I am experiencing a lot of stress( upcoming total thyroidectomy, cat died, lots of pain, new meds including slow release morphine, insomnia, son starting grade one, tring to get house sorted out, to name a few including being off work which is driving me nuts). I am overwhelmed and looking for ways to deal with the pain and ways to
relax. Has anyone tried a TENS machine? Is there any wonderful nondrug method you have found to help with pain?
I am seeing a therapist, who I’d a lovely lady but not much help with trying to cope with chronic pain and acute pain. Any suggestions would be very helpful to hear. Thanks in advance!
I’m unable to take any pain meds besides Tramadol, and don’t take that too often, as I don’t want to build up a tolerance to it. I’ve found that heat or cold are helpful, as are balancing movement with being still. I’d LOVE to have a TENS machine - I had one years ago and it worked wonders. Chiropractic is helpful, as is acupuncture (but my insurance doesn’t cover either and I can’t afford them, so I’m basically out of luck there!).
I hope you find something that helps!
Hi Kirsten,
I'm sorry that you've been so overwhelmed - you have a lot on your plate! I can't take NSAIDs, thanks to *many* years of taking it and my stomach and intestines finally rebelling against it, and get only limited relief from Tylenol.
I found cool baths/showers help, particularly right before bed. I also put my gel wrist rest for my mouse in the freezer at the start of the day and rest my fingers and palms on it periodically. For the more acute pain, I find deep breathing (in through the nose/out through the mouth) while sitting quietly can help. Or when that fails, a shot of Jack Daniels ; - )
My deepest sympathies on the loss of your cat and wish you speedy recover from the thyroidectomy.
Andrea
I really wish I had an answer for you. I am taking prednisone 5mgs 4 x week and 7 1/2 mgs 3 x week. I don;t think it is helping judging by the pain I'm in, and I also take Tramadol for the pain which does take the edge off. I won't take the other medications because of all the side-effects. I took Remicaid 3 times and ended up with psorisis on my hands, knees, legs and lower arms, which I was allergic to, and that caused problems with my lungs, leading to 60mgs predisone, which led to weight gain, which led to diabetes (type 2). I did not realize how close I came to not being here until my doctor recently told me that I gave them quite a scare. So, needless to say, I have no faith in any of their medicines.
I would like to know what a TENS machine is..I have never heard of this. Hope you feel better and make time to relax, key word being "make time". W never have enough time but our health depends on it.
wikipedia has a good explanation for the tens machine that blocks pain through electrical stimulation
I hope you feel better soon.
I have found 3 things that have been near miraculous for me.
#1 RAW MILK- a year ago, I could not walk or dress myself, on the milk, the stiff like concrete was injected into me is gone and am able to move and function normally. We even got Disney annual passes and have been park hopping for last few months. Last year, I could not even make it from Target parking lot to their door. realmilk.com to find sources. My pain is gone. I would pop 3-4 aleves before bed each night to help and it would not even touch me. It got to the point that I would CRY before going to sleep because being in the same positition for that long would only bring me hours of pain.
#2 All autoimmnune diseases have to do with your gut. You need a good daily probiotic to counter and heal your gut. I drink kefir. Not the kind you buy in stores but you can get the grains and its easy to make.
#3 Take glutten and corn out of your diet. I accidentally discovered this a couple months ago. I had no glutten for a week and you could totally FEEL the difference. Since autoimmune is gut, our bodies react to glutten because it hard to digest. If you google you will find lots of ppl have had improved symptoms from eliminating it.