Soliciting Advice for Chronic Pain Management

[untonuggan]

So it's looking like I'm SOL regarding pain medication. I'm on Lyrica already; I can't take any kind of anything that messes with serotonin; NSAIDs are out with my gut the way it is; don't want opiates because All The Reasons.

My doctor wants me to go to a pain clinic; I'm not sure what they'll do other than offer me strong opiates or something and give me physical therapy, but I'm supposed to be getting PT for my dizziness so yes that would be out for insurance reasons alone, let alone me going bananas. Anyone have experiences to offer on pain clinics?

In the meantime, my side effect journey of daisies and rainbows and leprechauns has made me leery of adding more chemicals to my internal chemistry project. Like, I've *always* hated being on this many meds and just kind of grinned and born it. But seriously? This is frelling ridiculous. And so, yes. I'm looking for non-medication ways to keep this under control, at least until a neurokinin-1 antagonists maybe comes on the market approved for pain management. *crosses fingers* But that could be awhile.

So yes, I'm soliciting suggestions in this post for pain management. I will do my best not to immediately rule them out because, say, I've tried acupuncture and it didn't work. Nothing is too woo for this post. I just want a working list to, er, work off of so I can fucking knit and spin regularly again. (I have knit TWO ROWS this week and spun nothing and it's making me cranky, who knows what I would have done without video games.)

Thank you, dear circle, for all your support!

PS fewer seizures yesterday! woo!

PPS Yes standard disclaimer regarding I know you're not medical professionals blah blah won't sue you blah blah check with my doctor blah blah.

Comments

[the_rck]

I never found anything that really helped with pain (NSAIDs do diddly squat for my fibromyalgia pain. I've heard that that's common). I have heard, though, that meditation can help, not so much with reducing the pain as with making it easier to live with and function with. I never tried it because I'm too impatient and was never willing to spare the time to try it (possibly my pain was never bad enough). It is a time investment.

The one time I went to a pain clinic, they were very much opposed to medications for pain, so it may well be that a pain clinic wouldn't try to prescribe opiates. Their attitude frustrated me because it was all about living with the pain and not at all about alleviating it.