Pain Killers

I take prescribed pain medication from my doctor. I was in a terrible car accident when I was eighteen. I went through a lot of physical therapy, and just dealt with the pain for years with no pain medicine. As the years passed I had more minimally invasive, therapeutic procedures, and eventually we tried pain medication. Some didn't work, one gave me ulcers, but finally we found one that is effective. I go once a month to the pain management clinic to the doctor who prescribes it. He talks to me about it, does a urine test (to make sure I'm not taking too much, or taking other pain medications he didn't prescribe). They are extremely careful these days in what they prescribe. I have tried so many things. A holistic pain management clinic actually rejected my request for an appointment because they said nothing they offered would help me. I don't like being on medication that can cause damage to my liver as I age, but my pain is excruciating without help.

Yes, I take painkillers when I have serious headaches.

You're correct. Pain is a symptom, so the cause should be determined first before treating the pain, because if you keep treating the pain and don't know the cause the illness or condition could progress into a serious one. I know of someone who always took painkillers whenever she had a stomachache, only to discover later on that it was cancer. If she consulted the doctor when she had pain attacks the cause could have been determined immediately, leading to an immediate treatment of the cancer. It was too late when she learned she had cancer, it was stage 1V and at that stage, it is already serious. I tolerate the pain and try to find the cause first. Like my headache whenever I had a headache, I don't take in painkillers. I know the cause is hypertension, so I take an anti-hypertensive med instead and observed the pain. The pain goes away afterward.

I doctor, as specialist in arthrosis, gives me the pain killers I need and the therapy I need. He gives me more when I need it and tells me to take less when it isn´t.

I avoid to take pain killers, if I get a terrible migraine I finally go for one Ibuprofen, but this does not happen often. Antibiotics are necessary if you have a serious infection. I had to take antibiotics when my dentist caused an infection pulling out my wisdom tooth. I had to go to the ER that night and they gave me antibiotics immediately.

No I don't take painkillers unless the pain is so severe and can't go away on its own NOTE: I hate medicine I prefer injections