Thanks Sue. Do you use 15%
Thanks for the info but is the 15% readily available? I think Boots supply a much lower dose
You can’t get that strength in France.
1 Like
Sorry I don’t know what’s available in France and wasn’t sure where you lived. i bought mine online after a recommendation. Woulda photo of it help? I’ve heard 10% also effective but don’t know about lower.
You mention Boots so maybe you live in UK? 15% readily available.
No I don’t and I certainly wouldn’t start at that level. If I remember correctly I started at 5% and then moved to 10%.
I highly recommend this company, not least for the amount of good information they provide in the way of background.
Has your wife tried Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM? Does not work for everyone but my husband finds it’s a great help for his achy knees - keeps him mobile. This is key. It’s very hard but in fact gentle exercise alongside osteo can be a great help to keep joints “alive” and lubricated. If she’s up for it I strongly recommend sacro-cranial osteopathy as opposed to the “bone-cracker” variety as it is much more gentle, seems like nothing is happening, but has kept OH’s low back pain under control for years.
With all these products go for highly reputable brands - high street shops aren’t necessarily the place to find the best quality.
We get our glucosamine/chrondroiton/MSM online from Solgar - not cheap, but highly regarded.
Just another thought - how is her posture? Pain can be a problem for standing / walking well. And so it becomes a vicious circle - use joints badly and then have more pain. Up until COVID both of us were doing Alexander weekly - not a quick fix but we learnt to stand, sit and move better - important as we age.
I also went to an excellent podiatrist who had one of these fancy machines that shows how we walk - I nearly freaked as one foot barely showed, was barely touching the floor and the other one was doing all the work - that can happen with pelvic problems. I now wear orthotics and over the years my feet and pelvic balance have greatly improved.
Oh and another thing - look at diet - some foods are inflammatory - she might find cutting out the deadly nightshade group helps (tomatoes / potatoes) and sugar is always suspect in this type of situation. They exacerbate the pain.
Hope this gives her some ideas as to things she might try. Chronic pain is wretched and it’s good she’s looking at a range of possible solutions.
1 Like
It would be unusual for physio exercises to work in a week. And sometimes you need to adjust exercises to get what works for you. Because I have an inflammatory condition I go to a physio rather than an osteopath as that would be too much manipulation, and over time the physio and my routines have kept me mobile and largely pain free.
But I have to do stretches and exercise daily. It’s not an easy fix and you have to keep mobile. It’s a fine line as mustn’t push too hard, but have to push a bit to get improvements.
Also looking at how you sit, sleeping position and posture can all help. And of course a good diet - lots of plants and fish and not too much fatty food and avoid highly processed stuff. The inflammatory vegetables don’t bother me at all - everyone’s different.
I spent a year partially crippled by the excruciating and paralyzing pain of sciatica, running down my leg from the hip, caused by cysts on my lowest vertebra. My doctor kept prescribing pain killers which really didn’t work, and injections around the vertebra were useless.
I went back to my doctor for a repeat prescription one day but found another doctor standing in for him as he was on holiday. I explained my predicament and she said simply “you need morphine”.
My life changed with morphine patches, and the sciatica eventually went away three months later.
She didn’t hesitate to prescribe morphine, whereas my doctor didn’t seem to take my pain seriously.
Is it pot luck you get with GPs?
2 Likes
Idiot!
Inflamation based by the sound of it so you could try golden milk, (tumeric, pepper and coconut oil)
The pain down to ankle sounds like Sciatic nerve issue.
1 Like
Geoffrey, I wonder if your wife’s pain is relieved on sitting down?
With me, I could walk for 30 seconds without any pain, and seeing me you wouldn’t know I had a problem – I hadn’t - but at the 30-second mark, I’d be literally paralysed by pain. This is why I carried a lightweight 3-legged stool with me everywhere I went. After a couple of minutes of sitting, the pain would be gone completely and I could walk painlessly for another 30 seconds before having to sit again. I did this for 9 months until the good doctor prescribed morphine patches.
Could it be sciatica, as suggested by Corona? How does the pain come and go?
I am pretty sure our local pharmacy was selling 15%… quite pricey thougj
I"ll check tomorrow & report back.
Pain sounds like sciatica. Osteo might help and pilates exercises.
Just to add Geoffrey, as I see your wife doesn’t like oral pain killers, that morphine patches, for me, were just wonderful.
The relief I got was enormous and life-changing. I was in my mid-sixties then, and a great fan now of morphine for severe pain relief.
Once a patch is stuck to your arm, one patch every three days, the pain relief is rapid.
She could always stop using them if there were unwanted sides effects.
Arthritis causes inflammation which in turn causes pain by aggravating the nerves. So perhaps a prescription for an anti-inflammatory drug would both help and be acceptable to your wife ?
A more natural anti-inflammatory remedy that many folks (my wife included) find helpful against arthritis related pain is a combination of Boswellia (Frankincense) and Turmeric with black pepper, but this will take 3 or 4 weeks to start to take effect whereas a prescription for Ketoprofene will work inside an hour.
In our area (Vendee 85) there is a specialist pain clinic at a local hospital that not all of our local village doctors are aware of. So perhaps you could enquire if such a service is available in your area. There are various combinations of prescription drugs these days that help to manage chronic pain, and they are not all ‘painkillers’ in the usual sense of the word. Pregabaline and Gabapentine are two that immediately spring to mind. They don’t all work in the same way for everyone, and so finding the right combination is a bit of a process, but there really is no reason for anyone to be in chronic pain these days.
What works for me (I have Lumbar-Sacryl Spondilolythesis and Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy) which together have done a fine job of messing up the sciatic nerves, is a combination of Tramadol and Pregabaline which makes me a much nicer person to be around, and I can still drive and function normally in daily life.
I hope that you can find a solution acceptable to both your wife and yourself. Chronic pain is very wearing and changes a person’s outlook on life. There is a treatment solution available, but sometimes one has to push the doctors a bit in order to find it.
Good luck.
4 Likes
Wholeheartedly second that!
However I do suggest she tries everything else first before going down the morphine, pregablin, gabapentin route. They can be very nasty drugs. I found the side effects worse than the pain, so am hugely relieved that I can manage without by using physiotherapy. And as John says anti-inflammatories can be really helpful too, but I am cautious with them.
4 Likes
My symptoms had pretty much gone away until the Pfizer booster, now when its cold its back again at an old level of annoyance. Could be co-incidence but seems strange after 11 years without noticing it.
Funny you should say that Corona. I suspect Pfizer sensitizes something in someone susceptible. From the feeling I had on the first one, not a reaction as such but a definite feeling, I said on the second one I suspected it shouldn’t be given to someone with MS or similar - kind of irritating or sensitising the nerve sheaths in some way - and was pooh poohed by the doctor at the vacc centre.
Of course any new substance injected or ingested or exposed, or the act of penetrating with a needle, can probably do similar. Nothing’s perfect and I still would take the vaccine particularly Pfizer, again.
I was a bit suspicious though of why when supply of Pfizer got low they reserved it for the young only - anyone else was forced onto Moderna for their booster. Theoretically they are as good as identical but there’s clearly a difference, hopefully not a difference in risk, between them. Otherwise I don’t see why that was mandated.
1 Like
In my experience it is important to make sure you are buying full-spectrum CBD oil. This means that the other phytochemicals active in the hemp plant have not been entirely filtered out. It also means there should be some amount of THC, the chemical that gets folks “high,” although the legal amount of THC in CBD oils in Europe is so low that there is no psychotropic effect. The interaction of all the other chemicals with CBD greatly enhances the pain-killing or calming effects of CBD oil. But again, full spectrum oil will not intoxicate you. I think the maximum amount of THC allowed by the EU is 0.2 or 0.3% which is a tiny amount.
CBD oil is so expensive I think it is worth shopping around and getting a good full spectrum oil - there are physical therapists & doctors who are knowledgeable about doses and concentrations but, depending on where you are, there aren’t many of them. If you find one who seems reputable you might want a consultation. One advantage of seeing someone is they can give you dosage advice in mg.'s of CBD which is a more accurate way of dosing than going by the percentage/concentration. It can just save you a bit of trial and error.
I’ve only ever found one health professional & I’ve been using CBD for pain for quite a while. I’ve used CBD oil sublingually for joint pain and tension. I’ve found a couple of “ice” or “cooling” CBD gels/creams for topical use that really helped, but the companies tend to come and go so I’m afraid I can’t recommend a brand right now.
However, I think that making sure your oil is full spectrum is at least as important as finding the right dose - most prudent to work up from 5-10% but people react differently & many people tolerate a higher concentration right off.
That is what the company I linked to above provides.
1 Like
Yes, indeed. I forgot to mention in my screed that the company SuePJ linked to, Formula Swiss, makes excellent products. In general Switzerland makes some of the best CBD stuff around.
1 Like
I think the suggestion by Gabby is right on the mark in diagnosing the source of the pain and not just treating the symptoms. I could be a pinched nerve in the lumbar region of the spinal cord, causing symptoms of sciatica. It could be inflammation from arthritis, in which case placing ice around the affected joints could help. A rheumatologist specializes in these kind of matters and may recommend a CAT scan or MRI to look at what is going on in the joints. And relevant exercise for lower back strengthening often helps. Best wishes Stella
Ray
1 Like