I have chronic pain and nothing works for it. I'm afraid I'll be forgotten in the opioid crisis.

[Cattledog]

It started as a dull ache right above the base of my spine.

There was no injury, no clear cause — just pain that seemed to come out of nowhere. At the time, I thought it would go away in a few weeks. I didn’t know it would turn into a four-and-a-half-year-and-counting odyssey of experimentation to battle lower back pain that simply refused to retreat.

I tried everything. I dove into twice-a-week physical therapy, daily exercises, regular walking breaks, and meditation. I bought a sit-stand desk. Nothing worked. After several months, if anything, my pain was worse.

This health problem, coincidentally, arose just as a career shift made improving US health policy my focus. After working as a consultant for hospital systems and insurance companies, I accepted a position at the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid. My work focused on designing new ways to pay health care providers to reduce waste and provide higher-quality care. Through my work, I realized just how massive the chronic pain problem is in the US. Defined as any pain lasting longer than three months, chronic pain afflicts more than 50 million Americans each year and has a net economic impact of around $600 billion. Lower back pain alone is the most common cause of disability for Americans under 45.

Read article at:

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/9/28/16375810/opioid-epidemic-chronic-pain-lower-back

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Scares me greatly to think of what this drug company created problem will do to

people who need the drug (s).

They, we, will be punished.

I am not currently on any pain meds but I have been in real pain in my life and the idea that I would have to go thru that again without meds, is just nightmarish.

[elehhhhna]

2. I saw a map of all the opioid deaths in New Jersey recently

pretty sure it was for 2016. You could click on every single one of them and see what the drug was and I clicked @ton of them. Heroin heroin heroin heroin . Best conservative guess is that 90% were heroin overdoses. Not a medically indicated drug.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Have the link by any chance? I am curious, but the reason that is

when you get hooked on oxycodone or whatever, you cant get enough thru normal processes to be satisfied and you end up going to heroin.

I bet 90% of those deaths, the person started out with a legitimate issue on pain killers.

[Maraya1969]

8. What pisses me off is people who think you are eventually going to abuse pain medication even

even if you take it as prescribed.

That is farthest from the truth. Most people who take opioid medication for chronic pain don't abuse it just like most people who drink alcohol don't become alcoholics.

I've known several drug addicts and I've seen the way they take these and other types of mood-altering drugs. The ones I've seen will abuse them as soon as they get them. I had a friend who got a script for Klonopin every month and after 1 week she always had none left. I actually didn't think much of it for a long time but when I did I realized that she just abused the stuff and didn't really need it. If she did need it she would need it all month long, not just a week. She would say she took it for panic attacks but I've had panic attacks and been on this type of medication too and I would count mine to make sure I didn't take too much and be out of it if I had an attack. The idea of having a panic attack and no medication scared the shit out of me.

[samnsara]

4. Is MMJ available where you live?

[ghostsinthemachine]

6. This is myth....

MMJ does do some pain relief but, to not use opiates and replace with pot? No chance. I take opiates, morphine and Percocets, and use pot. The pot helps me take less, but I couldn't live without the opiates.
I've not changed my habits at all for three years.

[SonofDonald]

7. Same here

I can't quit the morphine but pot does help, it just can't do the job anywhere near enough to use by itself.

I don't care what levels of whatever is in it, besides I don't like being stoned all the time especially during the day, it helps to get me to sleep at night, that's all I use it for.

Whiskey used to help but I quit drinking 20 years ago.

For any quality of life you have to use what works.

[SonofDonald]

5. Try radio frequency ablation on the nerve endings

Last edited Fri Sep 29, 2017, 02:42 PM - Edit history (1)

They identify which nerve endings are transmitting the pain by numbing them on two visits to find the right ones.

Then they zap them, it took twice for my issue to be helped, I'm still on opiates but I dropped 60 milligrams per day this way from 180mg to 120mg.

I was at the pain clinic this morning and asked how long I could expect it to last.

My pain Doctor said a patient of hers last ablation was 12 years ago.

It really works.

[Maraya1969]

9. I am not making a statement on pain killers. I take them myself. But when you

say you pain started when you began your new job it made me think that it could be related. I had PTSD which had all sorts of symptoms and when I went to eye movement desensitization I was astounded at how my emotional and some physical symptoms got better.

It may be possible that the new job triggered something in you. I'm only mentioning this because they have not been able to find a cause. In my own case, I think my emotions affect my pain level. For example, about a week ago I had to use a scooter to get around a big box store and then Fri. I went to NYC to meet some friends and we walked several blocks to get to a special restaurant for dinner. I felt pain the next day but I continued to walk, just not as far. I think the reason was I was so happy to be with these friends and be in NY for the first time in really long.

I've also been back at physical therapy and I think that is finally helping too.

[Patterson]

10. Look into ibuprofen and Tylenol together.