I guess it's just a different way of thinking from myself. For those with chronic pain

I would never spend money to treat the pain from my hip. When I got it diagnosed the doctor gave me a prescription but I never considered filling it. I have just always looked at it as something I have to live with.

Unfortunately there are many who can't "just live with it".

The pain is completely incapacitating.

Nausea + vomiting + dehydration = many an ER visit. This was before Imitrex (my miracle drug). "Living with the pain" is not an option.

as they can get. They should gift me a car after all I've spent.

(I think). It's when they first came out and I was in the E.R. The doctor said they were going to give me an injection of a new drug. I even wrote GlaxoSmithKline a letter to thank whomever was responsible for developing it.

but to each his own. I also have a bum hip, but since I can't afford health insurance I'm on my own. Aleve takes the edge off and improves my quality of life. If I got a prescription for something a little stronger I'd fill it in a heartbeat.

I'm not giving anyone the money for a new hip anytime soon, so this will be around.

Actually, I need glasses for a better quality of life, and maybe you need pain meds for a better quality of life, as well.

These questions are very contextualized for any given person, I think.

I have children to supervise and I can't do that if I'm vomiting and passing out in the bathroom, or lying in bed under the covers wishing I were dead.

but a teacher to 22, I agree.

After the first 1 1/2 years of being on Vicodin I found myself feeling worse than not taking anything at all.

Been off them (outside of an unsuccessful arthriscopy recovery) ever since.

I will say though, that there are times when I wish I had something stronger than Tylenol or Advil to take, but when my condition was diagnosed as permanent I gave up on wasting money on doctors.

Pain is not just "feeling bad". It affects the immune system. It shortens life.

Pain is not trivial.

I've had it for 10 years. The pain comes and goes, but when it really hurts I have to take something otherwise I cannot sit, stand, walk at all.

I believe I have a high tolerance to pain. Ever have a root canal with no anesthetic? In fact, I prefer to have all my dental work done without an anesthetic. Why? because I like the numb feeling less than the pain I guess. But no, I've always thought that maybe our lives aren't supposed to be totally pain free. If I ran to the Dr. for every time I hurt, or hurt myself, I'd be under the influence 7/24/365

As someone who has lived with chronic pain over two decades, I can somewhat agree with you about the *live with it* factor - to a point. But pain, even if it is something you think you can *tough out*, will wind up effecting you and the people around you. I tried that for awhile, and drove my family crazy with my *black days*.

Pain wears you down. Even if you think you are courageous. Especially the sort that doesn't go away, or may flair up due to weather changes, overuse, or any other potential trigger.

There are pain management doctors who can and will work with you, to find the minimum amount of drugs or treatments to keep the pain levels at a bearable amount. You don't have to take treatments that wonk you out, you can tell the doctors if something is too strong, and they will adjust it. There are also treatments (physical therapy, etc) that don't involved drugs.

Suffering through something in this day and age is unnecessary.

paying the money for it. No medication is going to remove the pain so the results fail. Lowering the level of pain is still a failing result and for me does not justify giving someone my money.

Depending upon the condition, changes in diet, exercise, and schedule may help, as may homeopathics, acupuncture, yoga, and meditation.

Some days it goes away sometimes not. If it doesn't go away I might take 1 or 2 aspirin depending on what I've planned to do. The pain is not so bad that I can't live a reasonably active life for someone in his late 60's. I can still ride a horse, a motorcycle, climb a ladder and walk a few miles on soft surfaces (like 18 holes of golf).

I have no objections to spending money to treat this condition and if medication would solve it I would do it in a minute. But that's as far as I'd go right now. I watched my mom get 2 hip replacements and still spend the last 15 years of her life in a walker. So I'm skeptical of surgery.

I guess if the pain gets more intense I'll have to make a decision. But right now I'm dealing with it the same way you are.

life which isn't necessarily productive or appropriate to others, the last thing a lot of folks need is you telling them they aren't strong enough. perhaps there are better "Skillful Means" to help others.. to put it bluntly, you are not any braver or better cause you can gut it out. you would be better to perhaps to gain a better connection with others with pain, sounds like a dry drunk to me.. thinking if you don't do something you aren't what you are, ..waiting for hip surgery or to be just like 10's of millions of others with hopeless pain.

i spent 16 months in 'Treatment' 18 hours total in surgery, 24 days in hospital antibiotic IV's, nerve, tendon, muscle grafts, 10 months of tortuous therapy.. they finally admitted they were just experimenting, i told them to just amputate it. I'm pain free and waiting for mr prosthetic. i also handed out 8 copies of Breakthrough pain, to therapists, libraries, councilors.. i pass it along to everyone i talk to about pain.

sorry, but i'm typing here with one hand and that sounded so... absurd, isolated, un-empathetic and limited a perspective to pass along. sorry

i got this tape set and book by Shinzen Young. there are other good ones too.. $4 including the shipping
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Break+Through+Pain%3A+A+Step-by-Step+Mindfulness+&x=14&y=17

It causes people to socially isolate, become depressed and hopeless, and turn to substance abuse or suicide, mostly the latter.

I've dealt with pain all my adult life. As I've gotten older and sicker, I've started to need medication in order to function. You might get to this stage, too.

This isn't a moral issue. Pain is a medical issue and should be treated as such.

If you want to limp around in a haze of moral superiority over the more frail of your fellow mortals, so be it.

Just drop the attitude, thanks.

or anyone else's decisions. My decision is about me and only effects me. There was another thread about chronic pain and it just a different way to think about it than I have is all.

And don't say it effects my wife, she considers me an adult able to decide these things for myself. She respects my decisions that don't effect her as I respect hers.

Not a solution, but a help. It cuts down on the need for pain meds, and helps in achieving calm.

Full Catastrophe Living is a start.

I don't know what's wrong with your hip, but have you considered Chiropractic help? I've had a bum hip

for years, but having the chiropractor work me over helps. I also take glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM

and tumeric. I walk every day. We have a 350 degree hill on our property and I can still walk it at 66

years of age. I take aspirin if the pain is keeping me from sleeping.

Of course, if you've already been diagnosed as having a hip that is destroyed and must be replaced soon

what I do may have no relation to what you need.

Some are able to deal with/accept it, some literally can't.

It's very individual. I've taken care of heroin addicts for chronic abscesses with extremely high narcotic needs, their brain chemistry has been altered, I guess, is the way to put it. It's not for me to judge, or deny them pain relief.

I've taken care of a 95 year old woman with multiple compression fractures in her spine who never complained, never took pain medication for what would seem to be a extremely painful, chronic condition.

Whatever works for someone, whatever gives them the best personal quality of life, is probably the best answer don't you think?

There is no moral superiority in not having to take pain meds.

treating or not treating.

I got the no-narcotic thing from him. Even morphine to the spine doesn't work. We never did find a narcotic I could take that worked on my appendicitis pain or the post-op pain from the nephrectomy.

When I had appendicitis for ten years, I would've given anything for a painkiller that worked on me. I handled it with meditation, moaning, crawling around the house, passing out, and ibuprofen. Pretty much the same thing with the kidney surgery.

When pain gets to the point that you're not functional, then you'll take the meds.

I will pay the money for a new hip.

Don't let it get to the point that you're passing out from the pain, though. That sucks, and I really hope I never go through that again.

It's pretty simple.

If all the treatment is is maybe some NSAIDs, I'd say go for it. Narcotic painkillers, I'd only do for a limited time, then I'd be asking about other treatments.

If the treatment is something you do for a limited period of time, say some physical therapy to strengthen the joint, loosen it up and such, I'd say go for it. Especially if it's something like 6 weeks of therapy for a relatively permanent reduction or elimination of pain and improvement of function.

If it requires surgery, that's when I start asking whether the cure is worse than the disease. Let's just say I'd have to be in a hell of a lot of pain before I say yes to surgery.