addiction vs pain management

[enufisenuf]

I have been clean since middle of Nov 08 after ~2 1/2 year stint with mostly hydro...odd thing has happened...sort of like the Seinfeld episode where the guy shaved his head for years only to find out he really was going bald...I do (did) have a bad lower back and neck pain...but really the pills were consumed because I liked them, but right after stopping I noticed my neck pain has increased significantly...apparently having gotten much worse over the 2 1/2 years, so I guess I was unwittingly taking the drugs for a reason. Anyway, I have since had an MRI and felt like I was moving towards surgery, but while there is some bulging disk and spurs, not impinging on the spinal cord according the the orthopedic surgeon. So now I really am in significant pain and do not have a solution.  Not sure where I am going with this...just frustrated and thought the irony was too good not to share.  Cannot see going back down the hydro route, even though it would help for a while...short term solution to a long term problem...but I do need to find some relief.  

[enufisenuf]

None of the suggestions...chiropractic, heat/ice, injections, oral steroids...helped at all.  Have not tried inversion or yoga...I will...as this is very painful...but will not go back to narcotics.  Thanks.

[worried878]

unfortunatley toleance goes right back to where it was before in a very short time..so narcotic pain relief is a joke for most of us...spurs and bulging discs are extremely common and most everyone over 40 has one or the other and most have both..just that most r not symptomatic..a ruptured disc is a bit more serious but many even have that and can stay pain free...spurs are often the result of a low calcium diet/and the body robs the bones of calcium creating a volcano like eruption where the calcium exits the bones..most often the spinal column...a bulgin disc is a swollen disc and is the result of age as our vertebrae become compressed with age...but some experience pain..and some do not....masage, inversion therapy, heat and ice, yoga of stretching, calcium replacement/for women also estrogen replacement/ sometimes people require steroid injections at the pain site...poor posture can also create or add to these problems...narcotics are not for pain relief..only changes our perception of pain where anti-inflamatories, ice etc actually do provide real pain relief..food for thought...chirpractic has helped me an awful lot

[Ella789]

Yes,I had a 5 yr. experience with lortabs.  The past year or so under a pain management dr.  I know about Chronic Pain, it seems to be a constant companion and one I lived with for years before diagnosis.  Detox has brought me around now to my honest pain levels and there are times when I know I need more than the otc pain meds that I take.  I just do not want addiction again, it was a sad time for me.

Ella