In the years I have had RA, I think I have used every pain pill ever made including things like Neurontin. There are only two things that even touch my pain- Codeine or Alcohol. Is there anyone else out there like me, just curious? Now that my disease is basically under control, I don't regularly take anything for the pain. The pain is always there, but a level I can now tolerate.
Just a couple days ago, my car was rear-ended. I ended up with a neck sprain and the orthopedist gave me voltaren. The volteren took away the neck pain, but didn't touch the underlying arthritis pain. I haven't taken anything for so long, I thought the Voltaren might take away those last aches from the RA, but no. Interesting I thought.
Does RA pain sometimes have a different mechanism than pain from an injury? Is that why nothing touches my RA pain? Why does alcohol or an opiate work?
Hi and welcome, ddde!
Alcohol actually makes my pain worse. But I still like to have a glass of wine here and there. If I keep it at one glass then everything's fine, but anything more and I'm in agony a few hours later.
So far I haven;t found anything that actually takes away the pain I get when in a bad flare. Anything I've tried just makes me fall asleep or get sick.
Vicodin kind of takes the edge off. Tylenol, amazingly makes me sleepy. If I can get to sleep for awhile, I love that.
I'm finding the TENs unit really gives me some relief. It is supposed to interrupt the pain messages and in fact it seems to do that. I don't have to take any other pain med usually when I use it. But sometimes I still do.
Percocet helped a little when I had Periocarditis, but made me itch. It also made me high so mentally I didn't care. The pain was still there.
Distraction is one of my best remedies, but sometimes it takes everything else to get to that.
Today, my pain is definately a 10 and it is all up and down my spine. I feel like I know every bone in my spine personally. This, of course, is in addition to the normal things that hurt.
I know that driving and working nonstop on the commuter all day makes my pain much worse. But so does overdoing it. I've been guilty of that because of moving from one abode to another.
ddde, alcohol with herbs can fight pain and in fact, it works fast to address pain. Without herbs it will aggrevate the pain.
If I have a flare and the pain is excruciating I drink a small cup of alcohol that has been steeped with herbs for over a year. For the next 15-30mins there will be in fighting going on in the the blood stream. Althought there will be pain but for the next 15mins the pain will subside.
Normally I boil herbs to treat my arthritis and I drink 3 times a day. I feel the blood is working in the vein triggering movements of joints. There are gases in the body that constantly dispose as farts, urines and beltchings. The stools are hard in my daily release of bowels.
With herbs I keep arthritis under my control that is my experience for over a decade.
I find that things like Vicodin make me see things that aren't there, put into a coma like sleep but don't touch the pain.
Ultram takes a nice edge off my pain.
Celebrex as the anitflam takes a ton off the pain that naproxen and ibuprofen won't. I'm only 33, so i don't know how many years i have of it helping before my body adjusts like it did to ibuprofen.
I tried fish oil for a long while and other herbal things but I just wasn't one of the lucky ones that they worked on.
I can't take any pain medications with the exception of Tylenol extra strength. I'm worse off with vicodan or ultracet. I had such a bad reaction to codiene that I passed out for 4 hours in the doctors office. Ultracet made me so sick after my cancer surgery that I opted no pain meds other than Tylenol for my second surgery. To be allergic to pain meds and have RA is the pits.That would be awful. I want my pain meds. I don't know how you deal with it.