Hello @patriciaki and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It sounds like you have truly taken your situation and found the way to keep going and enjoy your life. Thank you for sharing with members hope for finding their way to a better place with a positive mindset!

What would you tell someone who is just now starting this journey with arachnoiditis and pain management?

So happy for you Patricia!
That was my life five years ago. Despite the diagnosis of three very painful conditions : CRPS and arachnoiditis and also degenerative disease with several herniated discs etc that I still have. I was just like you still a happy camper enjoying family and grandkids and I actually I am still a happy camper but in a a scooter or wheelchair, I was
holding two jobs ( Montessori school teacher and an evening job at the Houston Symphony) But on September 14th 2016 driving my way home after working at a concert, a young guy crossed the intersection on red light, destroyed my car and caused me a displaced fracture in my sternum( breast bone )
From there there was a chain of events. I was back at work six weeks later but then came one after the other : costocondritis, L1L2 severely herniated disc ending up in surgery, dislocation of both jaws, electric shocks and excruciating pain in the right eye and eyebrow ( MRI showed a vein and an artery pressing on the trigeminal nerve ) that led to the trigeminal neuralgia diagnosis, a relentless TN that led to two brain surgeries and gamma knife surgery because it had left me without my ability to speak, I can relate with your arms, I can speak now, it lead me to many ER visits and admissions, in the meanwhile all of my joints were swollen and painful and I started having little clots and that led to the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis with positive rheumatoid factor, and RA usually presents with other autoimmune conditions so I also have Hashimoto’s disease and scalp psoriasis.
These days I am having severe sciatic pain in both legs, sitting up is a ceremony haha but I went to Phoenix for my grandson’s
BD ( I am in Houston) and to Austin three times my daughter is there with two other grandkids. My point is that I agree with you, despite everything that is goi nag o in my body and the horrendous pain of TN my wheelchair, cane and scooter have become amusement for the kids. I give them rides in the scooter, and the play Broadway musicals with my cane.
Let’s keep our heads up and let’s keep our spirits high. The opposite is nothing but living in death.
Not an option

I also take Gabopentin and Advil. It took a while before the Gabopentin kicked in but it seems to be working but mine is a small dosage. My achronoiditis was a recent diagnosis and there not sure of the cause except I fell before the crippling pain in my left leg started.