Chronic Pain...

One of the problems with arachnoiditis or even with people understanding it can be as simple as not uderstanding the difference between acute and chronic pain.

Acute pain is often short-lived with a specific cause and purpose; generally produces no persistent psychological reaction. Acute pain can occur during soft tissue injury, and with infection and inflammation. It can be modulated and removed by treating its cause and through combined strategies using analgesics to treat the pain and antibiotics to treat the infection.


Chronic pain is distinctly different from and more complex than acute pain. Chronic pain has no time limit, often has no apparent cause and serves no apparent biological purpose. Chronic pain can trigger multiple psychological problems that confound both patient and health care provider, leading to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. The most common causes of chronic pain include low-back pain, headache, recurrent facial pain, cancer pain, and arthritic pain.

Once people have an understanding of the differences in the types of pain they can start to understand Arachnoiditis. While some people with arachnoiditis never have any pain or they have limited or acute pain, many people or perhaps most of the patients suffer from chronic pain. The problem is that the pain is always there, maybe not as strong from one day to the next, but it never goes away.

One of the effective way's to deal with this pain is through the use of opioids such as Oxycontin or Kadian both of which can be highly effective at treating the pain without having the patient in a "doped" state. Since the titration of the drug is based on several factors the doctors can help dial in an amount that will allow for effective pain management while also allowing the patient to maintain a quality of life. So far with both the medications I have been able to effectively control my pain and still be able to participate in my family life. I can go to school functions, play with the boys and perform many household chores albeit a little at a time.

In order to establish a good pain management program you will need to consult with a doctor or in some cases, several. They will help you dial in a plan that should include more then just the drug aspects such as physical therapy and if needed epidural steroid injections. I personally will no longer allow them to do ESI's as they may be the cause of the problem but for some people they do work.

When putting a pain management program in to place you should certainly talk to other people who have or are going through pain management. Listen to what they say and take it with a grain of salt. There will be some people who will insist that they have all the answers or that a certain method is worthless. It is important to remember that what works for one person may not work for another and to speak with your doctor at length before allowing them to perform any type of procedures on you. By all means, get a second opinion if you are not comfortable with just one doctors, after all it is your body and in the end you have the right to say what will and will not be done to you. If your doctor cannot or does not respect that then it is time to find a new doctor.