I have MANY medical problems in addition to adhesions (back, hip, arteries, veins, hands etc).
I did endure the pain from my adhesion problems for about 6 months before each surgery without any pain meds, as hard as it was, before all my 5 adhesion surgeries (18 total surgeries on my body)..... BUT I had surgery which did help me eventually, even if it was just for a few years each time or I would have been disabled at 25 years old already! I could go back to work and did after each surgery. The ONLY reason I got help with surgery when I did was because they got to the point of preventing organs from functioning so something had to be done.
I could not have endured the pain for years on end without surgery or help of any kind and had to leave my job for a few months each time!! Now what do you think that did to my employment status?
I also have not been able to move my bowels without mega herbal laxatives for most of my adult life due to adhesions and doctors not helping me (and I tried "everything" they told me, which only made me worse). Not moving your bowels for weeks at a time causes allot of pain!!
Now due to many additional medical problems, which all cause tremendous pain, I have finally had no choice but to give in to taking narcotics or I would be bed-fast without it! I am NOT a lazy person and never have been, quite the opposite since everyone complains about me being a perfectionist.
I opened my own home-based business (sitting on computer)because I can no longer go out to work, can't walk, can't twist and bend, etc..... and need to try to bring in some money, as hard as it is!! This is the only way I can work since I can close when pain is too bad, get up or lay down when I need to, etc. I can't do that working for someone else, but it sure isn't good for my business. I even worked "while I was in a Nursing Home" with skilled nursing care for 8 weeks!!! My husband brought me home for a few hours in the evening and I would sit at my computer crying in pain while struggling to do bills and book-keeping, in a wheelchair with an PIC Line IV hanging out of my arm!
I cannot get disability because I tried to be a good person and started running my own business in desperation instead of collecting years ago. Now I don't have the credits required because I have not shown a profit from my business in the 6-1/2 years I have it, and you don't pay into social security until you show a profit! My husband earns a living so we aren't poverty stricken for SSI either. We do need 2 incomes like most people so he is forced to work 2 jobs now to pull the slack for me! We are in our 50's.....how long can we do this?
This has destroyed our lives financially and emotionally. We have no idea what we will do for retirement in 12 years from now, and thats' God keeping my husband healthy enough to keep working. I think it is terrible what we are forced to endure, and without compassion, help or understanding! If someone FIXED me we wouldn't be in this mess and I could hold up my end of the finances!
Do you have any idea how that makes any of us feel?? I don't think most of us are lazy people or just looking for pity! We want to be productive like we once were, given the choice. JEAN