I was asked about my pain from my back injury and how I control it. I didn’t do a good job of it at first, but I’ll come back to that after a bit of history. The first time I realized I had to something about what I thought was just a tired back that hurt was on a Fourth of July. The radio club I belong to with helping out with crowd management at the annual Fourth of July Parade. I had been placed at one of the cross streets that had been blocked off along the parade route, so that traffic couldn’t accidentally enter the parade. I stood behind a barrier and directed people where to go to avoid the parade. One woman simply wouldn’t stop and was pushing the barrier into me threatening to run me over if I didn’t get out of the way. A uniformed police officer intervened and saved me for being run over. When the incident was over, I realized how much my back hurt and had to go sit down on the curb. Our house at that time was not very far from the parade route, so I walked home. I didn’t know if I was going to make it because my back hurt so much. I did make it home, and I decided I better do something about my back pain.
I was having two types of pain. There was the pain experienced working at the parade which just hurt and it also felt like a very tired back. It was constant. The second type of pain would start at the top of my legs and shoot down the back of my legs. Sometimes it would be so fierce that it would make me collapsed to the floor. I quickly realized certain actions would trigger that pain. Later, a neurosurgeon explained it happened because I was causing my spine to stretch spine and nerves would be pinched. The constant pain I mentioned did not respond to any of the over-the-counter pain relief medications you can buy. It made it very difficult to sleep. I thought I had come up with a unique way to get to sleep because of the pain, but found out millions of people had come up with the same solution. It was basically finding out how much alcohol I could consume quickly without getting sick that would make me pass out. I would simply pour myself out that measured amount and lay down and wait for the alcohol to take effect. As you are probably well aware, you pay for it later in the night and the next day. At night it has disrupted your sleep such that you can’t get back to sleep and you will wake up before the night is over. The next day, of course, you are hung over. I got to hate the taste and feel of any alcohol.
An x-ray of my lower back showed damage signs from an incident in the Army. That started the almost routine sets of surgeries and physical therapies – four surgeries totaling 46 hours on the operating table. The one thing all that did was relieve the shooting pains down the back of my legs. I still have pain. It ranges from a 4 to a 5 and there are peaks of pain occasionally. The last peak I had was a 9 on the pain scale but felt like it was a 15 on the 0 to 10 scale of pain.
There are no drugs that totally relieve pain. That can only happen if your unconscious. Even opiates only reduce pain. When I finally came to terms with that fact, I slowly stopped using opiates. I use the drug that is essentially the same as Aleve but at a much higher dose. My VA doctor is willing to write me a prescription for an opiate if I can’t manage my pain satisfactorily.
This is a rather long post about my mishandling and finally handling of pain. I don’t think most people know that there is no drug that will totally relieve pain. There are some other techniques such as neurostimulators that will block the sensation of pain. I haven’t wanted to go that route because it would require more surgery and every surgery I’ve experienced has left me in worse physical shape than before I had it. The only advice I can offer you if you’re in physical pain is to seek out a pain management doctor or group.
