13th August 2004
You didn't indicate if your mother suffers from daily pain or just intermittent or if she is on any medications at all. Also, you didn't indicate if she's currently being treated by a specialist for her back.
Most of the medications individuals on this board take are for long term useage and often quite strong as many have suffered from very chronic pain for years.
If she does have arthritis then being on an anti-imflamatory will help her. As far as non prescription medicines she can try allieve which is an OTC anti-imflamatory or the various others like aspirin, acetominophen etc.
The heat pads that stick to you do help fairly well with back pain, I use them quite often, especially if my back is tense. Also having someone massage it gently can bring her a bit of relief. Believe it or not but the the OTC meds for menstrual cramps actually helps with mild back pain, she might want to give it a try.
If she finds she isn't getting any or little relief from OTC medications then she should talk to her primary care doctor and get their advice on what type of specialist she may need, if any at all. She may need to have an Xray or MRI to determine if there is a problem and then from that point decide what she needs to do. You may find that they will start her on some physical therapy and then go from there. If it's something severe, like a major herniation then they might consider surgery only after several other options are tried first.
If medications are prescribed if it is truly needed it seems that most doctors will put you on an anti-imflamatory, muscle relaxor or a mild pain pill and see how things go from there.
Most of the medications individuals on this board take are for long term useage and often quite strong as many have suffered from very chronic pain for years.
If she does have arthritis then being on an anti-imflamatory will help her. As far as non prescription medicines she can try allieve which is an OTC anti-imflamatory or the various others like aspirin, acetominophen etc.
The heat pads that stick to you do help fairly well with back pain, I use them quite often, especially if my back is tense. Also having someone massage it gently can bring her a bit of relief. Believe it or not but the the OTC meds for menstrual cramps actually helps with mild back pain, she might want to give it a try.
If she finds she isn't getting any or little relief from OTC medications then she should talk to her primary care doctor and get their advice on what type of specialist she may need, if any at all. She may need to have an Xray or MRI to determine if there is a problem and then from that point decide what she needs to do. You may find that they will start her on some physical therapy and then go from there. If it's something severe, like a major herniation then they might consider surgery only after several other options are tried first.
If medications are prescribed if it is truly needed it seems that most doctors will put you on an anti-imflamatory, muscle relaxor or a mild pain pill and see how things go from there.