I am in chronic pain. Introduce yourself

I am suffering from chronic pain. I have had many surgeries that went bad... I have ben suffering from chronic pain as a result for years. I now have joint pain, nerve pain, muscle weakness/muscles that don't work from the nerve, and osteoarthritis.

It is currently a very bad era in medicine for those suffering chronic pain with the denial of opiate medications being the trend. The only medication we currently have to offer that effectively manages severe pain is opiates. Chronic use of Tylenol will lead to liver damage, especially if daily use exceeds 3 grams. Long term use of NSAID will result in renal injury and may result in heart damage. Neither Tylenol or NSAID are effective in managing pain sufficiently enough to allow for continued productive functioning.  There simply is no other alternative to help improve quality of life, other than opiates.

Opiates are safe if taken in accordance with the CDC guidelines.  They are safe when doses are not escalated and oral pain medication not taken with other central nervous system depressants such as benzodiazepines or alcohol. Addiction is a risk but only seen in a minority of patients who responsibly use opiates for pain and not to mood alter. The truth is however, even if addiction results in the patient with severe chronic pain, it is a non lethal consequence of opiate use. Addiction is not life threatening if not seen in the presence of abuse behaviours. 

Patients with chronic pain are however, being denied pain relief with opiates. Many are suffering unbearable pain and some are driven to suicide.  Chronic pain patients are the victims of the opiate crisis. Up until approximately 2015, when new prescribing guidelines and use tracking laws came into effect, there was excessive prescribing of opiates. Patients seeking to sell opiates and those without legitimate need, were abusing opiates. Deaths did occur. The facts are that the vast majority of deaths occurred when oral opiates were taken in combination with other drugs, especially benzodiazepines.  Deaths were rare amongst chronic pain patients who did not combine other drugs. 

Sadly, the medical community has misapplied the CDC guidelines. Though the guidelines never instructed abrupt cessation for the patient with severe pain. Physicians were fearful of legal even criminal consequences of prescribing opiates. This fear was an irrational response as there has not been widespread DEA actions against Physicians who prescribed appropriatly and carefully monitored their patients.  

The misapplication of the CDC guidelines prompted the CDC to issue a clarification of their opiate guidelines. This clarification released in April of 2019, advises against abrupt cessation and warns that forced tapering may be inappropriate for the patient. The clarification urged providers (though rather weakly) to evaluate each patient’s need for opiates independently.  The guidelines have never directed that no patient should recieve long term opiates. There has always been a recognition that some patients are suitable for long term use.

Providers and now entire healthcare systems have irrationally gone "opiate free", denying any patient opiates . Patients with acute, new pain, traumatic injuries or even the post surgical patient, are being made to suffer in pain as opiates are denied. In many hospitals acute and even severe pain is being treated with IV Tylenol and so called alternative measures such as meditation. Patients freshly out of surgery for such things as complex, open abdominal pain are being told pain is expected and advised to meditate. Of interest is IV Tylenol is only 37% effective and even then only in mild to moderate pain. IV Tylenol is also very expensive therefore, benefiting the pharmaceutical industry. 

It is a dark time in medicine where we are denying patients relief from severe, even acute pain. All because of a now past problem with some useing opiates to get high and engaging in high risk behavior.  This now past crisis never had any application to those in real pain.  The result has been frankly unethical conduct by providers as they permit very real suffering and fail to offer relief because of an evolved hysteria. 

I'm 28 I got hodgkin's lymphoma I work labor Jobs I have chemo 2 time a month they give me 3 norco 10s a day it they stopped working in so much pain stoped taking my blood thinner injections because of the pain makeing me so depressed amy help or info is needed I feel like a drug addict I tell then there not working 

@Cnlegalnursr WELL SAID!!! i was stabbed in my back (literally) at age 13. the knife went thru my spinal cord, but did not 'completely' sever my spinal cord. so i now have Catastrophic Adhesive Arachnoiditis. it feels like my lower body below my waist is being shocked. so i have life altering pain, and have thought at times, in the last few years, that dying would be simpler. except i love life, in general. 

in my own opinion, the majority of people going to the ED, for overdoses, are the people who need medication, been denied, and are getting whatever they can, off the street. heroine is a fantastic pain medication. problem is, now days, dealers are cutting it with CARfentenyl, because they dont know the difference between fentenyl and carfentenyl. so people are getting something much stronger than they thought, (or what they bought last), and then OD. my cousin was a victim of this. he was in the military, and got hurt very badly. for years he was in pain mgmt, then abruptly cut off. so he did the only thing he could, to survive. then accidentally did a little too much, and now, his young children have no father. he didnt want to die, he was only trying to survive.

luckily, i live in Texas, and if i get too desperate, i can cross the border, into Mexico, and buy my own meds. it is illegal to bring them back across the border, but what else can we do?! i took morphine, ER and IR, for 25 years, and now, i am having to fight to get tramadol... which is basically a joke. luckily, while i took the morphine, for a long time, id stash whatever medication i had left at the end of the month, so i have had emergency medicine. but thats almost gone now, and idk what im going to do. pain mgmt doctors always want to put the internal tense electrode into my spine. prob w that is, every time they enter my spinal cord, it causes the AA to get worse. i dont know what the answer is, but its very unfortunate that "pain patients" are getting grouped in with "drug addicts". and the doctors, cutting off pain patients, is only adding to them becoming drug addicts, for simply trying to LIVE, and not just exist.

After I had cervical cancer in 2008, I was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Basically means I will constantly relapse, with new symptoms, that may or may not go away. Eventually it will progress. Guess what it did... I am in pain constantly just about 24/hrs a day. It took my months to get my doc to stop prescribing opiates to manage it as well. They stopped being effective and all I was doing was gaining weight despite being as active as humanly possible. I dated a guy for about 5 years that did NOT understand what i physically went through on a daily basis. I put myself through college for massage therapy, got licensed, and after the last time he was physical I left him. I nearly died and decided I was worth so much more than I gave myself credit for.

I took up kickboxing (my way of going to therapy) and it actually helped improve the function on my left side of my body. Damage from the military, plus constant injury weakened it a lot. I took up aerial yoga to make myself more limber. I also had taken a spa class as part of maintaining my massage license. I learned how to do pain wraps. Which is great if you arent the one in pain. So I started doing my own research and found essential oils that are probably better than Betty White and sliced bread. I started making my own body products that help so much when it comes to pain. My regular days I can hop in the shower and come out feeling human again. My hard days, I actually soak and lather on what i need. My nightmare days, I have yet to develop a cure for. Today, well this week really, is a nightmare week. So much pain makes you sleep less. You sleep less, you feel like a waste of space, or a failing parent, or like NOTHING is going right. All of that combined and there isnt an antidepressant out there that wont either a) make you totally numb or b) do absolutely nothing to help you... This is my week. Hopefully the next 51 weeks will be better...

I have chronic pain for diverticulosis rectal bleeding can I get any relief

@helinaoftroy @helinaoftroy 

I am so sorry you are in so much pain! I suffer from it also, 24/7. Nothing works, my oncologist can only prescribe low doses of pain medication which doesn't help so I'm going to start pain management because they can give me stronger meds. I wanted to ask you what oils are you nixing that seems to help? I have Doterra oils (a gift from a friend) and I mixed as many as I had to see if it helped at all but it did not. I tried peppermint, which it does work for about 3 minutes. That seems to be true of everything I've tried, works a little for a short time. I have a tumor that is pressing against my c6 vertebrae, that is what they believe is causing all this pain on my right side. I'm currently receiving immunotherapy every 2 weeks, I'm on my 8th round of it and I have not noticed any changes at all. I'm getting a PET scan this Tuesday to see what's going on, I have a total of 7 tumors. I did chemo and radiation in 2018 when I was diagnosed, the tumor then (there was only one!) was 3x3x2 centimeters and after chemo and radiation it shrunk by almost half. Then I was starting immunotherapy but ended up moving to Georgia where my kids live and that's when my nightmares really started. Long story short, when I finally seen an oncologist, I had 7 tumors , mostly around my neck area, one in my lung and in my lymphnodes. My oncologist thinks the best treatment for me is immunotherapy, if the tumors aren't shrinking then I'm wondering if he will start me on chemo and or radiation. Something needs to happen soon, this pain is ruining my life. I was 174 lbs (the most I've ever weighed) a year ago, I am 103 lbs now. The weight loss started just before I started immunotherapy, that is one of the causes for the weight loss, also I have developed hyperthyroidism which causes weight loss. I just feel like I'm losing this fight. It's depressing! I take antidepressants but I've been in them my entire adult life , they help in that I don't break down and cry every time the wind blows but I'm definitely feeling more depressed than ever. 

Hi I’m Placy!  I had hemorrhage stroke 09/2018 after I develop fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, as well bones spurs in lumbar, deteriorated disc disease.... not everything was because the stroke because is cavernous malformation  in brain stem. I had surgery not success to dangerous, Dr didn’t want to hurt me TG ! Neurosurgeon DR. Abla  at UCSF my pain is chronic,  for everything I have chronic depression, gain like 70lbs in a 1 1/2 cortisona inyecciones for a long time in the hospital, now in my back, only way be able to walk.

I have fibromyalgia and chronic daily migraines.  Some days are a struggle.  I am a mother, grandmother and work full time.  I am also active in my church and I am an international missionary. Some days, I just have to go back to bed. Other days, it hurts to lay down.  No understands because this is an invisible illness.  I am told it is all in my head. I need to talk to people who inderstand!

fortunately I get good pain management in hospice care but I continue using CBD in addition .to my prescription meds.I find that it really helps with muscle spasams and pain management I get my CBD from https://www.lazarusnaturals.com/shop/tinctures/cbd-high-potency. a 6000mg bottle is 120 doses for me and the company provides a substantial discount to peopel who are disabled so I only pay $80 for 6000mg  (67 cents per dose ) and this is the best quality product I have found https://live-uploads.lazarusnaturals.com/TR-1579728419BL22(A)_HPTN.pdf.  in my state medical and recreational  cannabis are legal and I have found that THC infused edibles help with pain management