Please know I say these things as someone in chronic pain and getting a little worse each day. I feel for you.
After God didn't heal me, doctors tried a multitude of drugs on me. They usually came in three kinds:
1. Didn't do a thing.
2. Didn't do a thing but make me sick.
3. Didn't do a thing but cloud my mind and had me sleeping for up to 20 hours a day.
So I tired alternative therapies. And, because we couldn't afford out-of-pocket for all of the treatments I did this within bounds of what doctors in my plan actually could charge my plan. (MD's practicing the alternatives.) One helped a bit, but the effects didn't last long enough to bother putting into practice. The others didn't work, but they didn't work because I have "the wrong kind of pain." They damaged my back when taking me off the operating table. "The right kind of pain" is, quite often, different forms of arthritis.
So, I'm going to tell you what they are so you and your doctor can think outside the box.
1. Acupuncture. (I know that immediately brings to mind Oriental voodoo but that's not it. It really is medically sound, or why would an MD be doing it?) She told me before trying it that my kind of pain and the location of it were things she didn't know, so she was honest. And, although I'm really not one to go out of mainstream medicine (until I became suicidal because it hurt so bad), but something happened. Something really did happen, otherwise why did I hurt worse immediately afterward? That simply doesn't happen with my kind of pain. If I do something I shouldn't (usually involving leaning over too much -- and too much is 5 seconds or longer -- or picking up something more than 12 pounds), my pain hits the next day. That pain hit before I was out of her office. It's more for your kind of pain, and it might just work.
3. Bee venom. Oddly, I'm allergic to bee stings, but the doctor told me they did something with the venom, so that's not a problem. (I also expected him to pull up a tiny little bee stinger, and he didn't. It's a medication given by traditional needles. lol) Real pain specialists know more than jabbing a needle into someone's back at $8500 per attempt. Most "pain specialist" only do shots in the back, so you'll have to keep looking for one who doesn't go with only shots in the back.
4. Botoxin. Not for getting rid of wrinkles, but for deadening pain nerves. For me, they used it on my LES (Lower Esophagus Sphincter. That's a muscle at the bottom of your esophagus, where it empties into your stomach. It stops food from going back up.) In my case, my LES stopped food from going down too, so the botox deadened it enough to relax it.
5. Hypnosis. Again, I know what people think of it, but it's not letting spirits in and not voodoo. Hubby actually fell dead asleep for our nap time, while we listened to the tape my shrink gave me to take home. He also woke up when she said to wake up. lol I was conscious all the way through our sessions, within full capacity of my mind. (The tape was just something she recorded so I could use it at home too.) It relaxes. That's all it does. And considering pain actually makes us tense up to cause more pain, that really is the one that worked somewhat for me. My only downside is it only works for half an hour to an hour. In which case, I'd be relaxing for 20 minutes every hour. I'm not that patient! But I'm also not you, so it might help you longer.
6. Biofeedback. Also cast as the boogieman in Christian circles, but it is the same thing as relaxation techniques/self-hypnosis, except a machine tells us when we're doing it right. I never tried it because we ran out of money then. But think about it -- how much of your pain is there because you're tensing up from real pain? I'm not saying this will "fix" you. I'm suggesting it might lower your pain levels to manageable because you're no longer fighting both kinds of pain -- original pain and the pain that comes from tensing up from original pain.
7. Massage therapy. Couldn't afford it, but I heard good things about it.
God will release us from our pain. Since you and I have been in serious pain for well over a decade, it seems like God is letting us keep our thorn until he takes us home. (Oh boy! Rather not, God. Remember? I'm your impatient child? But, ultimately, thy will, not my will, so give me the strength, 'cuz I'm gonna need it constantly.) That doesn't mean our only options are traditional medicines from traditional doctors. God gave skills to acupuncturists for the same reason he gave skills to our MDs -- because nothing works on everyone. When the MD is out of ideas, why not go outside the box?
