Physical response and experience to acute and chronic pain

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Neuro.Conundrum
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12 Aug 2016, 3:20 am

Hello. I have had a lot of stuff going on with me medically, which has created a scenario where I am experiencing pain at very high levels on a daily basis. Well, I think a lot of it is pain, which brings me here and would love your input.

When I say I think it is pain, it is because the muscle spasms often reduce or cease from the use of Percocet, while other types of medications have much less relief. For instance, pain medication often reduces spasms better than muscle relaxants. Moreover, I never seem to actually get a buzz off of percocet. I just get my body to be a bit more still, and I'm able to move around more freely.

Thus, it is appearing that I am not registering pain along most of the scale. I am recognizing it when it is something like an 8+, but below this it is more of a noxious sensation- often an electrical-like poke inside of me, or an uncomfortable warming and tingling. Or a mild spasm.

There are physical movements I uncontrollably have, such as twitching; my arms shaking up and down very rapidly; maybe sometimes my head doing the same thing; and pulling away, or going into what is like a full body cringe, from the light touch of an individual...say if it's in an area where I just had some spasm, I'm having a spasm, or feel the poking or burning or some other type of noxious sensation.

When there is rapid shaking, I have noticed that it is often accompanied with a bizarre type of prickly and warm sensation encompassing this same part of my body.

Prior to this starting to happen to me, I had always had a bizarre relationship with tactile sensations. First off, I have always have a very high threshold to pain. For instance, as a kid I had four of my finger slammed in the car door, and I just stood there laughing. Before I learned how to ride a bicycle, I jumped on my cousin's...and took it down a mile-long hill, only to discover at the bottom that I did not know how to break. A parked car is what ultimately made the bike stop . Again, crashing into the car wasn't exactly a horrible or traumatic experience. Even as an adult I have continued to have a very high pain threshold.

Ironically I also have certain areas that are hypersensitive to tactile sensation. For instance, I experience immense pleasure when somebody takes their fingers and gently strokes along the length of the inside of my arm, from the elbow to armpit. The longer and smoother the stroke, the more intense the pleasure, as it builds with the continuous motion. However, having this part of my body caressed rapidly crosses over into pain. I can handle about 2 soft glides before I feel it starting to overwhelm me, and by the end of the third..maybe 4th, I'm squirming and begging them to stop.

It is all just very weird, and I have sought out virtually every possible way to explain this. Now I am here hoping to find some insight.

Anyhow, here are some questions that I'm hoping to have you guys be able to provide answers for, as well as just general commentary on what I have just outlined.

1. Doesn't make sense that pain originating internally would still effect the same neurological pathways as the tactile sensory system, but instead of the sensation occurring on the outside (skin), it is occurring from on the inside (vessels, nerves, bones, etc.) . Therefore, could it be possible that this difference makes the brain's ability to process this information more difficult than it already is? Pain inside is still pain, and I could not find any other type of sensory pathway that is a specific to pain coming from the inside rather than the out. It is still touch, it is just touch on viscera.

2. For those with tactile issues, what is the best way that you can describe what it is that you feel inside when you experience pain, and how would you describe your physical response to it? I am talking of this deep, internal pain, again. Not skinning your knee kind of pain.

3. Have you found anything to help improve your ability to identify pain at the lower ends, so that maybe you can prevent it from reaching that 9 or 10?

4. When I say that I experience an electric poking sensation that is deeply noxious, does this ring true to anyone?

5. If I continue and state that I have noticed that muscle spasm trigger twitching through a process where muscle bands and fibers near the sensation try to deaden it by becoming very tight, resulting in more and more contracted muscle . If the intensity goes beyond a certain threshold, it's almost as if all of the energy trapped in the contracted muscles then drives rapid shaking of the affected body part.

6. In general, do you feel like you are connected to your body? I know this might sound weird, but I often feel like my body is just vessel that carries my brain. It is often difficult for me to explain what I am physically experiencing. And, it is not until whatever I am experiencing is just intensely overwhelming that I actually feel connected to my body. Again, I know that this sounds very weird to many people, but I am not sure if this is an autistic thing.

Anyhow, sorry for the long post, but I just really wanted to know if any of you have experienced anything at all so we'll answer this, and if you could please share your stories. Additionally, I have never been diagnosed as having Asperger's but I have recently started to wonder, particularly because a tentative sensory processing dysfunction. I have undergone extensive neurological examination, as well as other types of examination, and do not have anything that can explain the jerking and spasms that I experience.

Thank you. :heart: NC :heart:



Ichinin
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12 Aug 2016, 3:45 am

My experience and what others write is more of us being creeped out by being touched. It's not a pain sensation or shaking.

Suggest you talk to a doctor, especially if you have severe pains as "8/10" as you describe it. It can be something like a neurological disease, a virus or a toxin.


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12 Aug 2016, 4:40 am

having to ration comparatively rare pain pills, I got good practice calibrating my pain levels on the 1-10 scale [1=least pain, 10=most pain], and will medicate with narcotics/muscle relaxants when the pain exceeds 7, and with NSAIDS/acetaminophen when it reaches 4, and to keep my pain from reaching that level I take prophylactic doses of concentrated curcumin/piperine/5-lox inhibitor.



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12 Aug 2016, 5:31 am

I think Auntblabby has a healthy approach to this.

If your pain is 8 out of 10, it's time to see a doctor, definitely. You shouldn't be in so much pain.

Physical pain like this is almost definitely not related to Asperger's/Autism.



Last edited by kraftiekortie on 12 Aug 2016, 5:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

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12 Aug 2016, 5:32 am

auntblabby wrote:
having to ration comparatively rare pain pills, I got good practice calibrating my pain levels on the 1-10 scale [1=least pain, 10=most pain], and will medicate with narcotics/muscle relaxants when the pain exceeds 7, and with NSAIDS/acetaminophen when it reaches 4, and to keep my pain from reaching that level I take prophylactic doses of concentrated curcumin/piperine/5-lox inhibitor.



AB, she is questioning if these spasm/pain symptoms are related to having Aspergers/Autism or not than a question how you medicate. She should see a specialist doctor because this can be serious:

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Additionally, I have never been diagnosed as having Asperger's but I have recently started to wonder, particularly because a tentative sensory processing dysfunction. I have undergone extensive neurological examination, as well as other types of examination, and do not have anything that can explain the jerking and spasms that I experience.


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auntblabby
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12 Aug 2016, 6:07 am

to OP Neuro- please get a second opinion and a neurological consult. spasms are not normal. something is amiss and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.



kraftiekortie
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12 Aug 2016, 7:37 am

This is no Conundrum. There is no doubt that you should see a doctor.



Neuro.Conundrum
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12 Aug 2016, 7:41 am

Let me clarify...the case of pain is not autism or sensory disturbance. The pain itself is from a mix of structural issues coming to head all at once, such as discovering I have TMJ so bad my joints are deranged and discovering that I have congenital bilateral hip dysplasia that was not diagnosed in childhood, so that now I have tendonosis from joint instability induced imbalance and over use.

It's my reflexes of my body going into cringes and pulling away/pulling in to protective mode; inability to describe what I feel when asked to rank my pain if it's below a 7-8+ other than using words/phrases like "uncomfortable" or "profoundly noxious sensation I cannot block out"; and uncontrollable response to these sensations.



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12 Aug 2016, 7:47 am

I understand you know your own body--but you should still be under the care of a doctor, if you're not already under the care of a doctor.

I'm thinking maybe you should go to a pain clinic should you be located near one. Not a "pill mill."

There are places which specialize in pain management for things such as Trigeminal Neuralgia.



Neuro.Conundrum
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12 Aug 2016, 8:54 am

I am. I've been being seen at Mayo in Rochester, MN. There is nothing traditionally neurologically wrong with me.



Neuro.Conundrum
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12 Aug 2016, 9:04 am

Also I don't have typical TMJ symptoms, such as the fact what neuralgia I experience apparently is along the facial nerve. In any case, it still does not change the fact that my reactions to pain are atypical, as are my interpretations and experiences of it.



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12 Aug 2016, 9:07 am

I wonder if Acupuncture might be of assistance in this.



AnneOleson
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12 Aug 2016, 5:31 pm

I have hip dysplasia too as well as fibromyalgia. Massage really helps. I went once a week for the last ten years I was working in an office job. Yoga and breathing exercises help too. (I was almost 50 before the hip problem was diagnosed.)



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12 Aug 2016, 6:02 pm

how do they fix hip dysplasia?



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12 Aug 2016, 7:52 pm

By the time you get to my age, I think you just live with it. Looking for it is part of the "well-baby" check given to newborns now. I think they do surgery then. It used to be that youngsters had to sleep in special leg braces with their legs spread apart, feet laced into boots. I have it in one hip only - it's slightly smaller than the other. I sit lopsided and tend to veer off to one side when I'm walking. And the muscles tense up and the hurt never really goes away. I've never asked, but I've wondered - if I need a hip replacement someday can they give me a proper sized and shaped joint!



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12 Aug 2016, 7:58 pm

AnneOleson wrote:
By the time you get to my age, I think you just live with it. Looking for it is part of the "well-baby" check given to newborns now. I think they do surgery then. It used to be that youngsters had to sleep in special leg braces with their legs spread apart, feet laced into boots. I have it in one hip only - it's slightly smaller than the other. I sit lopsided and tend to veer off to one side when I'm walking. And the muscles tense up and the hurt never really goes away. I've never asked, but I've wondered - if I need a hip replacement someday can they give me a proper sized and shaped joint!


just a suggestion, you could try a combo of 1,500mg daily dose of concentrated curcumin [in a big capsule], together with 10-20mg daily dose of piperine [is part of the other capsule], together with 5-lox inhibitor. it's what I take for my arthritis. it works.