Last night was the pits. I’ve had bursitis and broken bones, and I would say the pain level on this one is about that of the broken arm. Kinda gets to you. Last night I opened the spice cabinet, got caught in a cascade of bottles, stepped back, and yes, that hurt. I kept trying to put the bottles up, and the bottles kept falling, and Jane came in to take over, thank goodness. I’ve tried to do a bit about the place, but that was the absolute pits, and I had to admit I needed to go sit and stay there. 2 AM, it lit up again, along with a case of heartburn, and I spent two miserable hours trying to ice it down to quiescence and not have to take Advil.
Today has been much better. I have gotten through most of the day with out Advil and without a lot of the pain…Jane’s spent the day picking up, bless her, and doing the bit of yard work that needed doing, and now she’s fixing dinner. I am not lifting a finger. I’ve taken 2 Advil, hoping for an evening when I can do a little gaming and get to bed for some sleep.
Poor me, poor me, chorus of moans and violins. But da-amn! this has been miserable!
We didn’t get the aurora, either. Bummer.
But—over all—doing pretty well. We’re now settled in for a swiftly-approaching fall, and the waterlily is slowing down on its blooms, with increasingly cool water in the pond.
I want so badly to get to work on this book. But one thing about writing—you can do it lying abed with chicken soup.
Ask your doctor about “etodolac”. 😉 It needs a prescription, but I’ve had no trouble getting mine renewed long after my synovial cyst. 🙂
Depending on your own medical history, looking over the side effects of etodolac, I think I’d stick with the OTC NSAIDs, unless the doctor thinks it would be all right to use etodolac. I read over the drug information on WebMD.com, and I don’t find any need for myself (your results might be different) to use this medication. If it’s RA, that’s one thing, but for regular osteoarthritis, I think it’s overkill.
Yes, I have osteoarthritis in my hips, my lower back, my hands, my knees, my shoulders, my elbows, my feet…..there are days when it hurts like hell, too, but I really shy away from any medication that seems to have the same side effects, no matter how rare, that etodolac has……just my opinion, though.
Your doctor might feel it’s beneficial, and if so, then I hope it works for you.
All NSAIDs are drugs to be treated seriously, OTC or not. Long term use especially so, but quite different than very short-term. There’s always that trade-off, something very effective for a short term vs less effective longer.
One is well advised, when there are drug ads on TV, to close one’s eyes, don’t look at all the happy, smiling people, and just listen! There’s an entirely different story in the text they’re trying to distract one from considering.
In my case it’s a developing lumbar scoliosis (long spine, relentless gravity) that caused a synovial cyst that pressed on the root of a nerve trunk going down my right leg. The orthopedist’s initial diagnosis was wrong, and I didn’t need surgery–NSAIDs and a spinal steroid injection. 😉 I got off NSAIDs ASAP, and since have used the etodolac only a day or two for it’s effectiveness (vs taking more of something less effective longer) as needed.
That sounds really, really painful.
I tell you I am quite ready to be off the Advil. Headache is very, very rare for me. It’s a rare side-effect of Ibuprofen. And I am getting it, mildly, but getting it within an hour when I take any Advil. I think I may try to let this clear my system entirely and go over to simple aspirin for a while as needed.
with the consent of my physician, I’m using a generic naproxen sodium (Trade name Aleve), one tablet in the morning, one tablet at night. I’m also supplementing it with two 600mg acetaminophen tablets in the morning and two at night. I’ve been asked to stay off aspirin, and ibuprofen does nothing for me, anyway, even in the massive doses they were giving me before.
If one class of NSAID is ineffective or causes side effects, perhaps switching to a different class might avoid it, if not a different one in the class. This page has a good classification of all the NSAIDs out there. (I never have been able to keep them all differentiated in my mind!) Unfortunately, all the OTC ones seem to be proprionic acid derivatives.
This other page speaks to COX-1/2 inhibitors, even those in some foods, which people on NSAID treatment should be aware. (The reason I wasn’t excited about the WebMD page Joe found is all NSAIDs/COX inhibitors have more or less similar risks. As I wrote before, they’re all serious drugs.)
FWIW, there is heart disease in the family (whose doesn’t?) so on my doctor’s recommendation I’ve been taking an 81mg “baby” aspirin (virtually) daily for the last 15yrs or so, with no adverse effects yet. There have been some suggestions that taking other OTC NSAIDs may cancel the effect of the aspirin while they’re in one’s system. I haven’t found anything noncontroversially definitive.
Thank you, guys. I think I’m going to get through it. I don’t know what happened, whether the bursa finally reached max or what, but I got through yesterday with only a couple of Advil in the morning and a couple more in the evening—two more at 3 am, but over all the pain is finally diminishing. I’m being careful not to insult the knee further and not even to stand up long enough to cook dinner, which is seeming to help. It’s a little warmer than the unhurt one, and they say watch out for infection; and if that hasn’t changed by Monday I’m going to call the doc’s office and ask. But Saturday was so much better than Friday, and I’m really hoping Sunday will be better than Saturday…we’ll see, today, if the improvement curve continues.