Advice on dealing with pain?

[balsamandash]

So -- people who have issues with pain; what do you do to get yourself through bad pain periods? Particularly when you have work/physically demanding responsibilities that you can't skip or put off until pain is gone?

I have chronic/reoccuring pain of some kind in... practically every part of my body -- feet, legs, back, stomach, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, jaw, temples, headaches, wow this list is worse than I expected when I actually write it out. It's been a particularly bad couple of weeks for it; I'm bad at quantifying pain but I'd say my average for this month is quite a bit worse than my average in general. I work on my feet all nigh, picking up and moving around heavy boxes and then doing repetitive motions that cause pain in my arms even on days there previously wasn't any.

And I am terrible at coping mechanisms or finding things to make the pain better. (Massage generally helps but is not something I have daily access to or anything right now. Being warm helps so I'm picking up something long-sleeved I can wear during work to keep myself from getting as chilly, but that only does so much good.)

So if you deal with anything like this, share what works for you? Either for getting through the period of having to do things or ways to help ease the pain after getting home/before leaving/when I happen to have a decent chunk of time? I would really appreciate the advice.

Comments

[dancing_serpent]

I'm currently at home sick because I was badly cramped up and couldn't even move my head and arms a few days ago, and my doctor prescribed me anti-inflammatory pain meds and heat, especially most heat. Hot shower/bath or even a wet hot towel wrapped around my shoulders.

I'm usually in pain after work, because it involves mostly heavy lifting, as well. I try to rest as much as possible, go to sleep early to relax my muscles. Sometimes I take an electric heating pad into bed, too.