When my pain reaches a point that I need to do something, there turn out to be a LOT of things I can do, short of taking a narcotic.

1. stimulate the area that hurts with a different sensation. ANY sensation. Cold, heat, hot wax (heated safely by a spa machine),

2. Lidocaine patches. If the pain is localized, these really do help. I've had times when the pain has gone away and that was the only thing I changed.

3. TENS. I love this. It's easy to use and lightweight.

4. movement---feldenkrais movement is about lying on the floor and making the most gentle of movements and gradually rocking around a movement. It hlps muscles let go, if muscles are the cause.

I think we all have our own bag of tricks