The thing about chronic pain is that no one wants to hear about it. No one but the sufferer knows what it’s like, and family, friends, doctors, get discouraged when they can’t do anything to help.
Lots of people bear it secretly, others complain and wear out everyone’s sympathy.
But I’ve seen patients go through a complete personality change when their pain is relieved. From depression and preoccupation to outgoing cheer. I feel bad that the good person was locked up in misery for so long.
Every pain medication has side effects. Acetaminophen is a strain on the liver in large doses, Ibuprofen can cause gastric bleeding. Codeine makes a lot of people throw up. Narcotics that are strong enough to relieve pain are unacceptable to many people because they don’t like feeling doped up. Doctors are reluctant to prescribe them because of the people who do like feeling doped up. Who might also legitimately be in pain and need relief too.
So here’s a hopeful development in research…
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) — A cell protein routinely used as a diagnostic for prostate cancer appears to also work as a pain medication that is far more effective than morphine but with far fewer side effects, a new report says…
When tested as a painkiller on mice, a single dose of the protein suppressed pain as effectively as morphine but lasted substantially longer. One dose of PAP lasted up to three days, much longer than the five hours gained with a single dose of morphine.
I hope it works as well on people as it does on mice. This could be radical. A lot of people who are huddled in reclining chairs waiting for the Rapture would be able to enjoy life again. There are more people living with chronic pain than anyone likes to admit, and setting them free from misery would lighten the burden of age and disability.
Kmareka.com 
I am no stranger to severe pain.I have had a number of cancer surgeries in the past year which required some strong pain reliever in the hospital-I’m allergic to ibuprofen and was taking blood thinners,so Toradol was not an option.Dilaudid turned out to be the best inpatient analgesic I had because it is highly effective at a much lower dose than morphine.Vicodin is the best outpatient med I had because it didn’t make me too spaced out.the trick is to take it for as little time as possible.Mainly to get you over the “hump”.
Chronic pain is different-I have a recurrent condition related to old surgery(not adhesions)which causes severe abdominal pain and is untreatable-there are no painkillers which help it.I haven’t had it for a few years now,but the last onset in 2002 lasted until 2005.
Doctors gave me every test in the book and decided it was an inoperable benign mechanical problem not related to the gastrointestinal tract,but rather abdominal muscle spasm.I discovered the best way to handle it was to make myself retch or vomit,which caused the pain to stop like a light switch.I hope it doesn’t come back.It starts up every 7-10 years or so.When I have these attacks,I am miserable,and slightly less miserable when I don’t(just kidding).
Worst pain reliever?Percocet.I took it once and wound up on a catheter-I will never take it again.Demerol(“demonol”)is another painkiller with bad side effects and many people are deathly allergic to it.
some of my patients get a referral to a pain clinic, which does not work any miracles as far as i can see. i hope this discovery turns out to be useful to people who have gone through every drug available and get all the side effects and only partial relief. i hear about pain all the time, and since it’s invisible, and often difficult to treat, it gets ignored.