Pain shrinked my brain

I think I found one of the reasons for why my brain isn’t working properly… Yes, I know that I’ve been crazy since I was born but on top of that it has stopped working as it used to do.

Accordning to an article over at My Back Pain people with chronic back pain brains may age up to 20 times faster than normal. It actually shrinks the brain by 11%. Specifically the gray matter, which is responsible for memory and information processing. MRI brain images and other tests were showing that chronic back pain patients lost about 5%-11% of gray matter a year – about the same as 10 to 20 years or normal aging. In addition, the more years someone has chronic back pain, the more brain loss they suffered.

Oh, boy, am I in big big trouble now… maybe I don’t even have any brain left soon? I’m starting to fall apart peice for peice here, first the back, now the brain, WHAT is to follow….?

Another article on that blog are also saying that chronic pain often presents sufferers with a real “catch 22″ dilemma. If they talk about their pain, they risk being perceived and labeled as hypochondriacs, or even worse, fakers or malingerers. On the other hand, if they hide their pain, others don’t believe the pain is significant. It is enough to tax the patience of the most stoic person….

How well don’t I know that. *shaking it off like water on a goose*

Yeeeahhh, I got the happy plague, so I don’t care!

Secret whisper: Any one having any spare parts to offer?

12 Comments on “Pain shrinked my brain”

Dave

said:

or even worse, old.

February 26th, 2006 at 5:52 am

Lifecruiser said:

Oh, no, no, no, dont tell me that I’m OLD too… *pulling desperately in my wrinkles*

February 26th, 2006 at 5:57 am

sisiggy said:

Try not to think about it…well, that’ll work out then, right?

February 26th, 2006 at 2:20 pm

Lifecruiser said:

Hm..sisiggy, think, what is that? Don’t I need to have a brain to be able to do that….? Hehe…

Well, quite frankly, I’m disappointed on both of you, for not offering me some spare parts *tears in my eyes*

February 26th, 2006 at 2:35 pm

Dave

said:

You don’t want the spare parts I’ve got, they’re somewhat shopworn and those that aren’t don’t work very well.

February 26th, 2006 at 3:06 pm

Lifecruiser said:

Maybe they are better than mine anyway? They seems to have stopped working completely, they just refuse to do what I’m telling them to do! They’re acting like revolting teenagers….

February 26th, 2006 at 3:13 pm

sharlet said:

I never knew you suffered from chronic back pain… have you seen a doctor about it?

Don’t worry too much about the “brain shrinking” bit. From your posts you don’t sound like you’re losing any part of your brain at all!

March 1st, 2006 at 6:22 pm

Lifecruiser said:

Yes, sharlet, I’ve seen a bunch of doctors, including teams of specialists. They couldn’t do anything for the moment. There is only one thing they can do and that’s not a good option, that is to try to operate but even the specialist said it wouldn’t be a good result of it. So I said no, there is too much risks involved when they goes into your spine. I could end up paralyzed in worst case. No way!
I’m going in sometime later this year to a new investigation again and then we’ll see what their sentence will be this time…
I’ve learned to live with it though. It’s all about your own attitude. I’m determent to do the best of my life and that’s it