Posted by Dennis Leahy
(here)
Woke at 2:00 am with yet another backache that drove me out of bed. I think it has been 3 full weeks since I clumsily fell. Now, I wish I had been drunk - I would not have been injured. I believe the injury is a result of very quickly whipping my body around, trying desperately to catch myself and keep from falling. A drunk would have just fallen. So, this makes 3 weeks of only getting a short sleep before being awakened by back pain. Very odd that laying down does not work - sitting up does (but it has to be fully upright, not slouched on a pile of pillows.) Sleeping sitting fully upright is hard on the neck - and not very restful.
One of the things I've tried is capsaicin cream (made from hot peppers.) Have any of you ever tried that stuff? 'twas a new experience for me. I had my wife rub in a big blob (maybe half a tablespoon) into my lower back - I gave her a piece of plastic wrap to use, to keep it off her fingers. It absorbed quickly into my skin, so I had her rub another blob in about the same size. A few minutes later, the heat started building. The next 24 hours was a comedy routine. (Cutting to the chase, I'd say that was about 8 times too much capsaican cream.) Far beyond my worst sunburn (Irish tan) or the hottest shower, my back was on fire - almost to the point where you could roast marshmallows over it. Several HOURS later, I decided to actually read the directions on the cream, to get an idea how many more hours the fire would last until it went out so I could fall asleep. Unfortunately, the directions said, "
a slight burning sensation may occur upon application but generally disappears in several days." SEVERAL
DAYS! You have got to be kidding me!
Desperate for relief from the muscle spasms that I thought were causing the back pain, I decided to leave it on, mind-over-matter, and crawled into bed with a T-shirt, and somehow (exhaustion, probably) did fall asleep. The next morning (I think I slept until 5:00 am, an accomplishment), the fire had dropped in intensity. Now, maybe a 5 out of 10, where it had been a 7 the night before.
Over the next hours, there were intermittent times that the burning sensation became so mild that I pretty much forgot about it - it had worn off, or was wearing off. Whew!
A few hours later (now closing in on at least 18 hours after application) I had to drive a car. The contact between the car seat back and my back must have reactivated it, and it went from the previous marshmallow-roasting hot to the kind of heat used to melt steel in a metal foundry. I am amazed there was not smoke rising. The pain of a chemical burn was now officially worse than the pain of the back injury. This sh!t had to come off! Having read the package (finally!), I knew not to put hot water on it, so I tried warm water in the shower - and that pulled a reflexive howl of pain from me. Cold shower, lots of soap (shampoo) on a washcloth, scrubbing it off... and the fire was greatly quenched. A couple of hours later and I only had the back pain to deal with, not the deep back pain plus a chemical burn on the surface. A day later, I felt the capsaicin start to activate AGAIN - not to the extent of pain but enough to underscore the word DAYS on the package label.
Thank god I wasn't treating torsion of the testicles with capsaicin.
(By the way, I wrote this using hyperbole for a humorous description. Even though the heat captured all of my attention at times, I have no delusions that this pain compares with what millions of people endure daily. Just a humorous anecdote in the here and now.)
Dennis
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) (25 years with 9 fillings, now removed), which includes the absence of sugar and wheat's and lots of fermented vegetables to enable the gut to be free of irritations and or inflammations, so the mercury can be removed with the help of boosted glutathione levels and 50 chlorella pills per day. 
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