tens

[Sir Alec]

Has anybody out there used one of these machines and how did you get on?

[phillipa.d]

Hi Sir Alec, My Mum uses hers for her shoulder, which aches a lot, and she says its great. Hope that helps. Think it costs about a tenner from Lloyds Pharmacy.

[Sir Alec]

Thanks phillipa.d, I've been in chronic pain for nearly 5 years and the hospital have only just got round to helping me. I've only had the TENS a little while and I'm supposed to experiment, but I feel terrible. The pain is still constant and I feel sick and tired all the time. I don't know whether to phone the pain clinic and ask them what to do as I'm also getting chest pains at times, so I turn it off, obviously.

[phillipa.d]

well, try it out for a while, and I hope it helps... chronic pain makes you so miserable. Also, are you takin any medication? praps that doesnt agree with you. I can't take codeine, get terrible headaches, and the last time i took tramadol, i was really sick. Good Luck :-)

[blackcat77]

I have one which I use on my back and I find that it helps a bit but wears off fairly fast, you are meant to used them through general activity, but I think that if you are having chest pains at the same time then you ought to speak to a health professional about it - if you are already being seen by the Pain Clinic then I'd ask them for help.

[janice sheph]

I tried one before I had hip replacements but did not benefit from the machine

[Sir Alec]

Hello there! I felt guilty last night, as I was in so much pain I had to lie down for a bit. I hope no-one thought I was being ignorant in not answering. Thanks to all for your kindness and answers. janice sheph, the majority of my pain is hip/leg caused by kidney damage. It seems that when I use it on my kidneys, that's when I get the chest pain. Since the hip pain originates from the kidneys, I thought both would benefit. How wrong can you be! I havn't used it at all today and will try again tomorrow. If I still have no joy, I'm phoning the pain clinic. At least with having to lie down, I got to watch a repeat of QI. It was great. They say laughter's the best medicine!

[gelda]

Have you ever thought of trying accupuncture, I was suffering terrible back pain and was given all sorts of pain relief and that was the only thing that eased the pain, unfortunately mine turned out to be cancer of the spine and I was addmitted to hospital but if I had a pain like that again i would for sure have accupuncture again, think about it , it really does work, I know what you are going through, there's nothing worse than back pain it seems to affect the whole of your body, have a word with your gp you can get it under the NHS.

[Sir Alec]

Thanks gelda, but I had a course of acupuncture previous to trying the TENS. It did me no good at all and I was very disappointed as I'd put a lot of faith in it. However, I had to travel to Mexborough pain clinic for it. That's 2 trains there and 2 trains back, with a wait of over an hour at Meadowhall - not to be recommended!