I too have eaten a reasonably wide menu of pain relief meds over the last 32 yrs. My experience has been very positive on the whole. Currently I am able to manage on my prescription. There are times where it becomes more difficult to distract the mind than others but that is life. It is difficult to keep the mind focused on anything all the time and chronic pain is just that, all the time. Rib
This makes me smile I had a similar thought about hibernation! I'd keep persisting, doctors don't like it sure but at the end of the day its not fun for you either!
Sometimes other things can be used. Heat with heat pack I use a hydro spar shower head although a strong directional shower is just the same. Some us a heated bean bag that has been heated in microwave etc.
Some people us Voltarol or other heating creams with nsid that will reduce swelling. Some people will feel better using a ice pack that sometimes helps.
You say you have tried all pain medications. Have you tried NSID medications to reduce the swelling or what has your GP recommended as there is many different types and groups.
One way you could try is a TENS machine, a physio would possibly show you how to use it.
A further pathway is discuss with your GP and ask for a referral to a Pain Clinic
we all agree there is no magic pill, just a balancing act to get a reasonable level between the pain , controlling side effects and trying to live something that imitates a 'normal' life.
I tend to treat my problems as an enemy - very simplistic but works most of the time. The downside is trying to raise the energy after losing one of the skirmishes!
Extending the analogy, the drugs are just inexperienced conscripts of somewhat dubious worth but without them the battle wouldn't get started i.e me getting out of bed in the morning.
You can't win any battle if you are too tired or tearful, but anger is a powerful ally.
I love your picture it is so true! Some pain killers have completely sedated me to the point where I feel like a vegetable so I'd say yeah at times that helps with the pain but I don't want to be sleeping every day! The only painkiller I experienced to be of some relief to me was gabapentin which worked well until the side effects take over; memory loss, weight gain etc so I came off them and I'm now trialling amtripteleine and due to start combining pregablin. If I have learnt anything from pain relief its not to have too much hope in the results, just to accept what happens and if one doesn't work try another, if that doesn't keep going! I was having this discussion with my friend who recently had an operation on her hip so she's experiencing a lot of post-operative pain and has many pain killers that she has to take to combat the other drugs. I often feel with medication its like you take this for pain, but then the side effects combined might actually be worse than the pain itself so you take another pill to combat the other and so on. Thinking about it I'm 21 and this amount of medication cannot be good for my body but without pain relief I cannot function at all. So in some ways I'm grateful in others I hate it
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.