Best Seats for Back Pain

[Cobb]

+1 on the hard drugs. Its nice that some have found pain free ways of dealing with back problems. It runs in my fathers side and I got it bad as he did. Seems pain is made from 3 different enzymes,cox 1,2,3. Opids are cox 3 inhibitors and knock out almost all pains.

Ive tried a range of stuff and Im sold on tylenol #3. I can take a hand full and do yard work for 5 hours pain free. I tried OC's but they make me too sleepy.

Some days I need a hand full of them just to get out of bed because of the pain.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by Cobb

This colder than normal weather has my back acting up. Ive been hitting the muscle relaxers really hard and found from my dr I can take an extra dose a day. Really helps on top of the yoga ball.

What muscle relaxant are you taking? When I first injured my back I tried Flexeril 10 mg 3 daily I think and it did about as much good as drinking a glass of water. For the past probably 10 years I've been on Zanaflex 4 mg up to 3 times a day, they usually relieve the pain pretty good for several hours, but if I'm not busy doing something they will usually put me to sleep, no other side effects. Unless the pain is unbearable I usually try to avoid taking them unless I'm going to bed for the night or don't have any plans that involve driving.

[Cobb]

Yeah, Zanaflex and daravacid dont do much, but are most dr first choice.

I take metaxalone 800 mg 2 pills 3 times a day. When I wake up, before bed and mid day.

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by Ford Man

What muscle relaxant are you taking? When I first injured my back I tried Flexeril 10 mg 3 daily I think and it did about as much good as drinking a glass of water. For the past probably 10 years I've been on Zanaflex 4 mg up to 3 times a day, they usually relieve the pain pretty good for several hours, but if I'm not busy doing something they will usually put me to sleep, no other side effects. Unless the pain is unbearable I usually try to avoid taking them unless I'm going to bed for the night or don't have any plans that involve driving.

As I said in post #5:

The neurologist told me my options were physical therapy, or pain patches and pills, or surgery. I said "I'll take the physical therapy."

I had been prescribed muscle relaxants years ago and also found they didn't do much for pain. Ibuprofen, especially in larger doses (Motrin) works very well for pain as it is also an anti-inflammatory. But who wants to be dependent on pain pills interminably?

Doing daily corrective exercises is a time consuming chore and I'll be doing them daily until I die. But for me, being pain free is worth spending that half hour every morning.

[Cobb]

Yeah, anti-inflammatory pills are hard on your stomach. I had laser surgery to fix some internal bleeding from them. I was taking several NSAIDS and using ice to deal with pain I had at the time. I changed my diet and started taking over the counter steroids that have it under control.

I dont know if I want to give up pills. I wish I could take pills vs eat like on the jetsons.

I had pain patches, but they stick to the inside of your clothing too easily.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by XYZ

As I said in post #5:



I had been prescribed muscle relaxants years ago and also found they didn't do much for pain. Ibuprofen, especially in larger doses (Motrin) works very well for pain as it is also an anti-inflammatory. But who wants to be dependent on pain pills interminably?

Doing daily corrective exercises is a time consuming chore and I'll be doing them daily until I die. But for me, being pain free is worth spending that half hour every morning.

I spent several months both going to physical therapy and doing the exercises at home. They always increased my pain, sometimes to the point of barely being able to drive home afterward. Over the years I've tried doing the exercises at home several times and they still have the same effect. I agree 30 minutes or even an hour a day would be a small price to pay to be pain free, but in my case apparently it's not meant to be. Since physical therapy didn't work the Dr.'s have told me it's either live with the pain or take narcotic pain killers. They say there's nothing they can do surgically to help relieve the pain. I tried for a few years to live without narcotics, but my quality of life (spending days at a time in the bed, because it hurt to bad to sit up) had deteriorated to the point of considering suicide, so I gave into using Fentynal patches and used them until they weren't doing much good controlling the pain, then went on Morphine. Before I came off the patches which are supposed to last 3 days I was prescribed a new patch per day and that still wasn't doing the job. The Morphine does more good than the patches ever did. With the patches I had bad muscle twitches and would knock things off the nightstand and hit and kick my wife at night. Ibuprofen doesn't do much good for my pain, but Naproxen helps when the morphine and muscle relaxers won't do it alone or at times when I have to drive and don't want to take the muscle relaxers. Even with Morphine I'm nowhere near pain free. The Dr. I used to see at the pain clinic I went to in NC asked me if I wanted to go on Oxycontin, but I told him I didn't want it unless it was a last resort. My pain level is still usually in the 5-6 range, but it's much better than the 8-10 without the pain killers.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Yeah, anti-inflammatory pills are hard on your stomach. I had laser surgery to fix some internal bleeding from them. I was taking several NSAIDS and using ice to deal with pain I had at the time. I changed my diet and started taking over the counter steroids that have it under control.

I dont know if I want to give up pills. I wish I could take pills vs eat like on the jetsons.

I had pain patches, but they stick to the inside of your clothing too easily.

I was on Celebrex shortly after injuring my back which helped some, but I had to go off of it, because it gave me chest pain. One night the chest [pain was so bad from the Celebrex I couldn't lay down for a couple hours. It finally eased up enough I was able to lay down on the couch and get a some sleep. It wasn't long after that they released a statement saying Celebrex and Vioxx could cause heart attacks.

[Cobb]

Celebrex is a cox 2 inhibitor with a lot of side effects. I swear someone I knew died from its effects and I had internal bleeding from taking it. No issues with the ticker.

Vioxx is the counter part to celebrex incase you got a funny system that requires left vs right handed module medication. Or is that right vs left?

Anyhoo, the harder drugs are cox 3 and numb the pain because its better.

Back pain is from many things. Some is from soft tissue and muscle. Other is from pinched nerves, bulging disks, compression fractures.

When back pain starts to make your legs or back side of your thighs numb, effect your ability to pee, then you got some series stuff going on. Depending on how your nerves are effect it can make you weak too in the legs.

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by Cobb

I dont know if I want to give up pills.

That statement says a lot about the relationship between pain and drug use.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by Cobb

.

Back pain is from many things. Some is from soft tissue and muscle. Other is from pinched nerves, bulging disks, compression fractures.

When back pain starts to make your legs or back side of your thighs numb, effect your ability to pee, then you got some series stuff going on. Depending on how your nerves are effect it can make you weak too in the legs.

I don't recall all the things they've said over the years is wrong with my back. On MRI they've found 7 bulged disks (3 consecutive upper, 4 consecutive lower). Facet joint syndrome, myofascial pain syndrome, degenerative disk disease and arthritis. There are others, but I can't remember what they were all called.