Many people suffer from chronic and sometimes overwhelming pain. In Chronic Pain Survival Tricks and Self-Help Techniques, author Stephen Schnitzer, Esq. offers a host of simple practices that can help patients deal with the pain and strive to become pain free. Based on his personal experiences searching for his own chronic pain solutions, Schnitzer provides helpful tips for those wanting to ease their suffering. Chronic Pain Survival Tricks and Self-Help Techniques covers a plethora of subject areas: Selecting and dealing wMany people suffer from chronic and sometimes overwhelming pain. In Chronic Pain Survival Tricks and Self-Help Techniques, author Stephen Schnitzer, Esq. offers a host of simple practices that can help patients deal with the pain and strive to become pain free. Based on his personal experiences searching for his own chronic pain solutions, Schnitzer provides helpful tips for those wanting to ease their suffering. Chronic Pain Survival Tricks and Self-Help Techniques covers a plethora of subject areas: Selecting and dealing with pharmacists; Working with physical therapists; Choosing a corrective bed; Understanding the effects of hot and cold; Realizing the importance of proper breathing; Using canes; Facilitating medical insurance and public assistance; Valuing a positive mental attitude; Recognizing how weather affects the body; Obtaining second medical opinions Designed only to be used in conjunction with your treating doctors' advice and medication, the solutions offered by Schnitzer help you deal with the often devastating effects of chronic pain in a positive manner. Undoith pharmacists; Working with physical therapists; Choosing a corrective bed; Understanding the effects of hot and cold; Realizing the importance of proper breathing; Using canes; Facilitating medical insurance and public assistance; Valuing a positive mental attitude; Recognizing how weather affects the body;

CHRONIC PAIN SURVIVAL TRICKS AND SELF-HELP TECHNIQUES

A Survivor's Manual by One Who KnowsBy Stephen Schnitzer

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Stephen Schnitzer
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-0162-0

Contents

Pharmacist..........................................................1Physical Therapy....................................................4Sex.................................................................7Beds................................................................9Hot and Cold........................................................12Water; Showers and Baths............................................15Pain Prevention.....................................................17Medical Insurance-Public Assistance.................................19Body Water-Hydration................................................21Testing.............................................................24Cross-Over Diseases.................................................26Meditation..........................................................28Breathing...........................................................32Canes...............................................................34Weather.............................................................36Braces and Other Support Appliances.................................38Pride...............................................................41Simple Tricks.......................................................43Chamomile Tea.......................................................45Acupressure.........................................................49General Travel: Cars, Airplanes, Trains & Buses.....................51Mental Attitude.....................................................53Surgery and Exercise................................................56Records.............................................................58Lifting & Sitting...................................................62Eating..............................................................64Letters and Gifts to Doctors........................................66Second Opinions.....................................................70Shoes...............................................................74Allergies...........................................................82Pain Medications....................................................85Laughing and Being Mad Avoidance....................................92Do's and Don'ts and Overview........................................94Winning Is The Beginning............................................100Appendices..........................................................109

Chapter One

Pharmacist

When you have pain normally one seeks to address its removal. One of the places to visit obviously is the pharmacy. All drugs (even those sold over-the-counter are expensive) so people have a strong tendency to go to large volume stores where the pharmacist is hidden behind aisles of prescriptions and pain relievers and staffed by pill-counters who handle great volumes and know little or nothing about you or your condition. These stores are good for saving money but virtually useless in identifying what you need to know about your medicines. They are not given to react to what is in your own personal good or what is bad. Moreover they usually know little about the doctor who gave them to you or are reluctant to discuss your physician with you. It should come as no surprise that pharmacists know best which doctors enjoy a good reputation as a competent and dependable physician and who does not. Not all doctors are created equally. Some are much better than others and have better training and bedside manner. Leave out friendship and getting along. The doctor who is best is the one who can help you actually and not perhaps the one you like most.

The smart thing to do is to shop around for a neighborhood pharmacy until you finally discover a pharmacist in attendance who you accept to be knowledgeable and willing to address your questions and needs in a direct and professional manner.

Many drugs have different effects when used with each other and some of them are quite subtle (drug interactions). You need a pharmacist who knows you day in and day out and who is willing to check your current medicines and be able to sort out what can befall you once you start taking new or other substantial medications including for pain relief syndromes. They can also explain to you the alternatives and what is available appropriately generically since if you have a drug plan or Medicare it is possible to max out your coverage before you come in to what may be catastrophic drug coverage assuming you have it. The plan also can keep track of your co-pays so that you know when you are getting close to maxed out dollar caps and often can suggest to you if you are given a nongeneric supplement what the lesser cost alternatives are. If you are given a generic supplement of great expense they can also be influential in getting your insurance company to pay the sum due for them. The cost of drugs can shock you. The Author recently was told he might have MRSA and was prescribed medicine for which his co-pay was $700.00 for 20 pills the gross cost of which exceeded $2,000.00!

Many drugs for pain relief contain the words "cet" such as Ultracet and Darvocet and the like. Basically, these descriptions mean to indicate that principle operating medication also is buffered-up by Tylenol which is the "cet" portion of the drug referenced. Accordingly, you might want to inquire about receiving the direct non-Tylenol drug (e.g. Darvon not Darvocet) whereby you will receive a greater dose of pain killer and thereafter to relieve enhanced chronic pain whether to elect also to take Tylenol to buffer it up or extend the pain drug itself if you choose. This is a good choice to have on a bad pain day but you can take just so much Tylenol daily. Having the choice is better than having none at all.

While usually a small shop presumably has good knowledge and concern of drug interaction, it is not perfect in all medical instances. A smart pharmacist will tell you when any new drugs interact with whatever also you might be taking (assuming you ask). At a time of possible drug interaction it is best to get a referral to an endocrinologist who while a physician is a scientist in this medical area of drug interactions. He is the person best able to help and guide you to avoid the pitfalls of drug interactions which themselves can cripple and kill you. Moreover, many drugs used on a substantial basis even temporally need to be monitored with blood work to make sure that your kidney, liver or other body functions are not being impaired. An endocrinologist can order and interpret certain tests in this regard to benefit you in which area most physicians are less or not at all experienced.

Physical Therapy

Now you have chronic pain and drugs. Perhaps for a bad disc or other body problem for which the likelihood of it going away with medicine alone is not good. "P.T." means you need physical therapy. That does not mean a gym or personal trainer. Normally it means a person who has been trained after college to become a doctor of physical therapy who is to be found in a P.T. facility which may look like a gym but which is far more sophisticated.

Obviously some physical therapy facilities are much better than others and have different and more modern equipment and health minded approaches. Word of mouth is probably the best resource to find...