I find it very interesting to see the pain managed so successfully with non-narcotic drugs. I’ve been in pain for years supposedly from my arthritis although my case is quite complicated. But isn’t everyone’s case different and complicated in other ways?
NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories) helped the pain but this was far from complete. And these types of drugs are not meant to be taken forever. The ideal case is that you get an acute inflammation from something eg spraining your ankle and you go on the NSAIDs for 10 days to aid with the healing. Arthritis, however, is not an acute situation but rather is chronic. People go on the NSAIDs because of the pain and the drugs help to different degrees.Unless the patient is persistent about their level of pain, it often stops here. And the patients’ don’t know what is “normal” pain from arthritis. The one thing that they do know is they can’t manage many “normal” daily tasks and this can impact their quality of life (QOL) to varying degrees.
