Real pain management has given way to pill-popping

Make the pain go away. That's the wish of millions of Americans who have disabilities, debilitating injuries or disease. via The Tennessean

[steric]

What do you consider real pain? If a method to ameliorate this is out there , why not use it? Enough of this crazed conservative " pain meds lead to addiction'. I'd rather be pain free and addicted, than in constant/chronic pain anyday!

[donkey]

ditto

[Regular in St Paul]

yep, me too

[Carre]

Some times drug addition cause more pain then the pain we are treating. I now go to a psin clinic that treats pain with no narcotics It does work

[dee]

steric wrote:

What do you consider real pain? If a method to ameliorate this is out there , why not use it? Enough of this crazed conservative " pain meds lead to addiction'. I'd rather be pain free and addicted, than in constant/chronic pain anyday!

Ditto...Ditto...Ditto...I would like someone in the "non-pain population", to live in MY shoes, for one hour...experience the kind of 24/7 unrelenting pain I live with, day by day, minute by minute.....and then I would like to hear their condescending views about "CHRONIC PAIN" and about how they would NOT take narcotics because they are "ADDICTIVE"!! I bed 100% that they would change their tune!!It is so easy to pass judgment when you live a physically, comfortable life!!

No one can understand the horrors of living in chronic pain, unless you LIVE it....and BREATH IT every waking moment!!

OK. I will get off my soap box, now!! D

[kydrby4ever]

Carre wrote:

Some times drug addition cause more pain then the pain we are treating. I now go to a psin clinic that treats pain with no narcotics It does work

depending on the type of pain, some pain cannot be treated w/o narcotic meds...theres nothing wrong w/ pain meds if used as needed for pain and a detox plan is put in effect from day one so you never increase due to tolerance going up, when you dont get relief from the meds, you subutex and dry out for weeks then go back w/ a lower dose, and crawl back to your orriginal dose, and every 3months you do this to keep the dose in perspective and working, if you neglect the detox regularly, youll increase regularly, before ya know it youll be doing 5/ oxy 80s a day for a sprained wrist, swearing its sooooo baddddd the pain, the mind manipulates you into thinking it hurts so bad, because thats what gets you to take more!!! you are at war w/ your mind!!! just like the rat in the experiment cage that starves to death choosing cocaine over food till it dies of starvation.... the mind is at war w/ the body... thats all addiction is, you really dont get sick, ya feel sick!!! during w/d a small pill wouldnt get ya better if y7ou were really sick, its a game.... fabricated in the mind, same as a crack wh*re fooled mentally into thinking she /he needs that drug that bad... will literally do what it takes to get it!!! Why? they "think" they need it... if ya detox 3-4X a yr and never increase once ya know what treats your pain, youll never have a issue w/ abuse...regardless of how the drug is taken and what reasons.... do the drug, dont let the drug do you!!!

[star]

I also have chronic pain ,I have Lupus,fibromaliga,arthris(feet ,hip,back,legs,hands & fingers,arms,& any where elce arthris can "land" I have it.Most times I'm depressed,hate my life,hate to look in a mirror, the lupus has made my skin "brown spotty"looking,& newly dignoised(<sic ?)with Thyroid problem & lost a lot of weight & look like a skeleton. If I did'nt have a good family , good hubby, 2 good sons & 3 beautiful lillte grand daughters I would'nt b sitting here typing this .I see no reason to b here & b n constant pain day & night 24/7..I ask God what I done to deserve this kind of life?? I feel I'm just taking up space.Sorry,didn't mean to go on so.

[wife with chronic pain]

Chronic pain is absolutely real and a major epidemic. My wife has SUFFERED with chronic pain for over five years now. Not a day goes by that she doesn't have pain.
I feel so incredibly fortunate that I haven't developed a chronic pain condition and live in relative health harmony. However, the hell I've seen my wife go through and the disbelief from physicians and my family about her pain is very upsetting. It's sad that the few who have abused pain medicines have cast such a cloud of negativity onto those who absolutely need pain control medicine.

[jporter10]

Yo! I second this comment. I too have unbearable pain that makes me very sick without pain drugs. Morphine happens to be the best. It wipes out the pain and makes it so I can face the day and operate in it. Does it create more pain. I don't know 'cause I cannot get by the pain of the body. My greatest pain is the fear of not being able to get any pills. Each month I go in for evaluation to my doctor. Each month I am tormented that maybe I may die tomorrow if I do not get rid of this pain. Oh God, walk in my shoes, please.

[Carre]

Pain is very real and hard to live with. I also have this pain all of the time.But because of the addictive qualities of oxycotin. Now I can not have a complete reliefe becsuse ofmthe addiction. I do what I can as we all do. Don't let anyone tell you you do not need whar you need.

[Loni]

Okay, you all have some very good points. I also live in chronic, debilitating pain, and have had 6 spinal fusions.(I'm also only 22 years old.) Let me shed some light on the tolerance/addiction vs. need thing. Tolerance is basically your body becoming used to a med, like oxycontin or ms contin. What happens is that the pain receptors in your brain tell you that you're in pain. As your tolerance to opiates grows, your brain starts producing more and more "pain receptors", causing you to be more sensative to the pain that you're in, and causing you to need more narcotics to control that pain. And around and around you go on the merry go round of chronic pain/tolerance.

[Kay Kay]

I myself live with chronic pain, I have done the whole, epidural injections, physical therapy, chiropractors, the ancient chinese pin thing - I can't remember the name of this therapy. I finally had a fusion in my neck for my c5, c6 & c7 discs that were herniated. They took a bone from my hip and removed the discs and fused the bone with a titatnium plate, well for three weeks I cried daily on my couch, called my doctors who thought I was just overreacting to the pain so they increased my dose a little. Finally it was time for my appt. they took an xray and told me I had to go back into the hospital the next day because the plate that was supposed to be held in by 6 screws was hanging on by three. So I let them fix that. I still to this day have chronic pain, not the same exact pain, but just as bad. Now I have deteroiation in my throacic region and chronic spasms in my shoulder. No more surgery for me. Medication works, and like another person mentioned having a detox plan is a good way to go to avoid addiction. The doctor who has finally given me the meds I need is now being accused of over prescribing. I wonder if any of these accuses have ever had chronic pain or lived with someone who has. It's like another person wrote some days it feels like you'd rather be dead, but I'm 41 with 2 sons so I go one. I hope my doctor's case works out because I don't want to have to go through "the system" again. He listened about my everyday life and checked me out every month, did drug screenings what else could he do. I'll pray for him and the rest of you out there living with this HORRIBLE WAY OF LIFE. sorry to go on so long but people should know what we go through.. thanks for reading - I wish all of you pain sufferers and supporters of us PEACE

[sadie]

i too have had chronic pain any dr. i went to prescribed meds but for short periods of time then the ole you have to find soemmthing instead of pain medications wore in...welllllllllllllllllll i have tried everything theree is and the only thing i can say that gave me my life back was probally the same doctor as kaykay he saved my life and let me live each day as pain free as he could, now he faces charges this is totaly unfair and as for the lies i have been reading they make me sick, I know what i lived before my visits and now sit here wondering what am I gonna do ...

[SSwanson]

http://video.google.com/videoplay...

[Ruthillia]

I've been in constant (chronic) pain for 18 years. I am now 50 years old. For the past two years I've lived in east-central Ohio and have been unable to find a MD that will treat my pain, with narcotics, in the manner I am used to. Life has been beyond hell, if you wish to call it a life. I am unable to do anything these days. Thank god I have a hubby that understands but it IS getting hard on him now. I am taking 30mg morphine sulfate er (MS Contin) 2x/day. In the past I've had excellent care and MDs that worked WITH me. I've been through everything that most all of you have done. I still meditate daily and stretch daily and I think without that I'd be in bed 24/7. As it is I don't drive, I don't go anywhere and have no friends. I can do nothing around the house. In the 18 years I've lived with pain my life has never been this restricted. The med does little for my pain yet the MD I did find will give me nothing else and seems to not trust me. He has all my records yet dismisses me. I used to use diazapam (Valium) for the horrible spasms but he will only give me expensive Skellaxin that doesn't work as well and due to the cost I can't use regularly.

I've an appt. with him on the 22nd of this month. The hubby goes with me of course. I've nothing left with regard to approaching this man about my quality of life. I'd love any and all suggestions.

We would love to leave Ohio and go back to NY but unfortunately we bought a house and with the market as it is we'll never sell it now. The hubby has suggested just throwing in the towel financially in order to get me some decent health care again but that would mean that at our age we'd never have financial stability, such as it is anyway, again. He has high bp and I worry that something like this would make it worse. Without him I'll be totally dependent on a stranger.

I agree, by the way, that a life without pain and with using narcotics is much, much better than no narcotics and the constant pain. I've, in the past been rather successful balancing the two, with the help of good health care professionals, and would love to go back to that again.

Also, as some info for those that may be able to give me some suggestions, I've tried all kinds of non-narcotics in the past with little to no help gained from them. I can't use NSAIDs as I get blurred or double vision and also one caused shortness of breath. I've been on Neurontin in the past, up to 1200mg 4x a day, and after a year and a half we gave up on that since it gave me no noticable relief. And so on.

[Ruthillia]

As a by the way, prior to moving to Ohio we lived in Kinnear, WY. I had a very good and completely understand MD in Lander, WY. WHY is it that in both Rochester, NY and Lander, WY I had no troubles finding good MDs yet in Ohio I was lucky to find one that would give me ANYTHING and I have to drive 65 miles each way to his expensive office to do so??? I'd LOVE to hear from anyone in central and east central Ohio.

Thanks for letting me vent in my previous post. Oh, and I miss Wyoming as much as I do "back home" western NY state. The hubby misses WY badly but again, to move back means selling this house.:(

[bren]

I have fibromaliga for 8 years. it has taken my life over. I can not work ,Ihave no social life,nofamily life. I have me in and out of bed for years. mostly in bed.Iam on strong medicine,and that is not working anymore.....I FEEL LIKE GIVING UP,but how do you do that? I JUST stopped taking LYRICA it made me swell up so bad,and that made me hurt more. HURTING IN VA.

[Angel]

star wrote:

I also have chronic pain ,I have Lupus,fibromaliga,arthris(feet ,hip,back,legs,hands & fingers,arms,& any where elce arthris can "land" I have it.Most times I'm depressed,hate my life,hate to look in a mirror, the lupus has made my skin "brown spotty"looking,& newly dignoised(<sic ?)with Thyroid problem & lost a lot of weight & look like a skeleton. If I did'nt have a good family , good hubby, 2 good sons & 3 beautiful lillte grand daughters I would'nt b sitting here typing this .I see no reason to b here & b n constant pain day & night 24/7..I ask God what I done to deserve this kind of life?? I feel I'm just taking up space.Sorry,didn't mean to go on so.

Star you just wrote my life... except I'm 27 have to little kids and a good husband. I am under medicated.

I hope God will give you some relief...:)

[Angel]

Carre wrote:

Some times drug addition cause more pain then the pain we are treating. I now go to a psin clinic that treats pain with no narcotics It does work

Carre under treatment of pain can actually cause a chronic problem when the nervous system changes in response to continuing pain signals. Nerves can become permanently hypersensitive to painful and non painful stimuli, like touch or vibration. With chronically under treated pain, the painful area can also spread well beyond the original injured site or originating pain site.

[Angel]

Angela----------Alabama wrote:

Have you ever thought about what caused your pain?? OK, so you have a syndrome, illness, disease or condition.....but what caused that??
I have been diagnosed myself with a disease in the past and had most every known symptom for that disease. Every body part either had pain or was malfunctioning in some form or another.
But that was then......now I live symptom free. HOW?? I took my health into my own hands. For starters, eat healthy, eat natural, eat raw types of foods. Get rid of the modified, preservative filled junk food, processed foods. Drink filtered water. Exercise daily....even just down the block helps.
Do your research and find the best supplements. Our soil is mineral depleted, so we don't get the nutrition that we once did. Take natural supplements...not ones bought on the shelf, that are unregulated, but good quality ones.
The air we breathe is toxic, the water we drink is toxic, there are pesticides, herbicides....etc. on our foods. Their is toxins in our cleaning products. There are toxins in our soil.
Cleanse regularly!! Don't cleanse just the colon or just the liver.......the WHOLE body needs to be cleansed regularly to better function.
I do an internal full body nutrient cleansing regularly. It is all natural, has 242 organic nutrients and is VERY gentle. It cleanses the entire body at once.....not just one organ. My hair looks healthier, my skin looks great, my acne has improved, I sleep better, I sleep sounder, I have better mental clarity, I have lost weight, I have a TON of energy, I gained muscle mass.....etc. I feel INCREDIBLE!!
If you would like more information on the cleansing program I use, feel free to email me....put TOPIX in the subject line.
I wish you all better health.
Angela
"Got Toxic Fat"
[e-mail]

A lot of these things are genetic... fibromyalgia a lot of times they say comes from trauma... but I truly believe I was born with it...

and everything you say is great to be healthy, but I can guarantee for someone with an autoimmune disease that stuff will not work... because our immune systems don't work right... My own tries on a daily basis to kill my bones because it mistakes them for a disease... so yeah if I try to booost my immune system I will just make everything worse. Just so you know.

but it is also possible for you that your healthy lifestyle is helping your problems... but there is also the possibility that you are in remission too right?

What works for one does not for all... I used to go to the gym daily... and was on no drugs... but I was still in just as bad pain ... in fact when I try to diets and exercising etc... I end up injuring myself.