Chronic pain

[Binktopia]

How are we dealing with Chronic pain? What has worked for you?

I am and am lost to how to resolve all this stuff.

I can't really clean my house without pain medication... I can't do my job.

I am having trouble.

[Daehawk]

I live with it. Back has hurt since I was a kid. Disabled mostly because of it. Had fetal position making kidney stones for a decade before getting relief. I took opiates from docs for 8 years then walked away. Now I take 4 tylenol and 2 800mg ibuprofen a day among other things. Get very little from them but its a bit. So I give up and just put up with it..and ya I get nothing done really.

EDIT: Sometimes I toss in Aleve.

This is NOT a recommendation from me but the thing that works best FOR ME is a bottle of cough medicine. The recommended dose is 1 of their little cups full. But if I take 3 of them I feel a lot better. Not high or dizzy or like Im on something just better. It fixes my mood and depression, makes the pain a lot less and allows me to sleep good too. Im talking Delsym or the generics of it..store brands. Works better than anything doctors ever prescribed. I only use the one that the ONLY active ingredient is Dextromethorphan Polistirex. Its the extended release type of Dextromethorphan. No other active stuff...none of the mucus relief or anything. Thats dangerous and other stuff makes you sick or kill you.

Sometimes Ive taken the whole bottle. 5 oz. Im still not high or drunk but I feel great all day and sleep at night. I then have no pain at all or very little. I also feel young again. You know how you lift an arm or leg and you feel the weight of it? Not on this. Feel totally light like I was a teen again. But I only use it very rarely when Im in a LOT of pain or have gone without sleep for days. Also its money gone I cant afford. So I use it mostly to help a little and to sleep. I take the 3 little cups about 2 hours before bed on occasion. It works better than any of the so called 'powerful' pain medicines the docs ever gave me like hydrocodone or oxycodone opiates. I used to be prescribed hydrocodone, soma, tramadol, and Opana ER at the same time. I took them 2-4 times a day......that is a LARGE amount of pain meds according to doctors..and the government kinda clamped down on that over time. But even it only helped so much on my pain. I have a big tolerance for stuff it seems. Must be my liver. My grandad was a super alcoholic..he could drink all day. I am not as I dont really like alcohol but my liver thinks it is I guess. The hospital once gave me 5 pain shots of different things in the emergency room for a kidney stone. I could barely walk when I got to the car but I still felt that stone.

But remember this is just my story. Dont follow it.

[Kraken]

I'm fortunate to only suffer from arthritis, mostly in my knees. It's not disabling and knees can be replaced when it eventually gets bad enough. Ibuprofen handles it.

[dbt1949]

I make my own medicine. Works for a lot of things. I make my own Excedrin. Two aspirin and two Tylenol and a caffeine pill. Not as good as opiates but good for over the counter.
And I rest a lot while working. Many breaks and many days if necessary to finish a project.
And of course knowing when to forget the project because it's not worth it.

[LordMortis]

How are we dealing with Chronic pain?

By praying it doesn't get worse? For me, I am trying to reduce some of the forms of chronic pain I have by being more amble. Walking and stretching are now part of my daily routine. I'm trying to get to that arbitrary 10,000 steps a day but, you know, pain and exhaustion. I'm hoping that plus better diet will see weight loss and strength and flexibility increases that will hopefully reduce some of my pain. I'm trying to cut back on over eating and the simple sugars that contribute to inflammation while increasing dark colored fruits that are supposed to reduce inflammation. My results are so/so. Also I think I have some bad carpal in mousing arm all the way to my shoulder. I have no idea what's going to help that.

I was at the doctor today and we were discussing a bit on pain but not pain management. She is afraid that my chest pain when I walk is heart related and I'm like "well, if I can't even walk then there's no way I'm going to increase my fitness or slow decrepitude and it's all pointless anyway."

[Daehawk]

I make my own Excedrin. Two aspirin and two Tylenol and a caffeine pill.

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy Excedrin or Anacin? Do they still make Anacin? Maybe Doans. Ive never had Doans before but seen the old ads when I was kid about how they are for back pain. How one is better at back than another I dont know...i think its about the same as Aleve if I remember right.

[Pyperkub]

Depends on the type of Chronic Pain. After 18 months of working from home, I started having wrist/shoulder/back pain (it turned out my home office chair hydraulics were failing and my home office workspace was never really designed for full time work from home but rather a few hours here and there.

Invested in a new chair, desk, footrest and did a few months of physical therapy and that's done with.

I still get some periodic massive headaches, which (after years of investigation) turned out to be Allergies/Ear issues/Sleep Apnea, and I mostly have those under control now, but still have days when they get to me and I have to call in sick or take it easy for the day and get a nap in or something, but all the ergonomic stuff is mostly resolved (gets a little twingey periodically tho...).

There are also days (especially during the pandemic) that I wish I did have something stronger than ibuprofen around the house, but those are few and far between... and while it seems like it would be nice in the short term, I expect that long term I'd regret it... that's also why I've stayed away from all the CBD products, but I do know people who swear by some of the creams and ointments...

[Jeff V]

How are we dealing with Chronic pain? What has worked for you?

Opiods. J/K, I was posting that on behalf of our dear retired tgb.

I'm taking arthritis-strength acetaminophen to manage pain in my fingers, elbows and shoulders. It is marginally successful in that I might be able to fall asleep, but sometime in the middle of the night excruciating pain will keep me awake until dawn.

[Kraken]

Wife swears by a tincture of CBD oil for her back pain. She's also getting physical therapy now, which helps temporarily, but she isn't doing the homework to "strengthen her core" so it won't do any long-term good. She really needs to lose a lot of weight, and has been told so by at least three medical professionals, but she's doing fuck-all about it. So, CBD oil it is.

[dbt1949]

I make my own Excedrin. Two aspirin and two Tylenol and a caffeine pill.

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to buy Excedrin or Anacin? Do they still make Anacin? Maybe Doans. Ive never had Doans before but seen the old ads when I was kid about how they are for back pain. How one is better at back than another I dont know...i think its about the same as Aleve if I remember right.

My formula is twice the strength at half the price. Doans pills are for backs. So it depends on where you hurt. I like my formula better and Doans are kinda hard to find around here.
But I don't get a percentage so I don't really care. Just saying what works for me.

[Formix]

Wife swears by a tincture of CBD oil. . . So, CBD oil it is.

Add me and my wife to this group. Full Spectrum CBD oil FTW. Works for a massage therapist with RA, and a desk-driving IT geezer.

[dbt1949]

I just noticed that Amazon doesn't sell cbd oil. Instead they sell hemp oil. Amazon calls it cbd but its not.

[Hipolito]

Bink ... ?

[Daehawk]

That seemed to be his last post.

[Isgrimnur]

How are we dealing with Chronic pain? What has worked for you?

I am and am lost to how to resolve all this stuff.

I can't really clean my house without pain medication... I can't do my job.

I am having trouble.

You still out there, Bink? If so, give me one Bink, only, please.

[dbt1949]

I see Walmart got sued for selling oxycontin . I don't understand why have to pay when all they did was sell what the doctors prescribed.

[Daehawk]

Same

They should look at themselves if they cant control themselves. Leave people in pain alone. You're taking away all their resources by killing yourselves stupidly.

Stop blaming everyone else .

"Im taking this knife and stabbing myself! Then Im sueing the knife company that made it and the store that sold it to me" In the old days it was thrown out of court. Now its *pat pat* "There there its ok we'll get'm"

[Unagi]

I don't understand why have to pay when all they did was sell what the doctors prescribed.

Does this help?

The Justice Department sued the retail giant Walmart on Tuesday, accusing it of fueling the country's opioid crisis by inadequately screening thousands of dubious prescriptions and ignoring repeated warnings from its own pharmacists.
Walmart "knowingly violated well established rules requiring it to scrutinize controlled-substance prescriptions to ensure that they were valid" and required "pharmacists to process a high volume of prescriptions as fast as possible,"


The retailer's own compliance unit "collected voluminous information indicating that Walmart was routinely being asked to fill invalid controlled-substance prescriptions," but "that unit for years withheld that information from pharmacists and allowed them to continue dispensing opioids based on invalid prescriptions," the suit says.

[Unagi]

"Im taking this knife and stabbing myself! Then Im sueing the knife company that made it and the store that sold it to me" In the old days it was thrown out of court. Now its *pat pat* "There there its ok we'll get'm"

Honestly, I can't follow this at all really.

Nothing like your analogy is going on here. Not remotely.

[Jeff V]

I don't understand why have to pay when all they did was sell what the doctors prescribed.

Does this help?

The Justice Department sued the retail giant Walmart on Tuesday, accusing it of fueling the country's opioid crisis by inadequately screening thousands of dubious prescriptions and ignoring repeated warnings from its own pharmacists.
Walmart "knowingly violated well established rules requiring it to scrutinize controlled-substance prescriptions to ensure that they were valid" and required "pharmacists to process a high volume of prescriptions as fast as possible,"


The retailer's own compliance unit "collected voluminous information indicating that Walmart was routinely being asked to fill invalid controlled-substance prescriptions," but "that unit for years withheld that information from pharmacists and allowed them to continue dispensing opioids based on invalid prescriptions," the suit says.

I would call that severe negligence. The pharmacies I've used (Walgreens, CVS) won't even refill Lipitor if it's too soon, much less any happy pills. My question though - just who is overruling the pharmacists? They should be king of their domains.

[Isgrimnur]

Corporate overlords.

[Jeff V]

Corporate overlords.

That's what you call massive overreach and they deserve to get fisted. Pharmacists are the ones licensed and empowered to make such decisions. It's like following an illegal order in the military though, the pharmacists could still be in for a world of hurt for complying with illegal orders. And they could just say no...my wife was asked to administer an IV (unsupervised) at her current job (which pays way more than other LPN jobs in the area) and she stood her ground and said while she certainly can do it from a skills perspective, it's illegal for an LPN to administer an IV unsupervised by an RN in Illinois. I'm so proud of her for taking that stance, and the company was forced to have an RN on duty to sign off on it. The result is better for all involved.

[Blackhawk]

From what I understand, Walmart's policies made it impossible for pharmacists to be as diligent as they are required to be. They refused blatantly false prescriptions, but they had quotas and expected prep rates that prevented them from researching prescriptions that were skirting the line or needed a closer look. They also had poor policies in place for reporting questionable prescriptions (I'm guessing that the pharmacists were forwarding them to corporate, but corporate wasn't passing them on to the DEA, allowing addicts to keep trying elsewhere.