HI right now your probablly got rebound pain.....it is stronger then regular pain due to the lack of endorphins in your brain.....now this is a very personal thing some people come around in a few weeks others take months depends on your pain level and the natural endorphin level in your brain the pills make it for us so the brain grows lazy it can take a wile to build up enough to fight pain once you have enough things like motrin and tylonol will work for you I live with 2 herniated disks and 3 deteriorating but today im in less pain then I was on 150mg of methadone most of our members find with time you will do a lot better without the pills I wish I could be more specific about the time frame but it truly is that differnt for each of us hang in there keep doing what your doing and slowly you will see it works better with time keep posting for support good luck and God bless.....Gnarly
Hi Bama, we are on the same boat. for me so far so good. When the pain get so bad even the vics fail, I do a steroid taper. OMG sometimes four weeks of freedom. Other times i use a TENS Unit and a litoderm patch. Not 100% but i do get something out of it. As far as pain management clinic they gave me things that i thought were going to kill me. Oct. 2011 went to a Journey concert. Before leaving home i was given a Fentanyl patch. I applied and drove to a friends house. We sat around drank coffee then off to the concert we went. So far so good, yeah right. I had been looking forward to the event for sooooo long and had seats so close I could look down that new guys throat. He's good but he's no Steve Perry. Anywho I sat through Foriegner and Night Ranger. Journey comes on and down I went. passed the hell out. the last thing i remember was the intro to Open Arms. Those folks thought I was having a diabetic episode. it took me forever to figure out it was that darn patch. I pulled that thing off and never looked back. the dealer (doctor) got mad and said i gave up. Huh? is he nuts. He thinks one should never be in pain. When i was on morphine he told me to take them before i felt pain. Alls i'm saying is try to find something that works for you that won't put you two steps behind. There is something out there that is the lesser of two evils. I'm still lookin too.
TTFN (ta ta for now)
There are pain management clinics that specialize in dealing with chronic pain without the use of narcotics. Even if there isn't you need to find a doctor that can treat your pain, not mask it with pills.
If I remember right you have had a knee replacement or have one coming up?
I have heard that yoga and meditation can be great but have you tried physical therapy, steroid injections, accupuncture or even water therapy? What about some strong non narcotic prescription meds? There are so many out there so if one doesn't work, try another.
I have chronic back pain and I have been able to somewhat keep it in check with core strengthening exercises, cardio and otc pain meds. I also try to eat healthy so my body gets the necessary vitamins that it needs. If it acts up real bad I get an epidural steroid injection. Once I started doing the above I have felt pretty darn good. I even tend to overdo it and lift heavier things than I should and still haven't had much of an issue. I think the things that help the most for me is the exercise.
Life can still be good even while living with chronic pain.
Best of luck to you.
Brian