Pain - medicine

Medicine.

I think I've tried them all...or at least it feels like it. Just in case I haven't I will list the medications I'm on or have been on in the past. This is not cheap. Talk about an expensive drug habit! I pulled my first half prescription expenses report....$1,965 out of my pocket so far in 6 months. That's $327 per month!! Just for my ragged ol ass...I am going to change that. Within 1 year I will be off at least 4...

So here we go:

Lyrica - for the nerve pain

Cymbalta - for general pain and depression

Here's a biggie - Dilaudid -for the nerve and general pain

Tizanadine - to release the muscle tightness

Mirapex - for Restless Legs Syndrome - calms the need to move

Ambien Cr - to sleep - ha what a joke. Doesn't work usually..Just makes me really tired the next day.

Voltaren gel - a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory cream usually used for severe arthritis

Lidoderm Patches - patches of anesthesia medicine to dull the pain on feet and leg

You know - I used to be a stud.. First team all-district 1-AAAA cornerback for the football team..Starting center fielder and pitcher forever in baseball - even through summers in college...and i used to Love to run..oh I miss that feeling of running through the canyons and woods in Los Alamos!

Anyway back to the meds...so that's mostly what I'm on for pain right now..I won't go into the diabetes etc drugs I have to take..Those I want to get off too!!


Drugs I've been prescribed in the past include:

Methadone - pain

Neuragel - cream of several anesthetics combined. used for nerve pain in feet

Gabapentin - nerve pain

Hyrdo-codone - pain

Oxy-codone - pain

blah blah blahh that's all I can remember right now...but isn't that enough?

Oh - I also had a spinal cord stimulator implanted in January 2008. It helps grab some of the pain signals to my brain and turns them into a nicer buzzing feeling...But with 50,000 some programs on the thing, and only so much time you can spend with the programmer each month...I think it is underutilized at this point..They need to give me the programs and usb attachment so I can play with it!! That's a to-do for me this year too.



So what do ya think? Should I be working? Should I be driving? It's really hit and miss. I could probably work some if I could get some kind of regular rest...although I'm not much of a part-timer..I would get wrapped up in opportunities and get frustrated when I couldn't concentrate enough to get a proposal right, or be responsive to a client. I can't do my job 2-3 days a week while on narcotic pain relievers etc....I have a really hard time focusing and lose my energy quickly..



I have not yet tried acupuncture for my peripheral nerve pain. I did some treatments about 12 years ago when I was having severe pain in my right arm...It helped some but I ended up having disc surgery - C4-5-6 to alleviate a disc pushing on the nerve going to my arm...Acupuncture is not generally covered by insurance unless performed under direct supervision of or by an MD...Those opportunities are expensive and few and far between...So I'm going to try one of the clinics the Houston Acupuncture College runs.. Only $35 a visit..It's the several times a week that get ya!
I have found an incredible medical massage therapist - Marvin Joiner. Again - gotta save the $$ for those visits cause we make progress, then I run low on cash and skip for a month...We end up having to start from scratch...

So that's the story on meds and therapies...I have done a lot of physical therapy as well - from soaking my feet in very hot, then very cold water, to picking up marbles with toes, to stretching and core strengthening. I do most of the exercises at home now - $30 per visit 3 times a week gets expensive!

So the big elephant in the room is asking - is your pain relieved?
And the answer is: Sometimes and to some level. It's never gone. It never gives me
a kitchen pass for the night. "Hey - go to the game with your friends" without any pain, or without recovery time the next day.. But I am at least for now "stable". I am functioning still somewhat. I'm not unconscious..just in a bit of a fog,,the senses dulled, the mind and muscles tired...fighting to be released and be free from all the meds and pain.

Thanks for listening.