Countrymouse Posted November 2018
On My Mind
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Replacing the much lamented 'On My Mind' profile option, this thread is for musings, jottings, whimsies, preoccupations and the rest of the thesaurus for anyone to jot down anything they please.
I can't remember what the maximum character count was before, can anyone else? But anyway it wasn't very many so let's keep to that.
I've done a lot of googling too and I definitely want to do all stuff that does not require trigger point injections/ surgery if I can possibly avoid it. I know there is no cure for this but it can be managed so I'm going to try really hard to manage it the correct way.
I’ve never heard of physio for arthritis, and my experience with physio has been totally unhelpful – including ‘I’ve never seen one of these outside a text book’, when I’d given the details when I booked. They never say that they can’t help.
My personal choices are lying down (often flat without a pillow) on a hot water bottle, and codeine when I need to shift the pain (not enough to get addicted). Life changes, but you find ways to cope. Good luck!
I did ask for people's experiences, good or bad. Be careful what you ask for they say. Gulp..................
But thank-you just the same.
My experience has been the arthritis/inflammation irritated nerves, causing some muscles to stay 'on' & staying all tight. (Lower spine though not neck).
I had quite good, but short term success with 'dry needling' from the physio.
I had better & almost immediate success with acupuncture, but short term too. These were more treatments than cure. Still worth it!
Next came trying to build better muscles for better posture habits with the physio. I'm sure this did help over time.
Not pain free but I have a plan for flare ups now: heat, stretches, rest, rebuild.
Hope you get it sorted.
Thx for the advice!
No, but really I know what you are saying. I know
physio isn't going to cure anything but even if it
makes arthritis more tolerable I'll take that.
cw - Mother was a physiotherapist and PT is more than your attitude. For example tendons can be stretched and muscles strengthened to take the pressure off of joints. She had several bad disks but had such good posture and body muscle strength she never had back problems.
glad - good to hear some prices are dropping in some places. Not great if you are the seller though.
Diclofenac is a very very effective anti-inflammatory but if you want to be able to continue using it be *meticulous* in following directions; and if you get even a hint of the side effects, especially bleeding or bruising, report it immediately. If you wanted to use it long term for arthritis, I think I'd actually take advice on that point specifically, e.g. should you take breaks, are there any other things you can do to protect yourself so that you can go on using it, that kind of question.
Its use in cattle in India almost wiped out the vulture population about twenty years ago before they figured out the connection - the vultures were eating carcases that still contained the drug.
On a more personal note, I was px'd it for RSI/carpel tunnel and it worked like a charm. Then less than a week later I had a bm of pure blood and decided I had better do my hand exercises and stop playing minesweeper instead.
It's bit too dam'ed effective, seems to be the thing...
Thx again everyone for all of your responses. Sorry for monopolizing this thread with my arthritis saga.
A locum doctor said I should try them as suppositories. I did, and 3 days later the stomach pain kicked in. My doctor’s face when I told him was deadpan. He said quietly that they enter the bloodstream as suppositories, just the same. I suspect the locum got told!
It might be worth trying weaker anti-inflammatories in pill form – less risky.
It might help to have a small firm pillow by your head in bed, rather than a ‘side-sleeper’ posture pillow. That way you can push it out of the way if you roll over. I do this.
You might try a TENS unit, that can work. It puts a mild electric current through an area close to the spine, which can ‘scramble’ the electrical pulses in the body that transmit the pain to and from the brain. I thought it was mumbo-jumbo when I first read about it, but the ‘electrical pulses’ are actually true. I should probably try it again. I lost my first unit when our house burned down, and when I tried another the sales person turned it up to max and I spent the next few days in bed. Be careful.
Keep your brain working and your hand on your wallet!
I go for my second physio tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
I ordered a neck pillow, it came today.
It's too big, too hard.
Thinking I will cut it in half with a razor (memory foam). Just like you, there are other specialty pillows I could now re-design-useless in their current state.
I was thinking that I was eating properly, but tonight after a salad and veggies, I cooked a small piece of chicken breast, and now I am feeling more calm, comfortable, and finally full.
So, are you eating enough of what will satisfy you?
Always consider your whole body needs, not just your neck. I stopped going to the physiatrist (physical medicine doctor) when having to drive 45 min., pay cash, and they only focused on my piriformis muscle. Even though it was helping, the time and expense, and neglecting everything else was prohibitive, imo.
Pain killers have a long and interesting history. In Oz when I was a kid it was ‘a cup of tea, a Bex, and a good lie down’. Then Bex turned out to be a dangerous combination of drugs, and Bex went broke. Next it was aspirin. Then aspirin turned out to ruin your kidneys and stomach lining, so now it’s just mini-aspirin for heart issues. Lydia Pinkerton’s famous Medicinal Compound has disappeared into musical history. Remember ‘Let’s drink – drink – drink to ‘Lillie the Pink – Pink- Pink, the saviour of the human race. She invented Medicinal Compound, most efficacious in every case’?
Codeine was developed over 100 years ago, as the safest and least addictive opioid, at a time when some people still smoked opium (like Sherlock Holmes). It has the least effect on the brain, no great druggy highs to yearn for. It just makes me tired or sends me to sleep. I take a tablet with 30mgs of codeine together with 500 mgs paracetamol. It kicks in after 45 minutes. The maximum daily dose of paracetamol is 4000 mgs (8 tablets), which is considerably more dangerous than codeine. Codeine’s effects are nothing like cocaine, which people sometimes confuse with it. I sometimes don’t need any in a day, and I don’t think I’ve ever taken more than 4 tablets.
The recent scare about opioids was brought about by the development of much stronger versions, like Oxycontin and Fentanyl. They were pushed to doctors by the industry, widely prescribed, resulted in major addictions, and now major law suits and pressure on doctors. Codeine got tarred with the same brush, unfortunately. Our Bureau of Statistics list of overdose deaths includes any that are ‘opioid related’. I wrote to ask a medical researcher about the supposed deaths from codeine, and he confirmed that all cases he knew were when too many tablets caused an overdose of paracetamol!
If you want to try something ‘natural’, mix up a pot of powdered turmeric, black pepper and ginger in a 7:2:1 mix, and swallow a teaspoonful in milk or water. It tastes disgusting, but it really does work. It also kicks in in 45 minutes. Try if you can get it down. Cooking quantities aren’t therapeutic.
See your doctor about pain control. Or go to a pain clinic at a hospital. Look after yourself. We are all grateful for modern medicine – eg anesthesia for surgery. Nothing gets proved by being ‘tough’.
Love, Margaret
I found this warning a long time ago, and just now recalled it after Geaton mentioned it. This is not against Geaton's way of doing things, we just need to be aware of any contraindications for the general population.
"7) Don't cover lidocaine patches tightly with bandages — unless instructed by your provider. This can affect the amount of lidocaine that gets absorbed through your skin. 8) Avoid applying heat pads or electric blankets to where the lidocaine patches are placed on your skin. " (Online sources).
Thanking you for the reminder of the Lidocaine pain patches!
I was aware of them in 2014, then lost track when a prescription was needed but became hard to get. I do have some Lidocaine Ointment 5% that my husband used, expired in 2014!
It is so unlike me to keep, or use something expired.
I am going to order some patches (OTC comes in 4%) and use them for both of us.
Thank you!
Amazing what we forget we once knew!
I had a grandparent use the phrase" "At my age, I have forgotten more than you will ever know". Lol.