Does Ben Gay help your pain? If it does, than other topical products may also help. But I’ve tried many, including two prescription-strength topicals, one compounded with Soma and also Lidocaine patches, and they really didn’t help. While the Lidocaine patches gave me a type of numbing effect on the surface of my skin, the pain relief didn’t penetrate any further than that. And I didn’t achieve any benefit from the Soma topical.
However, many pain patients who have a sensitivity to oral pain medications use topicals instead. If topicals work for you, I say great. But if you don’t have a lot of money to spend, throwing it away on products that don’t help will just cause irritation and anger. And over-the-counter products that promise all kinds of pain relief have a habit of not delivering.
This is a response from one of my posts about a topical product that’s advertised on nationalpainreport.com (see link). Considering the tone of the response, I didn’t approve it for posting, but I’m posting it here in its entirety.
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/dont-be-fooled-2/
You must have been high when you wrote about Reunion pain relief products.
Clearly, you don’t understand the difference between therapeutic essential oils, applied topically to the peripheral pain source and absorbed transdermally and aromatherapy oils that smell nice.
You also didn’t click on Articles on the bottom of every web page which will give you a good primer in essential oils including a Clinical Trial produced by Scripps … the most prestigious clinical trial producer in the U.S.
Further, ALL Customer Reviews are 100% authentic. Many have allowed us to use their real names with their Review.
Your synopsis only proves my thoughts about the Internet: “Anonymity Breeds Assholes!”
Karl Douglass, Pres.
Pure Biomed, LLC
Dear Mr. Douglass:
I’m not anonymous — my name is Johnna Stahl and I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This information isn’t included on every one of my posts, but it is easily found in numerous places on my blog (like under the category Stahl v. Unum). And while I’d like to respond to your crass comments in kind, I’ll let your words speak for you and your product.
All Things Chronic 
Very nice response letter. I can’t believe he asked if you were high! BTW, I only can stand one product on my skin because of the fibro, it’s called “China-gel” and so far it’s been the only topical pain reliever I can stand! You can find it online. They have there own website. Most others contain Methyl Salicylate, and this is what ‘burns’ my skin now. Since fibro, I can’t even use the “Tiger Balm” that used to work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m high. People who use this response as a defense know nothing about cannabis or dealing with chronic pain. But I don’t like being called an asshole, even if the pain sometimes makes me act like one. His response says more about him and his product than it does about me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We don’t act like assholes, we have problems with our bodies which can bubble the anger to the surface. It’s the ‘assholes’ who can’t understand why we are that way at times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps I should’ve said that sometimes I’m a tad bitchy. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t believe someone actually said such things in an official capacity. I guess you don’t need to be anonymous to be an a$$hole. Your reply was just perfect, so scrupulously polite that it cut like a razor. Well done! I was recently in a car accident and the ER docs gave me Lidocaine patches. You’re absolutely right about them – they’re effective, but only for the top layer of your skin so if the injury goes deeper, you’re out of luck.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think Lidocaine patches are more successful at treating nerve pain, as I’ve read that a few Fibromyalgia patients have achieved some benefit from using them. Doctors prescribe them off-label for other types of pain, I guess to keep from prescribing pain medications. They’re awfully expensive for a product that doesn’t help.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I find I pay a great deal of money for lots of medications that don’t help. The only reason I get them at all is to make the doctor happy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you don’t follow your doctor’s suggestions, he/she will think you’re not trying. It’s a lose/lose situation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Precisely. You’ve got to do whatever it takes to keep the doctor happy, because ultimately they are the ones who are dishing out the medication. Always be cooperative, always be open to new ideas and never flat our refuse to do anything. Ah, it’s a fine line we walk for sure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I use the Lidocaine patches on my lower back and occasionally mid back for fibro and find it helps some. Because I take Cymbalta I can’t take Tramadol which used to give me some relief. The Cymbalta doesn’t do much for Fibro, but my Bipolar is stable on it and a mood stabilizer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What an asshole! You go gurl 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person