Does Radiation Treatment stop the pain?

Bennette said:

therapy and tens
Thanks for the info.

I looked into the appointment she has on Tuesday with physical therapy and it is in the spine center and they do have the tens as one of their treatment options. So I think I will keep the appointment on Tuesday and just not let them do anything over zealous and discuss the tens treatment with them to see if they think this would be helpful to her. We have to be at the hospital every day for radiation treatments next week, so I won't have to get her out for a special trip. At least now I have an idea of what to talk to them about, thanks to all of you.

Bennette

therapy
good plan

garym said:

TENS...
Another vote for TENS...I have one and use it all he time for low back issues, I also use an inversion table which I'll keep available for TW to sleep on should he ever visit Michigan.

Inversion table
Depend on it!

Does it have a good rail for hanging from?

With your and Fox's endorsement I'm definitely going to mention TENS to my golf journalist RCC survivor friend with sciatica problem

Texas_wedge said:

Optimising TENS use
Fox, having researched a little on various UK and US sites and noted the comments by you, Donna Lee, Rae and Gary, I'm about to experiment with a TENS/EMS Unit.

I'm not sure I've fully understood your remarks above and would be glad of further help to get the best out of my device. The pain I'm wishing to address is, very roughly, at top end of the (right) external obliques. I'd be most grateful if you could expand your description of the algorithm for placing the electrodes and being "in series with the current". Also, do you have a recommended chart of acupuncture points that might help to fine tune the placements?

Once I've got started I may want to ask you about alignment to muscle fibre orientation but if you happen to think of any other important issues pro tem, please advise.

tens
and the positive at position of pain

angec said:

TW look at the links here
TW look at the links here and click on them to get some info that may he useful to you in regards to placing the electros for the tens unit.



Don't put the tens on too high a frequency, you should be comfortable, it should not pain you. It must be gentle in that area.

Use this to get an idea of the points /meridians for accupuncture. Although are you really going to attempt that yourself? Too bad you weren't in NY. My acupuncturist is terrific!

http://www.chiro.org/acupuncture/ABSTRACTS/Acupuncture_Points.pdf

Not sure if any of it is useful to you. I guess Fox knows best!

screwed up my post
Looks like I screwed up my post. The easiest way to set up tens is to place electrodes adjacent to the painful area. Usually along the same nerve root distribution. The idea is to fatigue the free nerve endings and inhibit the pain impulse from being triggered. Or, set the proximal electrode close to spine along the nerve root. The other way that I mentioned was to identify trigger points and use them. They have a very high correlation to acupuncture points. place one electrode near the painful area or near the spinal root, or hand. Hold the other electrode in your other hand and slowly increase intensity until it is felt. Then using your index finger as a pointer, run your finger in the area of the pain. As you approach a trigger point, the resistance to the current is reduced and the sensation goes up. As you localize the point, use it as an electrode placement. You can then repeat this for the other electrode. You can find these same points using an ohmmeter by holding the probes and watching the resistance decrease on the meter.Sometimes the trigger point is not exactly where you feel the pain. That is another discussion. Choosing the neg. or pos. electrode doesn't matter much for pain relief but can influence absorbtion of some topical medications and can affect some edema by attracting or repelling ions. The theories for tens use are that 1) it fatigues nerve endings and slows pain impulse.2)it affects the neural synapse from transmitting pain by keeping the junction open.3) it produces endorphins which are a natural opiate and it overrides pain. The machine setup for frequency, rate of impulse, and intensity are adjustable. You monitor these so that your system does not adapt and neutralize the benefit. Of course each machine varies in capability and adjustability. Experimentation is encouraged.