I can't get effective pain management treatment, so now I am wrecking my body self-medicating and it has only made doctors more wary of my pain's validity.

It seemed like it happened overnight, the shift in pain management care. Suddenly, my healthcare providers started playing "Chronic Pain Patient Hot Potato" as I now call it. I didn't think to feel shame about being a chronic pain patient before, but I quickly realized that I was the stain on the medical system, the malignant tumor growing alongside critical arteries, unable to be ignored but treacherously complex to address.

My Primary Care provider had helped me with pain medication for years, but suddenly her hands were tied. She referred me to countless other specialists, including pain management, and I quickly learned that their hands were tied as well when it came to painkillers.

I was a wreck, I couldn't function because of my pain. I have done everything, checked every box that doctors asked me to before they would validate my pain. I have spent thousands of dollars on treatments that doctors required me to try, but that insurance didn't cover. Acupuncture, Ketamine Infusions, Eastern Herbal Therapies, Physical Therapy, countless restricted diets, every supplemented they recommended, you name it.

Finally, someone told me about Kratom. It was like a light at the end of a tunnel. One little herb made my pain so much better than the daily maximum dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, or the multiple psychotropic neurological drugs that pain management prescribed

For a while, Kratom remained a miracle of sorts, helping me with pain that used to hold me captive at home. But about 6 months after I started using Kratom (excessively, I might add) I started experiencing new types of abdominal pain.

2 years later, I have now been hospitalized multiple times with small bowel obstructions with no known cause. The motility of my gut is wrecked, and won't function normally, even when I stopped using Kratom. Additionally, I have consistently high Lipase levels, showing an issue with my Pancreas. I am a 26 year old who rarely drinks, and all other common causes of Pancreatitis were ruled out. I have a feeling that Kratom may be to blame, but there aren't enough reliable studies to discernibly get the answer.

I am sharing this to see if anyone else has had a similar experience, but also to warn anyone who is overusing kratom. Now when I mention Kratom (or THC) to my doctors, it makes them see me as even more of a drug-seeking addict, rather than a person in desperately debilitating pain. I've found myself lying about it at times before, and have seen how much more open-minded doctors are about pain when they don't blame you & your choices/lifestyle for it. I assume I am not the only person who has undersold my self-medication tendencies to healthcare professionals, which may mean that these "alternative remedies" are causing similar negative outcomes in patients, but doctors are unaware of them because of the stigma their patients have that keeps them from sharing.

Has anyone else experienced worsened gastrointestinal symptoms and/or Pancreatitis from Kratom?