Pain Diary

21tomlinson, I am sorry you are going through this suffering. There is always hope, don’t give up!

I hope this is not out of line, but there are some nontraditional treatments out there for chronic pain that perhaps are worth exploring or looking into. I am not a doctor so you would want to discuss these options with your care provider.

One is called ketamine therapy, which I believe is a low dose anesthetic. There are clinics around the country which perform this, and there is some evidence that it can be effective for otherwise difficult pain management. It looks like there are ongoing studies about this, but here are some links and some supporting research if you are interested.

http://www.ketamineclinics.com/ketamine-treatments/pain-treatment/

http://www.californiapainmedicinecenter.com

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18266808

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Graham_Hocking/publication/8993984_Ketamine_in_Chronic_Pain_Management_An_Evidence-Based_Review/links/0fcfd509b0fac70385000000.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23432384

http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2014/august2014/ketamine-reinventing-chronic-pain-management

https://youtu.be/69Pii3kBqTg

Another is pelvic rehab physical therapy, which is a bit harder to find for males, but there are some positive outcomes that can be reported for pain syndromes for both male and females with the rehab therapy.

http://www.pelvicpainrehab.com/locations/

https://pelvicguru.com/2016/02/13/find-a-pelvic-health-professional/

Finally, and this is by far the most controversial so please don’t take offense to this, but ongoing research supports certain types of medical marijuana as potentially beneficial for chronic pain. If you go this route, please seek out a qualified knowledgable doctor and not a hippy on the street corner, as it appears the type of marijuana matters, as do other factors.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2338266

http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/23622-medical-marijuana-reduces-use-of-opioid-pain-meds-decreases-risk-for-some-with-chronic-pain

https://www.nabp.net/events/assets/Carter_Aggarwal.pdf

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/MMP/Pages/default.aspx

https://youtu.be/f2W6-VTiOt0

There is also something called a TENS unit, which I think uses electricity to disrupt pain signals, but I think you’d need to work with a doctor to have it target the proper regions.

Perhaps some of this information will be helpful to you (or to others in similar situations). Do your best to stay positive, and don’t give up!