Pain - what do you take?

I have not found any OTC pain med that helps.

I thought with LE we were to stay away from all but Acetaminophen/Tylenol  anyway....?   I read that any NSAID we were not supposed to take (they didnt help me anyway)

I have tried Arnica Gel...Sometimes that seems to help....I usually dont think to use it though!  And Now that I wear a sleeve- It might be icky under there...It is kind of sticky.  I wonder about Arnica Pellets...

I meant to say though that before bc, i did try arnica, and it does work for normal pain, plus i found this great stuff called topricin cream. o my god. it does work, it is full of arnica  and other good things, and is not contra indicated for cancer people, and i still use that even helps my "Big Arm" tho my docs and nurses are sceptical, you can get it online cheaper than health food stores, which is where i found out about it. i sent some to my mom and she swears it really helps her arthritis. which reminds me, i need to order some more for us both as we are getting low on it.

Muscial: percocet is an opioid, it's oxycodone and acetaminophen, aleve is a "non-steroidal anti-inflammatory" in the US the generic name is naproxyn

A few years ago a researcher out of Stanford said he got amazing results using ketoprofen--and he wrote me that when he used ibuprofen, people swelled, and we all waited with bated breath for the studies to come out--he only published one on rats' tails--and they were done, and supposedly showed great benefit and were never published and he won't answer emails about it....He said it was serendipity that he chose ketoprofen, a rarely used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and supposedly it helped LE. Still waiting.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791214/

I don't get a lot of pain in my arm, but after the hysterectomy, I lived on ibuprofen for three weeks and then weaned off it.

There's a huge push in the US to avoid prescribing opioids, this is a pendulum swing after there were laws passed that adequate treatment of pain was mandated.

My LE therapist swears by arnica. When I broke my hand, she came to my house and rubbed the gel on my incredibly swollen and purple, and yes it was my LE side, hand. Before they put the cast on. The morning after my hysterectomy, she came to the hospital and did MLD on my swollen face and my good arm where the IV infiltrated. She is an angel. I hadn't seen her for 5 weeks, and she said "Boy, was your face swollen"--they do the robotic surgery with your head below your feet for four hours.

Seems there is the same push here Kira. Just this week I saw something on the news about how addictive oxycodon is and how it's causing many issues. Pretty sure thats how they spelt it, without the e on the end. After my surgery I had oxycontin. Its probabaly in the same family of opioids or another name for the same thing. It would be nice if we had ONE proper name for a certain med wouldn't it.

Ive heard really good things about arnica. I grew it once years ago  but it sorta died out and I forgot about it. Should get some more..

and he won't answer emails about it..

If I understand you correct, you may be waiting a loooong time. There is much that is hushed up for various reasons.... statements like this naturally raise my suspicions that not only cancer, but health right across the board is BIG business and if something conflicts with certain peoples money interests it "gets laid to rest" . It's largely a case of follow the money trail.

Musical, I think the answer is "follow the money"--he told me three years ago he'd found ketoprofen to successfully treat LE, and did a clinical study on it, which can not be found on an internet search, but looking at his home page, his current studies involve flexitouch and impedimed

http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/Stanley_Rockson/

I had signed up for the LE registry, and when I found it was a trial designed to promote impedimed, and they'd created a misleading website that looked like a patient website for LE, but was really an advertisement and were posting women's stories on facebook, I withdrew, much to his consternation.

I'd love to uncover the results of the ketoprofen trial on women with LE: I know it was done.

Is our LE pain nerve based and if so then does a nerve med work better than other types of meds?

I was told by my LEist  that the arnica gel works better than a creme.

There is a other thread about the arnica...drs are actually telling sistas to take the pills before and after surgery...gonna try the pills now.

I bought the cream by accident..lots of crap in it...I'm gonna stick with the gel and now try the pills.

I love the fact that drs. Like it and its not a script.

Hey big pharma..what do you think of that??

Hey big pharma..what do you think of that??

Hear hear !!

had to write it fast before I forgot it.

lol .. that sounds familiar...

Didnt know there were Arnica Pills ...I thought Arnica was poisonous taken internally... might be mixing it up with something else though.

Is the gel free of all the nasties Carol? With all the toxins in ... well you name it, you have to look at the labels of everything you buy. Then for those of us with sensitive skin we have look out for allergies.

Allergy: Allergy to arnica has been recognised for several centuries with over 100 cases reported in the literature. Most cases appear to be from self treatment with tincture of arnica. Arnica contains a group of chemicals called the sesquiterpene lactones, notably helenalin and its esters. These chemicals are known to be strong allergens. Other allergens have also been found.

http://www.dermnetnz.org/dermatitis/plants/arnica.html

This looks like the one I grew.

This thread is really interesting. I have fentanyl patches for mets pain in my neck and back, but this doesn't touch the pain I have constantly in my arm and hand from LE. Have LE in my leg and foot too, but this doesn't hurt so much despite badly swollen toes which affect my balance. My LE specialist, my GP and my onc all recommended using volterol gel to relieve the pain in my hand - my thumb and forefinger in particular are constantly swollen, to the extent that I can't use my thumb. The gel does help, the effect lasts about an hour. Still doesn't mean I can use my hand though

Nicky