social.noyu.me

using ibuprofen to fix neck pain is a weird thing because i think it does actually suppress it at the source. the experience feels like it's the anti-inflammatory thing that's actually having an effect, not some kind of numbness to pain; twisting the neck wrong is still painful

there's also this thing that as the drug starts wearing off i can sometimes physically feel stuff twisting back into the wrong shape, or at least i felt that an hour ago, bizarre experience

(sighing) you gotta hand it to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs sometimes even if they are also evil things that destroy people's hearing among other things

there was this incident a few years back (2 years? 3 years?) where we got this spate of really bad neck pain (at its peak, much much worse than what what's happening right now) and had to, with much reluctance, take ibuprofen daily. but at its peak something interesting happened:

it had become so overwhelmingly bad we were just sitting there curled up in a chair, couldn't move the head much, girlfriend watching over and worried about us. in desperation had to redose ibuprofen

and the moment it hit, there was a very Very obvious… pop(?) behind the head

and this caused some kind of horrible overwhelming rush, noise blanketing reality, a fainting-like experience, but then it was suddenly completely over

i don't know what happened there, but i suspect the anti-inflammatory effect unfucked a bad situation with nerves

horrible but in the kind of way that if i could press a button to experience the same suffering and specific resolution again i would because it was interesting (and then i would be very upset at myself for pressing the button)

whoa apparently ibuprofen specifically (not other NSAIDs!) has been identified as beneficial in recovery from spinal chord injuries, it has some neuroprotective effect and also encourages plasticity? drugs are so cool

*cord lmao

@hikari well shit maybe i should take that more often then

@aeva it also has all sorts of horrible effects soooo

@hikari if you take like too much of it or take it with booze right

@hikari Yeah, this is what I think too. I've never felt much benefit from anti-inflammatory drugs, but simple pain killers like paracetamol make me feel better long after they've worn off. I think it's because once I'm not in pain, I can move my head and shoulders normally again, which helps loosen up the muscles, helps circulation in those areas, and eases up the spasms or cramps or whatever.

Similarly, focusing really hard on posture, both sitting and sleeping, has the same effect.

@hikari yes. also prolonged inflammation is just bad for you full stop.

short-term inflammation is an important process in healing injuries, though, since it promotes production and transport of the necessary stuff to fix damage and fight off any interlopers at the injury site.

@hikari generally the magic behind NSAIDs is that they're not really much of a direct analgesic in normal OTC doses, but instead work to reduce the inflammation that is causing the pain in the first place. so for muscular pain, bruising, post-surgery, and inflammatory disorders (e.g. arthritis) they're an excellent choice.

I take a ton of them 'cos of ankylosing spondylitis. even plain old ibuprofen can make a difference during a flare-up.

@hikari and I say "not really much of a direct analgesic in normal OTC doses" but that assumes you're sticking to the usual "400mg of ibuprofen" kind of levels. if you down a gram and a half in one sitting (which you can do! it's just not advisable long-term or without medical review first) you're *definitely* going to feel it.

@gsuberland @hikari (and if you are taking those kind of levels, I feel sympathy for your stomach lining :neocat_sweat:)

@erincandescent @hikari yeah, you really want to make sure you have no elevated susceptibility to gastric ulcers before taking those levels.

it's the kind of dose you can take for a day for something like dental recovery, but definitely don't want to be doing for more than a couple of days. (at that point they need to get you on diclofenac or something)

@gsuberland @hikari i love how with NSAIDs we have the ability to make this wonderful tradeoff between “More Stomach Ulcers” and “More Heart Attacks”, truly we are blessed