My heart goes out to all those who suffer from chronic pain. While I have multiple disorders, none of them are painful except when acute, and because I have medications, they are rarely acute. Seems to me that it’s a big problem to have chronic pain, because no one else can perceive the pain you’re feeling, and you don’t get the consideration that people with visible conditions do. I care about you.
The hardest part, at least for me and many many others I’ve spoken to, is getting the correct medication. Keeping the pain down to begin with is much easier than dealing with “break through” pain. Most docs won’t prescribe narcotics for regular pain control. And “pain docs” are too needle happy. Sure, fill me full of unhealthy steroids and numbing stuff repeatedly. That’s much more healthy than a narcotic.
I was talking with my psychiatrist today about being on Xanax (alprazolam) which is a controlled substance, for RLS. She knows I’m not going to abuse it, and not going to sell it on the street, and she is very comfortable with prescribing it for me. My brother, on the other hand is on Oxycontin (?), which I think IS a narcotic. The issue is NOT addiction, but for us, being able to sleep. Seems to me that pain control would fall under that category, too. There IS such a thing as responsible use of narcotics, but most docs are deathly afraid of them, because the feds are always prowling, trying to “get” someone. So I can kind of understand their reluctance, but on the other hand, you’re in PAIN!! And steroids are not helping your diabetes one bit! 
Pain treatment is another area that is more controlled by “old wives tales” than by science. It’s been proven that even “heavy” narcotics don’t cause addiction when they’re only used to control pain…
I wish I knew how that worked, justgeo. I’ve been taking some pretty heavy pain meds for years (the kind that people would invade our home and kill me for) and I know if I miss a dose, I get more pain but if I miss a couple doses, I start to get all jittery and nauseous. That sure seems like withdrawal to me and I only take what 'm prescribed (usually less as I try to take only what I absolutely need). So if I’m not addicted, then howcum I go through withdrawal when I stop taking it?
Th biggest irony with these narcotics is their cost. I pay many times more for Actos to control BS than I ever did for these drugs leftover from WWI and earlier - the ones people kill each other for.
Bikette, they DO cause withdrawal. My Xanax also causes withdrawal, which I found out the hard way by accidentally forgetting to refill my prescription in time. But the difference between that and addiction is that although you may very well be on it for the rest of your life, you’re not shopping from doctor to doctor to constantly increase your dose to get high, and you’re not selling it on the streets. There’s a HUGE difference between using it to get high (which is why they need more and more), and using it to relieve pain, or in my case, resolve the horrible creepy crawly sensations in my legs and constant jerking enough to let me sleep. I really wish more docs understood that.
I think what they mean is people with chronic pain do not get the ‘high’ associated with typical addiction, at least not in the same way. Because of the way most work, the brain is using it vs having fun with it. We still get physically addicted but not mentally addicted. Although being pain free is fairly good cause for mental addiction! Here’s some articles I found that 'splains it better than I can!
http://www.nationalpainfoundation.org/articles/134/addiction-and-chronic-pain
http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,20189482,00.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50318
So what you’re saying is that we get to have all the negative aspects of narcotics like withdrawl and nasty looks but none of the ‘fun’ part of getting high…
Hmmmmm
Yeah, ain’t that grand? Personally, with the limited amount of narcotics I’ve gotten for pain, I’ve never gotten a buzz or gotten stoned, high, whatever, The worse is I get dizzy and/or take a nap. Whee. Actually, I get more stoned feeling with muscle relaxants than I do narcotics! Holy cow some of them are downright dangerous! Which is why I love Skelaxin. No goofiness side effect.
If you get withdrawal symptoms but can still not “need” to have the drug, you are not addicted to the drug… having quit smoking, I know what addiction feels like…
I wonder at those individuals who say they don’t “feel” pain, when I sure do! I started out with this thing called Chronic Veinous Stasis Leg Ulcers, down on my shins, where it ate the flesh almost down to the bone. I had to have these wet wraps placed on both legs, and when they came off, the pain was excrutiating! But having the leg open to the air, was also very painful. So, the doctors placed me on Vicodin, and although my legs have healed over, they are still red (like a burn), and painful, so my doctors still prescribe it, knowing that I won’t abuse it. As a matter of fact, I try to stretch it out, time-wise, until I HAVE to take it. I don’t know if this is because they know I’m a retired Chaplain, or if I have an honest face! Does my picture help?
LOL It’s the face.
But seriously, don’t stretch it. Take it on schedule to keep the pain away. By waiting until you HAVE to have it, you are causing yourself harm and making the pain harder to get rid of. By keeping it under control, you may find yourself actually using less than you think. Since pain medication is hard to get, I take my vicodins and snap them in half. I take a half when I can tell it will be one of those days and use the other half later if needed. I have found that on days when I do that, the pain is less than on days I wait until it is “bad enough”. By keeping it under control, it is, well, easier to control! It is akin to taking diabetes medication on schedule vs waiting until your the glucose level is “dangerous enough”.
I have a very high pain threshold, so I don’t need as much pain medication. When I had my neck dissection I only needed meds at night so I could sleep and that was only for less than a month. I’ve broken bones that never got set or had a cast because the pain never got me attention. Everyone is different.
I have a high pain threshold, too. I don’t ever remember being in pain from my thyroidectomy enough to want meds; I just used them to get to sleep. And I’ve broken toes and received no treatment. I think Geo and I are related! 
“Comment by PaulaO on Monday”
“We ought to make business cards with all our acronyms listed like degrees. Make people think we are edjamakatid when, in fact, we are just fubar.”
& “Degenerative Disc Disease. A catch-all name for what they can’t name yet. Like ‘metabolic disease’.”
You’re so right, PaulaO! Lupus, DDD, fibromyalgia… It’s all the same to me! I can’t distinguish one from the other…
Hi Natalie and the Chaplain. I wrote to Chappie a while back. I wrote as a vet, Airborne! but didn't get a reply!
Sure sounds like the Chaplain has had a bad time. real sorry!
I have wild type 2! Had 2 miner heart attacks and have a stent in an artery to my heart. Hi BP, Eurhythmia, and sleep Apnia. I stop breathing over 1.000 times a night!
October 2008 I crashed my driving mule. Got an open fracture of my ankle. Dislocated it and broke my foot!
Got an infection in my ankle for 6 months and has Necrosis in it now. Both part of the Ankle bone are dead and decaying. They are talking about either pinning my ankle or taking my left foot off. I have the burning shines and heavy freckling of my legs. My foot has turned black once, but I worked on it hard with one of those small paint roller with the long handle and massaged what I could reach. It came right, kinda! I have a short deformed left arm after a parachute accident! So massaging a left foot aint easy. There is no support in the Free Health service here according to my Doc. I know my life is in God's hands, and the rest is up to me!
Natalie, what is RLS?
Yvonne, it's Restless Legs Syndrome, soon to be known as Willis Ekbom Disease. It's a creepy-crawly, continuous electric shock, ants in your bones and muscles kind of feeling that starts when you are at rest and is agonizing, and the only relief for it is to move and keep moving the affected area. Obviously, THAT makes it impossible to sleep. At its worst, it affected the whole back side of my body, and lasted all night long, which is disastrous when you have to go to work in the morning. I'd spend all night jumping out of my skin, and then was a wreck at work!! After having it all my life, I have finally found a med regimen that works about 95% (and I'll forgive the last 5%) which consists of Xanax (actually an anti-anxiety drug, which has sleepiness as a side effect), melatonin, an iron supplement (because they have found that the brain is deficient in iron in RLS) and valerian root. As soon as I run out of the valerian root, I'm going to stop it because I tend to be suspicious of herbs, but my psychiatrist, who is the one treating me, recommended it. And if the RLS symptoms come back again after I've tried stopping it, I can always start it again. In my family, RLS is genetic, but it can also occur in conjunction with neuropathy and renal disease, so diabetics are at increased risk of it, too.
I've heard of Restless Legs Syndrome. Is that it?
Restless Leg Syndrome is often confused with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. RLS happens primarily during the day and can happen as you are first laying down. PLMD happens at night and is the body twitching mostly in response to low oxygen although there can be other causes. It also mostly happens during the deep REM sleep and will wake you up, even though you may not remember it. Many people with untreated sleep apnea have PLMD. It is possible to have both RLS and PLMD. Yay.
I have kicked my 85lb Rottweiler over the foot high footboard of the bed during a kick caused by PLMD. She was not pleased. LOL
RLS is nerve wracking. I have been tempted to cut my legs off. Without anesthesia. The pain would be better than the sensations.