I saw a comment by Billy on another thread that mentioned unrelenting back pain. As most of you know, I had severe pain in my ankle due to a childhood injury. This was finally fixed with a bone/cartilage transplant last year.
On good days, not a minute went by that I was not thinking of the pain but I refused to take even OTC pain pills because I figured that was a road to ruin. I did plenty of illegal drugs as a kid so I know first hand the power of opium/heroin and their derivatives so I skipped all the narcotics offered by doctors. For 8-9 years I just sucked it up and did my best to deal with it. I had a failed surgery in 2012 which left me worse off. Ultimately my podiatrist prescribed the most awesome pain killer I could imagine. This is a topical cream that works by blocking the pain receptors. I had no idea that drugs like this existed.
This stuff is prescription only and has to be made by a compounding pharmacy. I would get 30 grams at a time and the price before insurance was $400. I paid $40 with insurance. The instructions were to apply 2 grams, 3 times per day and to use phonopheresis (ultrasound) to drive it in twice a week. I did not have access to ultrasound for the first two weeks and rubbing it in 3 times a day did not do shit for the pain. The first time I applied it with ultrasound though made me a believer! Pain relief took about 30 minutes and lasted 5-7 days! I was not pain free but I could actually function and think about something other than my boat anchor of an ankle. After that I only used it with ultrasound once or twice a week so 30 grams would last almost two months.
You know those kinks you get from time to time in you back or neck where you feel crippled? I got a kink in my neck one day that prevented me from turning my head to the right and just for grins I applied a tiny, pea sized dollop of this stuff to the area the pain centered on and within 10 minutes the pain was 100% gone. About seven days later when it wore off I could only feel a lingering sensation of the initial pain. I did not use ultra sound when I used it for the kink in my neck. A few moths later I gt a kink in my back that hurt right down to my soul and a pea sized dollop had the same effect.
I’m not sure if there is a common name for this stuff but I’ll type exactly what is on the label. DICLO3%/BAC2%/CYCLO2%/VERAP10%. I believe there are two anti-inflammatory ingredients and to pain blocking meds in it. You need to wear gloves to apply it. I never noticed any loss of sensation in the areas I used it on but I never got it on my fingers. The stuff stays where you put it and is non-systemic. There are no addictive side effects either. My ankle surgeon and anesthesiologist had no issues with me using the stuff right up to the day of surgery.
My ankle pain was deep inside the joint and like I said, plain topical application did nothing but adding ultrasound delivered a home run. The only reason I can think of that it worked so well on my back and neck without ultrasound if that the source of the pain was closer to the surface. Anyway, talk to your docs and ask if it might help.
Do you think it’ll work on my ass after paying taxes?
Have to store this information away. Thanks.
I had an entire day of back pain once after falling on ice. Took two Paracodal-they’re fizzy like Alka Seltzer, only with codeine. In ten minutes I was pain free.
T4C, I’m not sure how all that works but the compounding pharmacist said it works primarily by “filling in” the pain receptors which prevents the signal from being transmitted to the brain. Of course I only have three brain cells and two are dedicated to life support so that may have something to do with it. All I know for sure is, THIS STUFF WORKS!
I_S
We all need to deaden the pain. We all have different pains. Too many to ever describe. My choice of self inflicted anesthetic is booze.
My life has been pretty good. My kids, not so much. I would never blame anyone else for my choices, but my kids were not a big help. When I was young, I was full of piss and vinegar. I thought I knew it all and I would teach it to them.
What a failure I have been. Thinking I could somehow change the course of my children’s life in the face of the filth put out by the media today,
Media 1 Me 0
Capsaicin cream is a pretty good topical analgesic too along with Doxepin.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2015036/
Make sure you wash your hands after application – capsaicin is what makes peppers “hot” (in minute quantities). Inadvertent oral ingestion (or other mucosal contact) WILL “ruin your day” in more ways than one (personal experience talking here . . . . ! !)
I used the ultrasound and a couple of drops of that stuff on my penis. It came off in my hand.
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I needed to get in my wiseassness for the day.
I_S
Thank you for the info. I will run it by my neurosurgeon and see what he says. Not holding out much hope.
To give you an idea of what the pain can be, I will contrast it. I have a high tolerance for pain. Not an inhuman tolerance, but I have learned to compartmentalize it and deal with it. Ignore it. Or at least not pay it much attention.
I was on a jump once at Benning. Came down like a bag of hammers and broke my right tibia near the ankle and blew out a bunch of tendons in my right ankle. I knew something was wrong 2 seconds after touchdown… I cut my chute loose, then relaced my right boot tightly. Wound up my chute, dumped it in the bag and hauled ass back to the rally point. I was going to jump again that day, but someone spotted me gimping a bit. I wore a cast for a month. Rehab was 6 months till I was mission capable, but I wasn’t 100% for at least two years after that…
Now, the contrast.
When my back blows out, which means a nerve gets crushed and my back goes into spasm, there’s a good chance I will lose consciousness from the agony. I’ve had that happen. Stand up, and bang. I come to screaming, laying on the floor.
If I don’t lose consciousness, I carry a bite stick in my pocket at all times. This is a 4 inch piece of oak that started life as a mixing spoon. I wrapped it in a piece of tanned horsehide and stitched it. I bite down on it instead of gritting my teeth because if I don’t use it, there’s also a good chance I will crack a tooth. I lost a molar that way- gritted my teeth so hard I split a molar and had to have what was left extracted. It isn’t normal pain – it’s all-encompassing. It fills your head, your whole world. There is no escape, no chance at compartmentalization. It is screaming, weeping agony and it continues until it is done, and there is very little you can do about it.
The only thing I have ever found that ever made a dent was Oxycodone. At least with a high enough dose, it didn’t eliminate the pain, but at least made you not give a shit about it or made it feel like it was happening to someone else. But, all that did was make me an addict.
The VA just loves to push meds on you – and then when you’re an addict, they kick you to the curb. It took me 9 days to detox, without the aid of anyone or anything, save my wife and son. After 9 days, they carried me into the ER, delirious from dehydration and since I had not slept during those 9 days, I was having auditory and visual hallucinations…
Never again. Ever. It was as close to madness that I ever want to get.
Bottom line: You will ALWAYS have to pay the butcher’s bill. Always. There is no ‘easy cure’. No quick fix that you won’t pay for later on, one way or another…
Nick A says:
“Make sure you wash your hands after application – capsaicin is what makes peppers “hot” (in minute quantities). Inadvertent oral ingestion (or other mucosal contact) WILL “ruin your day” in more ways than one (personal experience talking here . . . . ! !)”
My buddy Rocket, whose real name was Denise, said she disliked pickled jalapenos. I asked her why and after a bit if insisting she said a friend of hers had been at the park making out with a guy after they picnicked on KFC and some pickled jalapenos. He was taking certain liberties with her friend when she felt a burning sensation and ran to sit on the nearest water fountain. The story shed some light on her strange nickname.