Saturday, December 27, 2008

Winter Rain Storm Pain and Sleep

Joint Degeneration From Age Ten

I have had arthritis for decades now. In my early twenties, my knees were so rife with arthritis that I was advised by my sports medicine doctor, my general practitioner, and an orthopedic surgeon, that I had the joints of a very old man.

I skipped the surgery hoping for a cure, or some better form of treatment - hoping that the pace of medical science would result in unimagined ways to alleviate my condition.

Years before I even linked the word arthritis to the non stop joint pain, the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, the feverishness, and the fatigue, I suspected it was going to be a lifelong malady. No matter how many anti inflammatory pills or hot showers I took the pain would return.

I could feel sharp jolts of pain in my neck, and my knees at first - and I'd run to the television to check out the radar screen, and would learn what I already knew, that a thunderstorm was coming. I soon realized that a storm could be a hundred miles away, and that I could still be affected by it. I couldn't believe that I was experiencing the same symptoms that elderly people often complained about on television programs and commercials.

As the years passed the joint degeneration spread to my fingers, back, shoulders, and hips.


In Search Of Pain Relief - Legal And Not So Legal

Some days the pain was so great that I would take ten to twenty ibuprofen tablets in a day and the natural result was ulcers.

I'd tell myself that prescription strength ibuprofen was one gram, and that directions for post operative pain was one pill every eight hours, and so I could safely take fifteen over the counter capsules - knowing that it wasn't a good idea - not in the long run.

Every once in awhile I would "score" some prescription pain medicine from a friend or relative. I'd take the medicine, and all the pain would go away. Tears would come down my face in relief. My body is so rife with crunchy joints that my brain simply must produce a great deal of its own pain killers, and this works relatively well, but the sensation I get when I take a powerful pain killer is this - it is like going back in time to when I was a child. My body feels good again - no pain at all.

The elation of feeling no pain is nothing short of ecstasy. This is how I felt up to my middle teens. And I ask myself why I can't just stay pain free, why I can't be allowed to stay on some powerful pain killer which would make my pain go away. Yet it isn't very long into such a feeling that I come to know my own nature, and decide it is best to feel the pain - that any pain pill yet devised would render me an addict - and thus I chose pain over slavery.

I have never asked a doctor to prescribe such pills, because I know what would happen. I know I'd end up abusing them for I have experienced the rapidity of tolerance. Take one pill at first, and soon I'm up to many more. That's the downfall of narcotics - anyone in pain will take so many that they'll eventually kill themselves taking such a drug to eliminate their pain.

I did once ask for a renewal on a prescription for a steroid I was taken for my back pain. The doctor told me that I would have to wait for several months before prescribing them again, so I never asked for steroids again, but I did start to look around for steroids over the Internet.

I soon realized that my craving to be pain free would drive me to finding, and purchasing steroids over the Internet, and so I stopped searching, and never bought it. Steroids are remarkable, but I've never known anyone taking them who hasn't had a personality change.


A Safe, Legal, Effective, Healthy Treatment For Pain - Fish Oil

In recent years I have found a pain medicine that is safe, with no known toxicity, has many positive side effects, very effective, and inexpensive. I'm talking about fish oil. Combine fish oil and glucosamine chondroitin and you have the perfect combination for joint pain. Fish oil can be taken all by itself, and it is such a remarkable anti inflammatory that you can take it for injuries, head aches, and arthritis.

Last night, feeling the shift in barometric pressure, and perhaps the lightning strikes from miles away, I knew I had to take plenty of fish oil, and so I doubled my daily dose to twenty fish oil capsules. That's eight grams of Omega 3.

Another twenty fish oil capsules (four more grams of Omega 3) today and I'm for the most part pain free (actually, that's not true) compared to what I would have experienced if I had not taken them.

I don't have to worry about damage to my liver from fish oil, nor the damage to my stomach that aspirin or ibuprofen would have caused - with the added benefit of reducing my triglycerides.

So with the intense winds, and freezing cold rain my major symptom was some low level pain in every joint in my body, and the overwhelming desire to sleep so as to avoid the pain.

In fact my entire family is asleep now, including our cats.

It's not like there would have been much of a loss - this cold dark horrible day, it's better to sleep through it, and pretend it never happened.

Just hibernate, and wake up on one warm Spring day, crawl out of my den, and go eat some fish - love that fish oil.

2 comments:

Mattpenning said...

Thanks for the fish oil tip. I already take Glucosamin/chondroitin, but i use naprosyn as my nsaid of choice. Any specific brand of fish oil you find the best? I know on the G/C I have found the Osteo Bi-Flex triple strength with MSM to be best so far for me.

JeromeProphet said...

Matt:

I'd prefer Omacor if I could afford it. I've taken it before, but my insurance doesn't cover it, and it's over one hundred an fifty dollars per bottle.

As far as fish oil is concerned - the more concentrated the better. I've seen some Krill oil that's supposed to be superior due to the high anti oxidant content, and the lower concentration of heavy metal in Krill.

A few words about downing ten grams of fish oil at one time - as with any oil, the intestines won't have time to digest all of it, and this may (read that as probably will) cause some minor problems.

If you take the capsules with meals you can eliminate the problem entirely.

My GP was trying to convince me to take a few fish oil pills a day, and I explained how I was already taking the equivalent of four to five grams of omega 3 per day. My GP was quite pleased - since that's the recommended dose for people with high triglyceride levels.

My TG levels are nearly normal despite being very high before.

In some studies much larger doses have been administered with no known toxicity.

Omacor is a prescription medicine in Europe and the U.S.

If you take this for pain, and you are hurting bad, so bad that you don't care so much about a little indignity of a loose stool then down around four grams of Omega 3 - which could be anywhere from seven to 14 fish oil capsules and then take

a coated baby aspirin.

Studies suggest that there's supposed to be a synergistic effect.

But the regular NSAIDs interfere with the beneficial effects of aspirin, and also interfere with the anti inflammatory agents with fish oil.


Even one baby aspirin taken together with that much fish oil will usually work wonders for me.

Combine that with your father's favorite recommendation - some time in some hot water and the pain just goes away fine. Mobility restored - and I'm sure it does wonders for the immune system too.

From what I've read that inflammation serves little purpose after an initial injury or infection but ends up haunting the same tissues for an entire lifetime - which constitutes a chronic inflammatory disease which in turn increases one's odds of cancer, and heart disease.

So in this case using the right kind of anti inflammatory agents may reduce one's odds of dying of cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's. The list is growing, and you should check out what the Mayo Clinic website has to say about fish oil. This isn't quack medicine.

So there you go - the more highly concentrated the less capsules to take, and the few problems with burping and loose stools. But I'd take loose stools over pain, and death any day of the week.

email jp

  • jeromeprophet@gmail.com

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