Interesting, @roamer_1 .I suspect fibromyalgia is part of my problem, but doctors look at me like I'm nuts when I ask.
If so,
@mountaineer , you have my sympathies.
Sleep is the big deal. The garbage trucks only run to your cells after hours when you are in deep sleep. If you don't get there, the trucks don't run, and the cells start stacking it up, at the cellular level. That's the swelling and inflammation.
For me, opiates didn't help that much - I did get relief, and sleep, but the sleep was shallow and short, so I never got to deep restorative sleep... So the pain loop never broke, and the cycle just continued: The more pain, the more lortab/norcs, vikes, or oxys it took to get the wrong sleep, and the more pain, which put me further from restoration. Months and months of excruciating pain at a time. It was a vicious, vicious cycle. And the stress of pain and the worry only exacerbated it.
Fortunately, I have a reset button... My whole gig is tied to barometric change -- Low barometer does it... Normal falling barometer brings arthritic pain, and wrecks me pretty bad... But if the low is big enough (a very precipitous drop in pressure), I zonk out. Comatose. Nearly hypothermia, as my blood pressure craters and my temp goes way down. I get about 20 mins to feel that coming on before I tip over, so I better be under heavy down and ready for it... Usually lasts for 12-72 hours, and I have a really hard time crawling back out of it to the land of the living... But guess what? The garbage trucks run bigtime. That's how I figured it out. OMG, how I used to pray for a big winter storm to roll through! Because once I woke up and creaked back into existence, the pain would be nearly gone.
So the answer for me was to encourage sleep, and maintain circadian rhythm... Hard to do with pain. But it is the important part. Normally, 9pm the lights are all off, and the computer is out of my face... Out to the porch for sleepy time tea and a big dose of darkness. On-and-off trading between melatonin and magnesium doses to encourage natural tired... Super hot shower and in bed by 11pm. And I wake up whenever I do... sometimes 6:30, sometimes 10 or 11. Makes me unreliable, but I don't hurt anymore (well, I do, but nowhere near what it was).
And stress relief - If I feel it coming on, I stop everything and de-stress. A fishing pole is medicine to me. Even the little creek by my house - I'll grab my kit, gimp off to find some lonely, build a fire, brew a cup, fly a tarp, and throw a worm. Four hours later I'll be straight as a string.
There's an old woman that lives where I enter the woods, and she stopped me one day to make mention, and ask me why it was that I was all gimped up walking in and walking fine on the way out - There's that much difference.
So work on those two things and you can diagnose yourself, separate from the doctors... Find what de-stresses you and do it (regardless of circumstance), and make sure you get the best sleep possible, all the time (regardless of circumstance)... If your symptoms improve, TADA! Thereafter it is a matter of refinement, and whatever the docs have that might help you along.
Hope that helps. I am entering my second winter without morphine, using turmeric milk and willow bark for pain relief... I am still not done, I still hurt... But by and large, I can manage it without doctors and dependencies. And that is priceless.
