Living on Campus With a Chronic Pain Condition

Happy Friday!!

I hope you are all doing well. The best thing about today is that it is Friday! I had two classes this morning and didn't have to work which means I started my weekend early (yay!!). Before I go take a little nap, I wanted to write about the benefits of living on campus and how to do that with a chronic pain condition.

For many the prospective of leaving the comfort of home terrifies them. Throw in a chronic pain condition and that anxiety can go through the roof. Most people who have chronic pain also believe that they simply cant go to college. They tend to get this idea from the people around them. Keeping our minds busy actually helps distract us from the pain and keeps the areas of the brain active that can become permanently damaged from the pain if they aren't used.

Tips to Succeeding with Chronic Pain Conditions:

1) When you are on the tour of the college ask many questions. This may be about how big the campus is, about their Disability Services, how accessible things are, ect.
2) Talk to the Dean of the Field you are going into. This is important to do on the tour portion. You don't want to go to a college and then find out that the Dean isn't going to help you if you required accommodations. As a Nursing Student and someone who has RSD with a SCS implanted I know I will need accommodations when I do clinicals. Talking to the Dean, let her know this in advance. that I will not be able to lift patients due to my SCS but will be able to trade off and do something else in place of it.
3) Choose a major that YOU want to do. Many people may believe that physically or mentally you may not be able to handle a certain major. The best major to pick is what you love and what you are interested in.
4) Become familiar with the Disabilities Office Early. Having accommodations is leveling the "playing field" for us who need it. They are there to help you, so take advantage of it. The earlier you set your accommodations up (usually a couple weeks before school starts, you usually only have to do it once) the better. The school is able to get the paper work out to your Professors and set up the accommodations you need. I have accommodations and take full advantage of them, especially since my pain gets worse in the winter months.

Living On Campus:

In addition to what is above here are tips to living on campus.

1) I recommend living with a roommate. There are medical singles available at some colleges and also regular singles. I believe though that living with someone helps you become more social and helps you learn to live with someone else.
2) Get out and enjoy Campus Life! There is so much to do on campus depending on where you go to college you just have to find whats going on. If you are going to college where you don't know anyone then go and mingle at the Activities Fair, Join a Club, ect. The more you get involved the more people you will meet.
3) Stay on campus a few weekends: The last college I went to almost everyone went home on the weekends and this one people pretty much stay. Staying on campus a few weekends will help strengthen the bond between you and your new friends plus it will make you less home-sick.
4) Bring Comforts From Home: I know many of us with chronic pain have a hard time sleeping and well add a dorm bed and it makes it worse. Bringing a mattress topper, sheets and blankets where you like the touch and color will help tremendously.
5) Decorate: My room at school and room at home look nothing alike. In a dorm it may seem hard to put your own creative touches to the room when your not allowed to paint and nails and pretty much a no. I love to get peel and stick wall decorations from either the Dollar Store or Family Dollar. Each year I get different ones so my room is different every year. I also bring pictures of my family, boyfriend, friends, and dog. To make it feel like the space is mine.
6) The best thing about living on campus is that if you need to nap then you can nap. You are able to rest, do homework, pretty much anything between classes without having to drive. I love my 5-10 min walk to class each morning especially since I don't have to fight over a parking space.

If you are not able to attend college, doing puzzles, sudoku, and / or reading are great ways to keep your mind distracted from the pain of RSD, Fribro, ect. and keeping the brain active.

Healing From Surgery / Birthday

Hello Healers!

I hope you are all doing well. I am recovering from my recent surgery pretty well and anxious to get my stitches out soon. They are getting dry and itchy and just not fun to have. I am a little score still and cant lay on my right side that long, or wear clothes yet that squeezes my hip area. I am happy though that I have most of my energy back even though I get completely exausted at the end of the day still.

I started back at school last Monday. I transfered to another college as I knew I couldnt make myself go back to the one I previously went to. It didnt make since to me that I was going to a college that I felt like I was going around in circles and couldnt get out no matter how hard I tried. I studied to the point to that I was making myself physicaly sick with making the RSD in my stomach worse and getting horrible tension headaches. They also wouldnt accomidate me foodwise so why pay all the money I was to go to that school?

I love were I am going now. I live in a suite with 5 other girls, 3 of the girls have their own rooms while I share a room with one of them. The girl I share the room with is also a nursing-transfer student so we are in the same place and taking most of the same classes.

My mom threw me a little BBQ / Birthday Party today. Some of my family and family friends came over to enjoy the last weekend of summer even though the weather was already a bit cool. We went to Whole Foods yesterday to get my Vegan Cake which was delicious. I recieved a few gifts for my dorm, to get my hair done, and some cards. J is taking me out to dinner tomorrow on my actual Birthday. I cant believe Im gonna be 21! I will post pictures after tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes from my surgery. I am healing from it wonderfuly and my RSD pain is undercontrol once again.

My Life Over the Past Week

Hey Everyone, I'm back!!

I have had a very tough week full studying for finals to early morning hours, taking the finals, catching up with friends one last time, and packing up my room. I am more than exhausted. About half of my dorm room is still in the cars waiting to be unpacked tomorrow.

My dog was absolutely excited to see me and I was just as excited to see her. She's more like a person who can't talk than a pet. She's followed me around the house since Ive been home with her tail high in the air. She even lucked out since her Birthday was the other day, she got her Birthday present a stuffed cupcake. She was excited and immediately started playing with it.

As much as I love my school I was happy to be able to come home and make me a nutritious vegan meal. I made me a vegan burger with cauliflower and broccoli on the side. It makes me happy to know that I'm now able to focus on myself for awhile. I know especially the last two weeks or so I have been following my diet but have been neglecting how my body feels. My RSD has been hurting bad but I will now be able to rest when need to and not have to stay up to study for tests, well at least for a month anyway.

I will be updating more now that I have more time. Again sorry for my absence.

Im In a Mini-Flair

The last few days have been going well. Getting back into school and clearing the cobwebs out of my head has been nice. The only thing that has been a little tough on me is conditioning my right arm to start writing more than it did over break. Due to my RSD it gets flaired up a bit when I don't use it for one activity for a little while and all of a sudden I'm back at it. Making it a little worse it the fact that I cut my finger nail on my right thumb last night. During my shower the stand that hangs on the shower head fell down. Instead of it falling on me, my gut reaction was to grab it resulting in a razor cutting my nail down the middle. It hurts pretty bad so I have been trying to move it so the RSD doesn't get any worse.

Before my shower incident I had my Chemistry Class. My Professor Commented on the fact that I look much healthier than I did last semester which I took as a huge compliment. I dont have any classes on Fridays so tomorrow Im looking forward to sleeping in a little bit and studying. Tomorrow is going to be a nice relaxing day.

Getting Back to Reality

IMannozzi and I Its nice to be back at NDC. It is nice to see the familiar

surroundings and friends who I haven't been able to see in over a month. Yesterday my new roommate and I got things settled in our room and got to know each other. I spent the rest of the evening catching up with friends and getting ready for today. My first class was Intermediate Algebra, not my favorite at all. At least I do know someone who went to my High School in the class. Him and I actually were on swim team together until he graduated. I saw him again last year at a party when he informed me that he was coming to NDC. I have another class tonight at 6. It is a Chemistry lab. I'm not looking forward to that one either but I know that it will help me reach my ultimate goal.

Thankfully everyone in this suite likes to stay warm like me :-) so Ive been doing ok pain wise. Its hard to get use to walking building to building once again especially in the cold.

The Last Couple Days

In the last couple days my mom and I have been doing last minute errands before I go back to school. On Friday we rode down to NDC to take care of a few things. I was given permission to look at my new room and to start moving things from my former dorm room in there. To make things easier mom and I started moving things. We were there from about 4 to about 11:15 at night with about a 1 1/2 dinner break at one of our favorite restaurants near the college. We were able to get 98% of the items done with only the major things needed to be done (bed placed, rug moved, fridge moved). During our dinner break mom and I went to California Pizza Kitchen, a delicious high end salad-pizza restaurant. I ended up getting a nice Cesar Salad and Vegetarian Spaghetti.

I will be going back to school in the next few days. School doesnt start until Tuesday but I have the option of going back tomorrow. Im looking forward to seeing my friends who I havent been able to see over Winter Break.