Thursday, February 5, 2009

How is your pain tolerance?

I was diagnosed with a cervical vertebrae that basically has lost all the fluid, deterioration of the bone, and pressing into the spinal cord. I found that analgesics were just not cutting the mustard! I had a flare-up with the injury which led to excruciating pain. I phoned the Neurosurgeon’s office and they in turn prescribed prednisone and a muscle relaxer. Well, try functioning on those two drugs! Ha.. However, the medications worked well enough for me to return to work within a couple of days. I’ve realized from the experience that I really want to be able to function without the use of pain medication and that moist heat and long walks do help the anxiety, which in turn reduces the pain.

I also decided to try an alternative mode of relief. I visited an acupuncturist and let me tell you; I slept ten hours after the treatment and felt like a new person the next day free of pain. I know I will continue to see the acupuncturist as this was the best I’d felt in over a month.

There are so many alternatives to reducing arthritic pain. I think that what works best for one person does not always work for another. I feel that in today’s vast array of medical treatments that sometimes the “old school” of treatment works best.

Plenty of rest, exercise, water, moist heat and perhaps trying an alternative form of treatment as I did could work for you too.

Let me know what your thoughts are and please share with me your experiences.

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