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.
