Thanks for sharing what works for you. It is always so helpful.
I wish I could take the strong narcotics like percs and vicoden, those absolutely took my pain away but I got so terribly backed up and with chronic diverticulitis, I ended up with an 8 day stay in the hospital (one of four). That was with taking the super sweet (yuck) prescription for constipation.
We do need to find what works for us. I just wanted to mention the down side of the narcotics. For some reason, they put Tramadol into the same category though it is formulated to act as one. Sure there is a risk of overusing and thus addiction but only because it works. I knw that if I take more than prescribed, I'll run out. It just seems simple to me.