8 ms·

Oof. To answer the headline, there already is a cure to chronic pain and it is called correct diagnosis. When i was 21 I had chronic pain for 8 months, doctor

• searine 7y ago
  >there already is a cure to chronic pain and it is called correct diagnosis. There are many many conditions where even with a proper diagnosis there is little help. One of the easiest things to do with chronic pain patients is to minimize or handwave their pain as transient. There is no surgery for many of these people. No drugs that aren't heavily addictive. Little to no hope of anything but a lifetime of pain.
  • johnward 7y ago
    > There are many many conditions where even with a proper diagnosis there is little help. Yeah, my dad has very bad diabetic neuropathy and there isn't really anything they can do about that condition from what I understand. I'm sure there are plenty of other conditions like Fibromyalgia and more.
  • codr7 7y ago
    I've lived 12 years with chronic pain caused by a smashed vertibrae from a climbing accident. No _legal_ drugs that aren't heavily addictive. And the predictable result is that you can't even get legal medicine that works any more, because no one dares to touch the addictive stuff. And I sort of get it, I went through hell getting off OxyNorm/Contin after the accident. But it's really shitty to leave people hanging with no legal alternatives. Edit: What kind of person down votes this? I would seriously consider seeking help.
    • avgDev 7y ago
      Not sure why someone would down vote you. How do you deal with pain? Have you tried medical pot?
      • codr7 7y ago
        Cannabis works well, as do poppy-extract/opium; but none of it is legal where I am unless you're practically dead already.
    • rjurney 7y ago
      Have you tried the Butrans patch? It is buprenorhpine and as of February, 2018 there is no legal restriction on it under CDC/FDA policy: unlimited prescriptions. No special license required to prescribe it (it is against regulation to use the patch for addiction). It is now generic ($160/month with a coupon, usually requires a prior authorization), and doesn't: * Get you high * Make you drowsy * Addict you (yes, you'll have a tolerance, but no it won't be a problem) * Give you cravings * Stop your breathing Each patch lasts a week and if they stick to my oily skin (I once dumped a 10 day heart monitor in 8 hours), it will stick to anyone. And you know what? It's not that much less effective than morphine. And it's even refillable. Have you tried all the non opioid options? Lyrica, Gabapentin, Trifexis, Cymbalta, Nortriptyline (and other TCAs), etc? Lyrica is for nerve pain but Gabapentin and the others are used for all kinds of pain. CBD has limited evidence for helping nerve pain, but be aware that it has a long (>24 hour) half-life and can make you slightly high if you take enough daily (yes, in high enough doses it is psychoactive). There is good evidence for glucosamine/chondroitin for arthritis. There is limited evidence for tuermeric/curcumin (and its cheap!) for helping pain. There is limited evidence for SAM-E (but not if you've ever been manic) for pain. Are you on an NSAID? What about Tramadol? And for me, prednisone is a lifesaver for flights and conferences - I can't do either without it, but obviously you don't want to take it a lot. Great for flareups. Have you tried compounded topicals? I have 9% Lidocain (store is 4%, pharmacy 5%), 9% Diclofenac (insurance covers 1$), 8% Tramadol (no mental effects), 2% cyclobenzaprine and 0.2% clonidine. You can pack in 30% of medicine, though I take 31.2% cause they still fill it. Topicals never helped me much - in particular lidocaine did shit. Until I tried 10%, that was magic. Most pain is felt on the skin - even organ pain, so you should definitely try this if you haven't. You can get a custom formulation fit exactly to your pain. What about the various interventions offered via injection/rhizotomy? Do you see a physiatrist? Have you been to see an interventional anaesthesiologist? If you're really suffering have you asked about a spinal stimulator? If you try most everything on the list, they will write you opioids even today, if buprenorphine doesn't cut it. Maybe you've tried all this stuff but most people I encounter on Quora aren't even anywhere near the end of the road and have given up. Many people are unwilling to take drugs that affect the brain, and I always conclude they must not hurt very much because I'd take a pill with a 90% chance of curing me and a 10% chance of killing me.
• mehrdadn 7y ago
  > there already is a cure to chronic pain and it is called correct diagnosis. But correct diagnosis does not imply there is a cure or treatment available for the condition?
  • imustbeevil 7y ago
    Chronic pain isn't a condition, it's a symptom. That's why proper diagnosis is the solution, because the million different "chronic pains" you can have will be treated a million different ways, and you either need to know which one or try them all and risk the side effects, as they did in the GP's comment.
    • proverbialbunny 7y ago
      It's not just chronic pain. There are multiple kinds of depression, multiple kinds of anxiety, multiple kinds of autism, adhd, and so on. As long as the medical industry, especially the psychological industry, continues to name diagnoses off of their symptoms instead of naming them what they actually are, it becomes difficult to create procedures and medicine that work for all people.
• babyslothzoo 7y ago
  Did you have a specific event that caused your injury, that led you to do your own research in that direction? And are you hypothesizing that your injury may be related to prior fluoroquinolone use? Proper diagnosis is hard, and most doctors are generalists rather than specialists. A common medical aphorism is "When you hear hooves, think of horses not zebras".
  • avgDev 7y ago
    Yes, I was liftings weights, felt a pop, instantly thought....oof hernia, but doctors disagreed as they could not feel any bumps and I suffered for months. Flouroquinoles came after and are unrelated to that injury.
• cwkoss 7y ago
  Flouroquinolones are pretty terrifying. I had a bad reaction that basically gave me a constant low-grade panic attack. Felt like the sensation of betrayal or impending doom in my chest. Luckily I only had minor tendon issues as I discontinued after a week. If your doctor prescribes "Cipro" or other FQ's as a first line, ask them if there are any other options.
• rjurney 7y ago
  There is usually no cure for chronic pain. This is medical fact. Your case is not descriptive. It is usually not caused by scar tissue, or an infection. For example MRI reports are only slightly correlated with actual spinal pain. It generally involves an up modulation of pain sensation in the peripheral and central nervous system. It is worthwhile to investigate the cause but most people don't find a cure like you did. There is no cure for most chronic pain patients. This is an extremely harmful answer. Do not listen to this person. If you have chronic pain, see a pain management specialist - a physiatrist or an interventional anaesthesiologist, or both. There are many non-opioid options that work extremely well. They can coordinate other care. For example here's a Quora answer listing just a few treatments for chronic arthritis pain: https://www.quora.com/What-do-I-do-as-a-chronic-pain-elderly-arthritis-patient-whose-doctor-no-longer-wants-to-write-me-prescriptions-for-pain-medication-due-to-the-opioid-crisis https://www.quora.com/What-do-I-do-as-a-chronic-pain-elderly...
  • Retric 7y ago
    That’s exactly the kind of diagnosis you get when the real answer is “I don’t know.” Peripheral nervous system issues may be the root cause for some chronic pain, but it’s very difficult to rule out all other causes. Also, MRI’s are still very much blunt instruments. A high resolution 1 millimetre scan is still representing ~100,000+ cells per voxel.
    • rjurney 7y ago
      I'm not saying don't investigate. Its been ten years for me, and I'm still investigating. But the numbers are clear: usually there is no clear cause except a poorly understood change in the nervous system. The answer for most people is, "I don't know," with the current sophistication of medicine. You can't try harder and find the answer because there is no answer at this time for most people.
  • LinuxBender 7y ago
    For arthritis, take a look at Sulforaphane. It is being tested on humans and dogs for arthritis with good results. Sorry I dont have links handy, but you can find them on nih.gov. Sulforaphane is also being used to reverse autism.
• NullPrefix 7y ago
  >If I did not do my own research, I would literally still be living with this pain If you want to hire someone to do a job, you need to know how to do the job yourself. If you don't know, then you're prime target for stunt performances or casual incompetence.
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  • nordsieck 7y ago
    > If you want to hire someone to do a job, you need to know how to do the job yourself. This is simply not possible with the degree of specialization in the modern economy. There's no way you can be an electrician-plumber-mechanic-doctor-lawyer-IT specialist. This is precisely why people care about reputations and gossip.
    • avgDev 7y ago
      He is not wrong. I know quite a bit about plumbing, electrical work, car repair......Large amount of people who are licensed or considered experts are pretty terrible or generally lazy and cut corners. Finding someone good is really difficult.
      • nordsieck 7y ago
        > He is not wrong. He's not wrong that the problem exists. It even has a name: the principal-agent problem. You're not wrong that the knowledge you have can help you sniff out bad actors. Every little bit helps. But it's not scalable. There will always be parts of life that you need to hire help with, but know very little about. How do you choose which hospital to have a baby at? Which criminal defense attorney to hire? Which violin tutor to hire for your child? Reputation is one the key ways people try to solve this problem when they're completely out of their depth.
    • droithomme 7y ago
      > There's no way you can be an electrician-plumber-mechanic-doctor-lawyer-IT specialist. That's an interesting list. I agree with your general feeling on this. But in my case, out of necessity, I have had to become an expert in each of the fields you mention, and many more. By expert I'll say I know more than the average licensed person. The average. I also have cultivated professional relationships with people in each of the categories who are competent and know more than me. Which is a minority of each field. I think that "If you want to hire someone to do a job, you need to know how to do the job yourself." is true in many ways because the average level of competence by specialists is low. I also agree that it's not easily possible to be competent as a very competent specialist in all of these fields. Where we perhaps disagree is that I would say it is possible for an amateur to become above average compared to professionals in all of these fields. In most of these fields I would much rather pay someone to do it. I don't particularly enjoy the work. But paying someone gets me substandard and incompetent work even in licensed fields most of the time, until I know more than the average practitioner. Also when we are talking about a lot of trades, though smart people used to be well represented in them, it's less the case these days. So tradesmen often don't have a lot of sense for diagnosing or doing proper work. A smarter person is going to be able to do a better job, even though he doesn't want to have to do that. But he may have no choice if he wants work done properly. As far as reputation and recommendations I've personally found that seldom works to find the best people. I recognize others experience may differ. The problem is the person doing the recommendation will recommend a relative, friend, or someone they know who does bad work but they don't realize it because they are unable to judge it properly. For a recommendation to be good the recommend-er also has to know enough about the field to identify skilled practitioners. Most people don't know this much unless they are skilled in the field themselves. The best people I've found have been through brute force search techniques of hiring over and over until I find someone that is able to do things well.
• deleted 7y ago
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• DoreenMichele 7y ago
  To answer the headline, there already is a cure to chronic pain and it is called correct diagnosis. Correct diagnosis combined with proper and effective treatment. Sadly, medicine doesn't offer effective treatment for the underlying cause of pain in far too many cases. If you have FQAD, you might try looking up "nutrient depletions" for any and all drugs you were on. Also, look up any nutrients that need to be taken with those nutrients. So, for example, if they cause magnesium deficiency, you will probably need not only magnesium, but also calcium and vitamins D and K and maybe something else as well.
• hassan_shaikley 7y ago
  There are a ton of studies correlating fibro with gut bacteria. People with chronic pain have different levels of certain gut bacteria. One study claims to have cured fibro through FMT. That study has 1 subject... lol. I am almost certain the cure for some chronic pain is in bacteria. It's cool hearing what you say about Mitochondria though.
• andrewl 7y ago
  There are many mentions and discussions of fluoroquinolones on YC News, including my own recommendation [1] to be very careful with them, based on personal experience. Also, the spelling is fluoroquinolone, not flouroquinolone. (That is, flUOro, not flOUro.). I'm not being picky; I just want people to be able to successfully search for the term. The discussion surrounding my comment is quite interesting, too, and worth reading. [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13275535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13275535