Death.
Ooops. Too mordid. Sorry.

BobF

eph221
Yes, I have a herniated disc.  I've had it for many years and it only flares every now and then when I sleep on it wrong.  As I get older I get various aches and pains as well.  I'd do the medicinal pot, but I have a p/t job that involves driving and they don't allow weed.  My two other jobs it would be fine though.

I was diagnosed many years with a bulging disk problem.  My doc had me a surgical path.  I went for a second opinion.
 
The next doc prescribed Feldene (Piroxicam).  He told me to start out one a day for about two weeks, then I was supposed to get really irregular with it.  Take it a few days, skip an odd day or two here and there.
 
Combined with a very specific set of stretches, I was pain free in about 6 mos.  I never experienced any of the side effects listed as possible with it.
 
I realize herniated is a different game, but it's something to check out anyway.

It's along the lines of a bulging disc.  I will consider everything I've learned here today.  Thanks!

bapu
Given time TM, the medical maryjane producers may well become the same as the "pharmaceutical robber barons". 

Only if we let them. As soon as we get rid of the stupid 25-mile rule in AZ (no grow rights if you live within 25 miles of a dispensary (THAT was added by the MMJ dispensary robber barons), my tents go back up.

Beepster
Smoking that stuff does crap all unless you have glaucoma or need something to make you eat. Tea or edibles are better for that stuff.
...

That is a complete load of B.S.
 
I've been on it since 1972, and I can tell you the precise differences between smoking, vaping and eating the exact same strain. I can also tell the difference between a 9-week flower and a 10-week flower of the exact same strain when smoking or vaping. Eating is too diffused and too time-delayed to be able to notice the small differences.
 
Stick to what you know for a fact, not what you've heard, or what your biases are.
 
I also herniated a disk (L3-L4). Eating MMJ for that specific issue was a waste of good meds. Vaping is safer and is appropriate for most uses, but there is NOTHING like the instant relief you get from smoking. Vaping is close, but it's not the same. If you've got pain from a herniated disk, that LAST thing you want to do is wait 45-60 minutes before you get any kind of noticeable relief.
 
And try to find an edible that is strain-specific. You're lucky to find sativa, hybrid and indica choices.
 
The strain matters. How long it was allowed to flower matters. How it is dried and cured matters.
 
There's weed. And then there's medical marijuana. Same plant. Two different approaches to growing it. I do NOT like concentrates. I want access to the fresh plant and all of the goodness it provides (cannabinoids (both active (THC) and inactive (THCA), plus CBD, CBG, CBN et. all), terpenes/terpenoids and flavonoids).
 
Mexican brick is NOT medicine.
 
EDIT: It also took a very good chiropractor several months and then a good message therapist another six months to get me through that. I still deal with it the same as the OP...if I sleep in a weird position or some other seemingly innocuous thing. I haven't felt the need to take a single pain pill of any type (I still have some with codeine). For years!

jbow
Certain tryptamines work very well in micro doses. Nothing legal works for real pain or chronic pain. For a headache or temporary back pain, yeah. Pain from standing in a retail store on a concrete floor... really good shoes. Expensive Asics would be my advice.
 
For disk pain or other chronic pain when OTC does not work you will need opiates or illegals... just be careful and don't expect to ever be pain free just to be so it is tolerable and you can function.
Stay away from time released meds. You can control what you take with fast acting meds and take them when you need them, more sometime, less sometime. With the ER meds you have no control.
Sativa or very low dose fungi will work very well. No one checks for trytamines or for LDS analogs, which you can buy online. It is your life, don't let other people's decisions ruin it, you only live once.
J

 
I'm Buddhist...

I can attest to the pain-relieving properties of marijuana. Not a myth. Believe me, if it had just been wishful thinking I'd have known right away.
 
My back pain from spinal stenosis was intense and unrelenting, and unresponsive to chiropractic and physical therapy, as well as steroid injections. OTC pain meds did nothing and my digestive system couldn't handle opiates. Marijuana allowed me to drastically cut back on the conventional painkillers (oxycodone, vicodin, percoset, et al). The downside, as John noted above, is you can't get high from marijuana in this context. 
 
I agree that there are better ways to ingest it than smoking. My preferred method is tea. That was only economically feasible, though, because I grew my own plants on the back porch. Store-bought pot is too expensive for brewing tea. You can, however, buy a tincture product that works very well. You just put a few drops into a cup of, say, peppermint tea. That addresses the most significant downside to eating/drinking the stuff: the difficulty of gauging dosage.
 
My son-in-law has cancer in his spine and kidneys. He, too, swears by the pain-relief he gets from marijuana, although he also takes morphine and oxycodone so it's hard to know how much the pot contributes.
 
We are lucky to live in a state where marijuana is legal.
 
Back to the topic. I asked my doctor the very same question that started this thread: what options are there other than opiates? His answer surprised and dismayed me. "None", he said. At one point I did get an injection of something they described as "super tylenol". That was so I could sit still long enough for an EKG. It worked. I jokingly asked if they'd send me home with a couple syringes of the stuff, but they said it's dangerous and they don't like to use it. 
 
So there you have it. Nothing is anywhere nearly as effective as opiates. Aleve (Naproxin) is probably the most effective of the OTC medications, but I'm sure that kills your kidneys or something. 

I didn't mean for this to turn into a polemic about drugs.  Sorry to the moderators.  To anyone in pain, I commiserate.  I've experienced excruciating pain, the kind that makes one nausiated...tomorrow may be a better day as the song goes.

eph221
?

Easy ... the box 6 foot under that houses what's left of you!
 
No more pain for sure!
 
(... thank Evelyn Waugh and Jonathan Winters for that one!)

My doc gave me Tramadol and said since it was a synthetic opiod it wouldn't cause dependence.  Honestly, it didn't help that much with the pain.  Handfuls and handfuls of ibuprofen seems to be the only drug that works.  I realize I have to watch it with stomach issues potentially cropping up.  He also threw methocarbomal at me.  None of that stuff works though.  Again, if you're in pain try and get to sleep...that's the goal...get...sleep....next day might be better.

Pain, each of us knows that nagging companion, some more than others.
 
Could I cast out your pain?  Know that I would!
 
Get away from me Pain!
 
Jesse Q. Screed

bapu

eph221
 My two other jobs it would be fine though.

Many people would kill to have a job they could do the MJ on. Start time 4:20. End Time 4:21?
 

Stopped by a plaid pantry to pick up some coke.  The clerk was outside taking a break...smoking  a doobie (on the clock).  This is Orygun!

Personally, I love the smell of pot.  It instantly reminds me of good times.  No, no, no, no I don't smoke it no more.  There's a classic Dragnet episode that shows Friday describing the smell of pot to his sidekick, all pejorative.  It's pretty funny if you can find it.

I’m in pain 24/7 in my hand and arm. It feels like my arm is asleep plus having my fingernails being pulled out all at once with a plyer, if I’m using my hand the pain increases and stays at that level for long after…
I take nothing for the pain. hum? I think that my adrenalin level stays on the edge and it may affect me mentally ;) Though… With shingles I had to use an (un named) dopamine…
 
Peace!

webbs hill studio

Passive Drift
 It feels like my arm is asleep plus having my fingernails being pulled out all at once with a plyer, quote]


well,that caught my attention:what on earth did you do to have that done to you??

Chainsaw kick back, I hit a hunk of steel that was in the tree trunk of a really huge old tree... cutting up firewood..
The blade hit my left shoulder. (12 stiches), ripped across my chest a bit (not to bad)... Then went into my right arm, inside area of the inner arm at the elbow. Lots of never damage... 150 staples...
I woke up standing with the saw still in my hand, running and the other arm ripped open... 20 years and I still get flashbacks! Good thing I was always left handed...
 
Peace! :)