prior to my accident I had a full, busy life. My accident was on February 26, 2009. I was in the hospital for a very long time and have had 1 eleven hour surgery. When I came home from the hospital I lived in a hospital bed in our living room but have since switched to a special electric recliner that has special foam to form around my body and and adjusts just like a hospital bed. I spent about a year completly blitzed on pain meds; duragesic, vicodin, valium, soma, gabapentin, lyrica, mirapex, etc. etc. etc. and I had every kind of side effect you can imagine. I was so blah all the time that I was missing my boys childhood and I was becoming desperatly depressed by both the pain and physical limitations. After I decided to stop all meds I knew that my life would become more difficult as my ability to multi task or even focus while in pain is minimal but I also knew that my ability to be cranky or "complain" was going to disappear too as I was making the choice to come off all meds. I have learned not to complain or even bring it up because it is sort of a given that I am in pain and I came to believe that I would always be in pain and would have to find a way to co-exist with it however when I am really hurting I have a REALLY hard time not being cranky and bitchy and having this forum and the ability to talk about my pain and commesurate with others who know just what I am talking about is an absolute GODSEND and has helped me feel less alone in my pain and has helped me better cope with my crankiness. I have learned so much on this forum and I thank you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!