pain managment

Thank you Ann shall be giving these ago xx

Hi Mel, Coping with pain is probably the worst thing I've suffered in my life. There are a lot of medications which can be prescribed by your GP but didn't work for me. A referral to the Pain Clinic was helpful in that there was someone who could understand how pain impinges in your life but reached the end of the road as I was determined not to go down the opiate route. But now I have gone down that route and a referral to the Pain Management Department of the hospital helped enormously. An initial interview and an offer to take part in a way of finding ways of coping - Mindfulness - was the thing which allowed me to find other ways of coping alongside the medication. Have a look on the internet for information on Mindfulness which will give you an idea of what is involved. But if you can get your GP to make a referral to undertake Mindfulness as a means of learning to cope with pain. There are courses I believe online but becoming involved with the group and its facilitators is by far the best way.

melbullock116, I have had back pain for thirty years and there are several routes you can try, that is if it lower back pain.

Exercise, strengthening the muscles supporting your back, your GP can refer you to a physio and swimming helps!

Pain killers but may affect driving and machine operations further up the scale of drugs.

Botox injections in your back if you are not overweight, lasts for a reasonable time but I was a little to porky at the time.

Operation to fuse the affected section of the back, several different methods depending on consultant.

You may also like to try weight lifters belt, corsets and supports, plenty on Ebay for the short term relief. They can cause weakening of the back muscles in long term use.   

Don't try the quacks like Chiropractors etc. total waste of space.

Bad backs is normally a tall man's disease that is unrepairable and a sign of permanent damage. Try to avoid heavy lifting the wrong way or as I say with support. In the early stages just bending for soap was problem, causing six weeks of crawling round on all fours while in spasm, total agony.  

A word of warning though my brother had a bad back for years, loved his Chiropractor, for two years his GP threw painkillers at him. He saw another GP, sent him straight to hospital, the big 'C'. His cancer was a totally manageable if treated early enough, we buried him last year after a most agonising death.

So do check it out, there are new treatments coming out all the time so worth the time seeing what your area offers.   

I worked as long as possible damaged three discs which could be fused, exercise merely antagonised it (one in ten sufferers experience this) leaving it to turn into a crip. I wish I changed my job from manual to admin which could have saved long term damage, self employed so stuck at it!