Pain Management

I have gotten to the point where I am in need of pain management options.

I need something to alleviate the pain and get me thru it when it flares up and the flare ups are becoming more and more frequent.

I don't want to just pop a pill to kill the pain, I don't want to depend on drugs to feel better.

I am looking into anything and everything that will help me deal with it. (because it certainly doesn't seem to be going away)- nearly every day I feel something, the severity is what varies from hour to hour.

Today I am a 2-3.5 with moderate back, shoulder and knee pain. Tomorrow I could jump to a 5-6 with the same parts of me acting up. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the flare ups...my body just hurts all the time now.

I can feel it slowing me down and tiring me out. Pain takes a lot out of you.

Mostly my pain feels like bone, hip and joints, shoulders etc. All the moving parts. My Oncology nurses warned me arthritis would come in sooner than I may have been destined for...a few posts back I mentioned the article in CURE about bone loss.

This is becoming a very real long term permanent side effect of my ABVD chemo.

I am not surprised by the noise my body makes and I struggle with everyday movements sometimes. It comes and goes like I said...today wasn't bad, tomorrow is another story...

I am looking into: http://www.pain.com/

http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/default.htm

http://www.mdanderson.org/topics/paincontrol/

http://www.aapainmanage.org/

I have also noticed that when I feel like crap...(aka: in pain) I am very short tempered and my family is getting the brunt of that and that is also why I am looking to ways to deal with pain. It is not the least bit fair to take it out on them.

I am also looking into Tai Chi: http://nccam.nih.gov/health/taichi/ for the same solutions.

Be well.