Hello there Laura, and welcome to our corner of SoberRecovery :0
I don't have TMJ, I have autonomic neuropathy which is a different kind of neurological disease. My pain is fairly constant, mostly in my heart and stomach which are the organs most damaged by my condition. A few times a week I get a monster migraine, and once in a while my whole nervous systems acts up and I hurt _everywhere_.
The generic question for you is whether you have seen a pain specialist? What I have learned thru my own travels in the medical system is that there are three different types of medication for us pain folks. You mention only the last kind; pain killers.
There's a whole class of medications called "preventives", sometimes called "neural stabilizers". I am not a doctor, so I don't understand exactly how they work, but it's something like they lower the volume of the pain activity in the nervous system. I take one called "Depakote" and it works great for me. There's also Neurontin and Lyrica. The intensity of my pain has been greatly reduced by these meds. These kinds of meds are taken every day in order to maintain a constant level in the body. And they're not adictive, they don't give any kind of buzz or kick.
The trick to the "neural stabilizer" is that you have to start at a very low dose and _slowly_ work your way up because the primay side effect is they make you sleepy. Take too much and you'll sleep all day and all night, as I have done a couple of times.
The next class of med is called an "abortive". These are meds that stop the pain right when it is starting in order to prevent it from getting huge. Unlike the preventives, you only take them when you are getting a flare. The downside is they don't work for every condition, and the side effects can be rough.
There's one called "Maxalt" that is _wonderful_ for migraines. It works by dropping your blood pressure. Unfortunately, I have really low blood pressure to begin with so if I take one of those I will be in bed all day. Which is better than being in bed all day with a monster migraine
Because of the Depakote I very rarely need to use pain killers. When I do it's in _much_ lower amounts than I used to, the Depakote has been wonderful. In addition, my docs "rotate" the pain killers every year. Last year I was on Lortab, this year it's Tramadol. Changing every year reduces the development of tolerance, which goes a long way to preventing addiction.
I have also taken up Yoga, which I do right before bedtime. With my condition even the slightest change in the quality and length of sleep makes a huge difference in the levels of pain. I also have a massage twice a month which helps keep the blood flowing to my muscles and limbs.
I had to shop around for a good doc, most of them have no experience in pain management. Once I found a good one he explained all of the above to me. The secret to pain management is to find a "recipe" that works for your particular condition. Just one type of med is too simple, it really takes a _balance_ of the _right_ meds with the right type of physical therapy. I had to experiment with various meds until I found what works best for me.
Welcome again, Laura, I'm glad you found us. Please keep posting and we'll all toss in our personal experience so you can pick and choose what works for you.
Mike
