[neverdem]

Susan Farley for The New York Times

Joan Klopfer, 54 | Bronx, nurse
I used to be a nurse at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In late 1997, I was lifting a heavy patient in the I.C.U. when I felt pain shooting down both my legs.

I knew right away I was in trouble. I had two herniated disks as a result and had to undergo spinal fusion. I woke up in the recovery room in the most excruciating pain you could imagine. It was worse than natural childbirth. They gave me morphine, which wasn't really enough.

I went home with a prescription for Percocet. It would offer me some relief for maybe an hour, then this awful pain would start again. Eventually, they put me on OxyContin, and I would take oxycodone as a "rescue dose" whenever I experienced terrible breakthrough pain.

Now, seven years later, I'm in constant pain, and this is as good as it's going to be. I'm permanently disabled. I probably will never work again.

My life is altered tremendously as a result of the pain.

Marty Katz for The New York Times
Farrell Fitch, 59 | Chevy Chase, Md., agency worker
I have nerve damage on the left side of my face, a result of shingles. At first, I thought I'd be fine and could get through it. But I couldn't. It feels like a branding iron pressed against my head.

What's discouraging is that you lose faith in the medicine. It takes the edge off the pain, but can never really take it away.

My doctor started me on hydrocodone and an antidepressant. After about two years, I wasn't getting any better so I tried other things. I tried acupuncture, massage therapy, even Chinese herbs. Eventually, I went to a pain specialist and one of the first things he had me do was to try methadone. It was a catastrophe. It just made me incredibly sick.

I got better when I combined Neurontin and Vicodin; something just clicked. Three years later, I had another crushing episode. I had to stop working and go on disability.

The pain is a large part of my life now. I struggle with it.

Frances Roberts for The New York Times

Steve Feldman, 52 | Manhattan, advertising
I was diagnosed with Lyme disease about seven years ago, and a side effect of it is arthritis. It's affected my hips, my hands and my fingers. The only time it bothers me is when the Lyme disease kicks in, which inflames everything.

When it first started, I asked my doctor what I could take besides aspirin or Motrin. All those things really have no effect on it at all.

We tried one of the arthritis medications, Vioxx, and the sides effects were awful. I suffered nausea and stomach pains and stopped taking it.

Then my doctor suggested some nutritional alternatives that had worked for some of his other patients. I said, "Sure, anything to get rid of the aches."

So I started taking glucosamine, fish oils and a product that's an oil made from macadamia nuts. I actually started feeling the aches going away after a couple weeks.

My doctor also said don't stagnate. In other words, walk. Use the joints. That helps me because it gets the muscles and the tendons around the joints used to working.

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[zencat]

I'm with you. Have abnormal large congenital cysts in my C-T region and many more in the L region. Several of the cysts are over 1cm in the T region and cause unimaginable pain and numbness down my arms. Have a pretty good doc that cool with narcotics, but most people can't understand that it's just not "back pain". Duh! You've freaking cysts around the nerve root push on the nerve itself. It doesn't only hurt at times, just an indescribable feelings of numbness, pain. It's still not all about the narcotics, but does help the same way antibiotics help strep throat or pneumonia.

[John Valentine]

The authors failed to mention this one, perhaps the most promising of new therapies for neuropathic pain:

ACV1

Metabolic's novel compound ACV1, was discovered by Associate Professor Bruce Livett and fellow scientists associated with the University of Melbourne. ACV1 is a peptide compound discovered in the venom of the Australian marine cone snail, Conus Victoriae, which has been found to have profound analgesic properties. Owing to the success and advanced stage of efficacy testing already performed on the compound, Metabolic will accelerate the commencement of a pre-clinical toxicity program. Metabolic has acquired from the inventors the exclusive worldwide license to commercialise ACV1, in return for milestone and royalty payments.

Cone snails have evolved a rich cocktail of peptides in their venom, which together act by a variety of mechanisms in the nervous system to quickly immobilize or kill their prey. The potential of cone snail venoms as a source of new therapies has been recognised for many years, and the first such compound to be commercialised is the analgesic Ziconotide being developed by Elan Pharmaceuticals. Ziconotide acts by blocking a component of the central nervous system called the N-type calcium channel and must be injected into the spine (directly into the central nervous system) so as to avoid adverse reductions in blood pressure which would otherwise occur. ACV1 acts by an entirely novel mechanism, specifically blocking a subtype of a broad class of receptors in the peripheral nervous system called neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR). Unlike other cone snail venoms, ACV1 is effective and without apparent adverse effects when administered by convenient routes such as subcutaneous injection, providing substantial pain relief in models of nerve pain. Nerve (neuropathic) pain is the category of pain having the greatest need for improved drugs. An additional unique feature is that ACV1 also appears from the animal data to accelerate the functional recovery of injured nerves.

More here: http://www.metabolic.com.au/

[xJones]

I took my cousin to a chronic pain care center. She has very bad daily migraine headaches and she'd done all the pain meds plus alternative meds, herbals, and acupuncture.

While I waited for her, I talked to the other people and everyone else was there for chronic back pain. I don't what they got, but my cousin had cortisone shots to both sides of her neck. It only eases things for about 3 months. Any migraine help would be appreciated.

[afnamvet]

Having just been released from the hospital for a partial bowel obstruction (Crohn's disease), I can attest to the effectiveness of morphine. 2-4mg every four hours for level 7-8 pain. I don't recall the alternative pain med name that was available.

[Goodgirlinred]

I just want my Viox back until they come up with something just as good to replace it. I had forgotten how bad the pain was until I had to go off of it and it got out of my system. Now I have to take OTC Ibuprophen in high doses and experience stomach upset. :(

[not_apathetic_anymore]

bookmark

[MikeHu]

About two years ago, I thought I'd never walk again.

When I was a child, doctors told me I had arthritis and would be crippled by the time I was an adult. Then, they said, "Doctors could operate." "And then I'd be all right?" I asked hopefully. "No, but then they can operate," the doctor replied cynically.

So I started exercising with light weights because I noticed increasing the circulation in that way relieved the pain. After a year of doing that, somebody asked if I ever considered entering a bodybuilding competition "because you're the most muscular guy around." Doctors who saw me said I was probably the healthiest guy they had personally seen -- but once a year I'd come down with severe back pains for about two months and for another two months, I'd have a bad case of bronchitis.

Then two years ago,it seemed the back pain wouldn't go away this time and I could barely walk ten feet in excruciating pain. I thought about getting an electric scooter with a seat. But just then, I noticed an article in the newspaper about a doctor who claimed he had found a surprisingly simple cure for fibromyalgia -- which seems to include 90% of the chronic symptoms most people complain about. The cure was guaifenesin.

I knew nothing about fibromyalgia but I was very familiar with guaifenesin because I took it to cure my bronchitis -- and noted back in the mid-80s that it made me feel good. I thought one should take it regularly as a health tonic like Geritol. Health professionals I suggested this to warned me against becoming addicted to cough medicine because shortly before this time,codeine was the main ingredient in cough medicines. Now, the new and improved wonder formula was guaifenesin. I thought it was so good I went and bought 1,000 shares of AH Robbins, the patent holder; they corroborated my suspicions that there were promising other as yet unspecified cures for guaifenesin. They did not materialize by the time of the stock market crash of 1987 and so I sold it and forgot about it.

So guaifenesin I knew something about and bought a few bottles before attending the lecture that weekend. I had been reluctant to continue taking the product except when I had bronchitis symptoms since the label warned against it -- as standard protocol. I learned at the lecture that there was no known negative side-effect with prolonged use. I searched the Internet to find what studies I could on guaifenesin and was impressed that there was no known negative side-effects but it seems, many positive ones.

Apparently guaifenesin does not only liquefy the mucus in the lungs when one has a respiratory inflammation but liquefies the mucus throughout one's body. The major lubricant in the body is mucus. As a joint moves, the cartilage releases mucus to provide lubrication for that movement.

As cells age, they tend to become less liquid and fluid, so as they congeal, they eventually cease functioning as cells, which requires the proper viscosity to continue optimal functioning. The pioneer of this cure is St. Amand. The cure is an underground sensation, spawning support groups around the world.

What convinced me was that a week into the regimen, I noticed my old high school football knee injury of thirty-five years disappeared completely and hasn't returned, nor have I had debilitating back pain or bronchitis since. The exciting concept here is that all the cells in the body may be breaking down due to the same universal cause rather than that only the heart, lungs, joints, digestive tract, etc. tissue are malfunctioning while all the others are perfectly all right. It may be that it is just noticed in one tissue or organ before the others -- but the whole body is disfunctioning in this way -- because the essential liquidity of the body is too thick to allow for proper cell functioning.

Most of those I've shared this cure with have noticed that there was a period of pain-free functioning that is pretty inobtrusive. And when they noticed painful episodes in their lives thereafter, they noted coincidentally, that they weren't using it. It is pretty similar chemically to aspirin; in fact, it was a rival to aspirin that lost out a hundred years ago -- but maybe should have been the path we went down. Rather than causing digestive upset, it seems to cure it -- along with many other chronic conditions.

[jamaly]

Bump for later.

[eno_]

I wonder if any Drug War (i.e. ONDCP) money was used to promote "new improved" painkillers?

Did you know that Rush Limbaugh was put on Vioxx while in rehab?

Bit of a tradeoff, eh?

[ExtremeUnction]

Seven years ago I had a sudden onset on chronic, debilitating neuropathic pain. This type of pain can best be described as, "sensitive to touch." That is, my back and shoulders were on fire, with unbelievable pin-prick/fire sensations. But if I took my shirts off,(no contact of skin to anything but air), the pain stops). My doctor put me on the anti-seizure drug, Neurontin. It worked, but at the doses required, it made me a zombie. My M.D. then switched me to 2 mg. of Clonazapam, once or twice a day, plus 100 mg of Tramadol, twice a day. The Clonazapam made me VERY sleepy at first, but I adapted to it. Today, I am pain free. I am down to just 2 mg. of Clonazapam, once a day. But if I miss a dose, look out! The neuropathic pain in my back and shoulders returns with a vengeance!!

Fellow Freepers. I once thought that pain was for sissies. But, in my case, my doctor said that my pain was likely caused by a back/nerve injury sustained long ago. If your doctor can't help you, go to another doctor. My doctor's philosophy is, no one should hurt in this day and age. I am pain free. I can barely remember my 2-3 years of terrible pain. But it can be fixed, You just have to search for the fix. Be aggressive. Complain. Do research. It's worth it..believe me.

[andyandval]

look at this

[F16Fighter]

bump for later reading

[EdReform]

BTTT for later