What is Amplifed Pain Syndrome?

Very few people are knowledgeable about Amplified Pain Syndrome because it's not a common disorder.

Amplified Pain Syndrome (APS) is a condition that someone's pain is increased because of abnormal firing of nerves that cause them to feel pain when they shouldn't. Pain can be in one location, multiple locations, or their whole body. Some causes of APS is stress, illness, or prior injury.

A chart to demoastrate APS: http://www.chop.edu/conditions-diseases/amplified-musculoskeletal-pain-syndrome/about

This condition is more common in children, and it's surprising that children can handle excruciating pain for weeks, months, or even years before that get an official diagnoses. I went through seven years of extreme pain, many hospital stays, and an assortment of medication trials before a doctor knew what was wrong with me.

The first day of my junior year I missed school to take a trip up to Children's Mercy in hopes of finding out what was wrong with me. When my doctor, Cara Hoffart in the Pain Management Department, told me I have APS it brought my mom and I to tears. Although that might sound insane, but we cried happy tears. Once you finally know what's wrong it's such a relief, I can honestly say that day changed my life for the good.

Before you can officially be diagnosed with APS you have to rule out all of the other possibilities to make sure you're not misdiagnosed. For years all of the specialists I went to all told me I had migraines, allergies, and did countless tests on me.

So when I went to my very first appointment with Dr. Hoffart she took a very different approach than any other doctor I have met. I was handed this picture below to mark "X"s where I have pain:

The body chart: http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/dT6/edz/dT6edzpT9.jpeg

Sadly enough my picture of a body had "X"s all over it. Most of the pain I had was in my head, neck, back, and hips, and I did have time when my whole body was in pain.

For extra information check out Center for Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome.

Now you that know what APS is, you will have a better understanding of my journey to conquer it.