This post is about pain medication for arthritis and since I have suffered with it for over 25 years, I definitely feel qualified to share my experience about what medications have worked for me.
Let me go back to the beginning and the year was 1996. My boyfriend Frank and I were on our way to Reno, Nevada to get married in one of their cute little wedding chapels. My mother had paid for my dress and shoes, and there was also a videotape of your wedding that you could purchase. She only wanted to pay for the audio.
On the way home, we were tired and in a bad mood, so we decided to play the audio to cheer ourselves up. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t play and we squabbled all the way home.
When Arthritis First Started
The next day I was in the shower, and suddenly every bone in my body hurt. My boss took me to the doctor that day and I was diagnosed with arthritis in my lower back. I always wondered if the stress of the wedding had anything to do with my pain.
My doctor was a G.P. so he referred me to a specialist. One of the two things I remember about his office was that there were supplies for the restroom stacked on the examining table. Once I was on the table, I thought he would move the supplies off, but he didn’t.
The other thing I remember is that he put me on the highest dose of Naprosyn, which is an anti-inflammatory. However, it relieved my pain, so I pushed my misgivings aside. I also took Tylenol as needed and with my hormone Premarin, my pain was manageable.
You might remember the great estrogen scare of 2005. Women taking hormones were told to stop taking them immediately because they could cause cancer.
I Started Taking More Medication
Now, I went from sleeping eight hours a night to a sleep-deprived zombie who barely slept a few hours. I was in pain before bedtime, so I was started on a low-dose anti-depressant for sleep and ibuprofen in between.
Over the years, I stayed on this regiment, but my pain life really improved when I was put on Gabapentin, which targets the nerves. Now, I have a medication schedule that was partly prescribed and partly something I put together. The bad thing is that my medication kept rebounding and so we are using different medications and patches to keep pain at bay.
My doctor suggested pain patches or pain creams since the medical community was down on ibuprofen and it was linked to possible heart problems. I have cut down on ibuprofen, but have not cut it out entirely. So here is what a typical medication day looks like:
Morning
1 Gabapentin
Pain Cream or Patch (Which can be worn up to 8 hours)
Late Afternoon
1 Tylenol
7:15
1 Gabapentin
1 Tylenol
7:45
1 Ibuprofen
1 Magnesium tablet
1 Anti-histamine
150 mg. Elavil (anti-depressant used as a pain killer)
9:00
1 Ibuprofen
Summary
So, this is what my pain medication looks like, and it can be a daunting task to keep up with my medication schedule.
I will be blogging more about the pain creams and patches so you can see if you feel like it is something that might work for you.
Don’t give in to arthritis pain. It may require some trial and error to see what works for you, so be patient with the process.
What medications do you use for arthritis pain?
