Chronic Pain members - Welcome, please introduce yourself

Hi John. I'm new here, but I've lived with some of the pain you have for a long time. I've had scoliosis & degenerative disk disease for over 40 years. I've had Stage IV bone cancer for over 12 years. It's in some organs too -but I think that's over kill so I tell it to "bug off" (in much stronger words). Anyway I was just diagnosed last year & tried a lot of different things. I take 5/325 hydrocodone in the morning if everything is singing too loudly & gets severely off tune. I have to watch it because I can wait too long then it's hard or impossible to overcome the pain. If I have to leave the house I never take a chance to see if I can go most the day without. I want to take as few pills as possible. One thing I found that helps tremendously is to take an Ibuprofen & one acetaminophen ONE hour BEFORE the hydrocodone wears off. Mine lasts roughly 6-7 hours.
I've found natural things help me a lot. If you don't like that route please excuse me. They really work MUCH better than not. At my Naturopathic Doctor's instruction I cut out any gluten. After 3 weeks I noticed quite a difference in pain, edema and my walking abilities. I can now get across the room with a cane instead of a walker. If your doctor permits some easy exercises help me TREMENDOUSLY. I swear by Miranda Esmonde-White's Classical Stretch. It's on PBS TV 3 times a day M-F. Liquid Magnesium helps too. I can't sleep without it- unimaginable leg cramps from EVERY muscle of both legs. Just have to be glad I have my legs. I have 2 broken bones they can't fix due to the cancer & severe arthritis. Anything to help the lymph glandes move is GREAT; hydrotherapy, exercise massage... I like to let the meds do their job then help to flush them out & rest. There's a few other things that help, let me know if you are interested.

Does she do the sciatic stretch? One is putting your foot on a firm chair, or pole, than put your elbow on your knee and rock forward then back slowly and gently a couple times. This is an elementary move, but since I've also had this over 40 years I've only met 2 people who have heard about it. Depending on the individual, starting most exercise with heat; hot packs, infra red..then ending them with a little ice (not always the ice) really helps. Just like stretching b4 walking. Another good one is the figure eight with your toe/leg, tracing it along the floor with your toe moving a straight leg in a gradually widening width as you let the hip unlock with gentle, slow movements. Let me know if it's too much-I'm too old to get offended! Classical Stretch has some great ones on myofascial release that might help. Maybe print some off to show the doctor...Best Wishes. LillyAnne

Hello LillyAnne, @lillyanne

What a wonderful proactive approach you have taken to some very difficult diagnoses and the chronic pain that accompanies them. Thank you for sharing these with the rest of us. It sounds like you use a lot of different methods for dealing with pain. You have given us all some "food for thought"!

Teresa

@charlton Welcome to the club. I think short term memory loss may be the most dis-heartening thing about pain and the meds we take. I gave up on Gaba after a lengthy trial. Still had most of the pain, and much memory loss. Still have the neuro, and am still losing a bit of memory, but not as much. My cerebral cortex is filling up with dead protein deposit, but I am still able to do most things but drive. I quit that when I could not tell where my feet were. I have gone back to Super Tylenol. Helps a little with the pain.

I took myself off all painkillers and tried hypnotherapy and it worked for me down to leval 2 pain which is bearable

I love stretching so will check out White's classical stretch!

Hello Charlton (@charlton), I see that your diagnosis from one of your earlier posts is RSD (CRPS). I'm sure that the associated pain must be horrific. Have you looked into any other types of treatment besides the gabapentin and subutex/24? I'm not a doctor and do not have any medical training but I would talk with your doctor to see if some of your memory concerns may be related to a side effect of the gabapentin or maybe even the subutex.

Have you looked into any other types of treatments for the chronic pain? I had not heard of RSD and when I did a search for it, I ran across a website that said it is ranked as the most painful form of chronic pain that exists today on the McGill Pain Index.. The website also listed other treatments that may help. Here's the page on the website. You have to click the treatment link at the top to see a drop down menu for each treatment type available: http://www.rsdhope.org/crps-treatments.html

Hoping you find something that helps...
John

Hi Jim , yes it started out in the 70's I injured my back and went to chiropractor took a month of rest before back to work which I did concrete work should of gave it up then. But had my own business so kept at it anyway pain standing still or on feet in right side. Never really got better just learned to tolerate it. Gradually got worse and worse finally went to back surgeon with it and he did MRI and said surgery I was against fusion And he said if he got in there and determined it would be to weak without it he would do it. All I wanted was cleaned up . Long story short I put it off till 2 weeks ago and in that time developed scoliosis and more pinched nerves and lot's of opiates and fentynol patchs but yes to second opinion, I definitely recommend it for your wife and try to avoid opiates as a solution. I'm ordering a book on amazon called Step by step back surgery by Kady Dash.has good reviews. Anyway good luck And check things through and through.

Hi, @lillyanne. Thanks for your post and all your helpful tips from your experiences dealing with pain.

Wondered if you could share a bit more about the hydrotherapy you've done -- what it is, how it helps you with pain?

Hi, @freakers. Thanks for your post and sharing what is helping with your pain. Sounds like the hypnotherapy helped a lot.

Can you tell us more about what was involved when you did the hypnotherapy?