Do you ever take drugs (legal ones)?

I thought you were talking about narcotic pain killers like percocet. I think Ibuprofen is a great. Its an anti-inflammatory and a painkiller. Ive taken it for years and years sometimes everyday for monthes. I have developed no health issues as a result.

You don't even need the Tylenol. Iv'e heard some bad things about Tylenol

"Acetaminophen causes three times as many cases of liver failure as all other drugs combined,[14] and is the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States,[6][15] accounting for 39% of cases."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol



I wouldn't mix these. It's got to be hard on your liver. 1 or 2 200mg Ibuprofens will do you just fine.

What is a rotator cuff problem (if I may ask). With the various problems I've had over the years, mostly minor or following simple surgery, I've been sent home with a Rx for a painkiller. I never took them. Lately I have nasty headaches from nobody knows what. I've been given 3 different prescriptions (one is for seizure prevention!). Took that one for awhile and weaned myself off in a few months because I didn't notice they killed any pain at all but caused other problems.

But, Tylenol is rather like aspirin and would be harmful if you took too many (I think that's over 6 daily) for a long period of time. But, no pain? That's great, Mame. As long as you don't overdo it, Tylenol is harmless, and they do work. I can't take Advil but can't remember why, but there were side effects.

Basically, he rotator cuff is four bands of muscles that protect your shoulder and upper arm joint. If they swell or tear, it causes great pain. It's easy to do this - sudden or over a time period. Anyway, it's painful.

Glad to hear you're not addicted to pain meds and, in fact, refused to take them. Good on you.

When I have a problem I go online and search out something to help me. I only use pain medicine rarely, usually Aleve or aspirin.

I'm pretty drug resistant except for bourbon and chocolate milk.

I have aspirin and ibuprofen and tylenol (just recently) in the house, but never take them, including tylenol with the surgery on wednesday, or oxy whatsis after general surgery for bc.

On the other hand, that's because I haven't been in wildassed pain.

I do take a light anti hypertension drug, and got it down to just about the lowest dose.
I do take anti pressure drops for my glaucoma. The eye with the crazy glaucoma took about a year and a half to get down to normal pressure after the freak surgery, and I like to keep it there. High eye pressure hurts like hell, makes you vomit, and ruins the optic nerve.

I'm presently taking a post surgery antibiotic salve, but that'll pass shortly.

So, I'm a mostly no, except when I think it matters to take the drops or antibiotic.

However, I spent a lot of years in a lab attached to an arthritis clinic (lupus, etc.) I would never say the people I knew shouldn't take a palliative. Same with many other situations. Sometimes people have immense pain.

I forgot benedryl, take it a few times a year.

You may be right for chronic paid, except inflammation as Amigo mentions. For injuries, my opinion is that if you are prescribed something for pain, you should probably be taking it. I strongly feel that pain inhibits healing, and if you have such a prescription your body will continue to send the necessary pain signals.

In the case of rotator cuff problems, too much pain will cause you to reduce movement. You don't want to end up with a frozen shoulder. Believe me.

Roger knows what of he speaks.

I generally shy away from pills. However, when faced with a headache, which happens about three times a year, I take an aspiring and voila! The pain is gone! Also, I will occasionally smoke marijuana, which is mostly legal here in CA. Got some good **** too!

I, like you, don't take pills at all other than perhaps 3 or 4 Extra Strength Tylenol a year. However, I would not rule them out entirely if they actually relieve discomfort.

I've always tried to avoid painkillers and antibiotics.
Painkillers because i believe that pain is the bodies warning system. If it hurts dont do it. Sometimes i have seen the wisdom of using anti inflamitories to reduce swelling and thereby facilitate healing.
I avoid antibiotics to reduce the possibility of deeloping resistance and building my own immune system.

Almost every doctor I have been to believes what roger wrote. They say the body will heal faster if you are not in pain.

Well, this doctor (my first visit) did not do a history, did not look at my arm, obviously did not touch it, and didn't do a range of motion series which I would have done as a Level III OFA. He just took my word for everything and he didn't prescribe anything for me except some lab tests and x-rays. It was the strangest doctor's visit (except for one) that I've ever had. I even wore a sleeveless top so he could compare arms, had he shown any interest.

So basically, I've got the x-rays and lab tests booked for next week and he's supposedly going to call me when the results are in. At that time, I will find out everything I can.

It is painful, but it is bearable. I took 2 Advil and 1 Tylenol (extra strength, no codeine) at around 8:00 a.m. and was good for about 4 hours. I don't want to become addicted so I haven't taken any more but I think I will before bed.

On the good side, my deck is DONE, my inside stairs are 90% done and I will be finished renovating for a long while. Plus, I have a ton of lumber for my fireplace (which is hosting a fire as we speak). Yay.

I definitely take medication. I don't think I'd have made it past the age of of 10 without it.

I take Naproxen (Aleve) if joint pain gets paid. I also use it for dental pain - I've been having problems with a filling dropping out (same tooth 3x now) - the nerve becomes exposed and a Naproxen will take the edge off the pain enough to allow me to sleep til I can get to Ron.

A variety of allergy-related meds are absolute musts. I let my allergies get badly out of control once. Almost lost the vision in my right eye as a result. I'm not going to be that stubborn about avoiding medication again. I do tend to wait a bit too late to start once in a while. That mistake will usually keep me on the straight and narrow for 3 to 5 years.

Weird, Mame. Most of my doctor visits are very good - I've been lucky - but I had a strange one when I first came to albuquerque where the doc told me I never had breast cancer but dcis. No, I have the surgeon's notes, invasive bc stage II, very much not in the duct but galloping away from it, which is why she did a second lumpectomy. That was also the sloppiest exam I'd ever had. Grrrr. I didn't go back.

Well, I'll be interested to see what the xrays show for your arm - does a rotator cuff tear show on xray? Maybe there's some policy for not doing range of motion if a tear is possible?

Around here they do an MRI to diagnose a rotator cuff tear, not an Xray.

They were suspecting that was the problem with my shoulder, but it turned out to be just degenerative changes due to age. I'll probably have a scope procedure done within the next few months to improve my range of motion and reduce the pain.

I second the call to aleve.

Having BEEN addicted to pain pills thanks to over perscribing I can tell you that it is the hardest thing to go through.

I had doctor give me 2 different pain meds to take during the day, both narcotic
One antiinflammatory, narcotic as well

and my nerves were so over run and shot down that I had to take a sleeping pill... again... narcotic.
All thinking " if its perscribed i better take it"

Yes, pain is a measure for a problem and you CAN hurt your self more by not takeing care of it, but it is not always necessary to race to something to alleviate it.

White willow bark.
Make a cup of tea ( about 8 ounces) to a maybe a tablespoon of the loose bark. Works JUST as well on minor to moderate pain.
Why?
Because thats asprin..

Narcotics are not always necessary and as EBeth said, Naproxen is the BEST dang pill you could ever need for almost anything .

Amigo is right about the liver damage but that requires several thousand mg's a day of the med over a pretty long period of time. Taking one big horse size asprin is not going ot cause liver damage.
Taking several every day for a long period of time will.

I agree with you on this. It depends on how much pain and what is causing the pain in whether someone should be taking any type of narcotic.

My experience is that if the narcotic makes you "high" then you are taking too much. The narcotic should only help manage the pain. Many times you can cut a narcotic pill in 1/2 to start with and see if that works before you take a whole pill.

When I injured my rotator cuff, I only took ibuprofen and tylenol and neither helped. I was in pain 24/7 even though I was going to physical therapy. Finally after 3 shots, physical therapy and 11 months of pain, the doctors decided it was time I had surgery. I was so glad because that surgery along with physical therapy allowed me to have 99% movement back in my arm and I am no longer in any pain.

That's what I was thinking when I asked if you could tell on an xray... MRIs are more expensive though, compared to xray.

Here's a link on diagnosis of rotator cuff injury - looks like xrays are included.
http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00064