking like it might not resolve on its own by the start of school Tuesday.

I agree that worrying about it only makes it worse, at least it's that way for my autoimmune problems. )-; Thank you for sharing the spoons story, and feel better!

It's amazing the powers the human body has to mess itself up. :(

The Spoon Theory is an old story (well, internet-old) that really helps to explain to "normal" people what those of us with limits go through.

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