most doctors try other methods and meds before they prescribe opioids
I never said that doctors are prescribing opioids first. I just said
given that they are getting restricted, there may be some other treatment options that are worth looking into
I was not saying that opioids are prescribed first, but rather that since the OP seems to be having trouble getting opioids, acupuncture is worth investigating if he hasn't tried it yet.
in fact i'll probably live less time being on opioids, do you think we want this?
it can't replace what opioid meds do
and just to let you know i have never gotten high off of my opioids
I never said "people who want opioids just want to get high", "people who want opioids have never tried other treatments", nor did I draw any comparisons between the relative merits of pain treatments.
I made a very bland statement recommending acupuncture to the OP, but it seems like there are things that got read into that that I really didn't say.
Just because something is covered by medicare, doesn't mean it's necessarily going to work
I wouldn't say simply because medicare is covering any treatment, it implies that all cases will be completely cured by that treatment, and that that treatment is always the best. I would say that if a treatment is covered by medicare, it implies that there has been a serious review of that treatment, and that there is evidence that is sufficiently safe, effective, and cost effective to be recommended as a treatment for the conditions it has been approved to treat.
And like dodge said, I think it probably depends on the level of pain the person has. With agonizing pain, alternative methods aren't going to be very useful
I don't think the question of whether a treatment can or cannot be effective in a particular circumstance can be answered by speculation or intuition. Nor is a treatment for pain ruled out simply because it is insufficient on its own. A lot of pain conditions are treated with a combination of methods. I by no means meant to imply that acupuncture should be the only treatment, nor necessarily the best treatment for his pain, but rather that because he's having trouble getting opioids, and there is evidence that it can treat back pain, he might want to consider it.
Anyway, my point is, if the pain is severe enough (such as the kind one experiences after getting a piece of their intestine removed), I agree with dodge that the only thing that's going to help is an opiate. Yes, surgery is different from lower back pain, but I imagine that the pain from either or can be extremely severe
I'm sorry that you went through so much pain after your surgery.
There was a reporter who went to China during the early 70's, I think it was James Reston covering Nixon's visit. He had appendicitis, and while in the hospital, he was astonished to witness that there were people being treated without anesthesia during surgical procedures, only acupuncture. Reston's reporting is what first popularized acupuncture in America.
I wouldn't go so far as to say acupuncture would be sufficient to treat every case of pain on it's own. There is reason to think that in some cases, even very severe pain can be treated effectively with acupuncture, either by itself, or in combination with other treatments.