Has Anyone Used Voltarol To Help With Pain Relief

[emmie]

i have been advised to try it on my knees, as i have acute pain in both. Did it help at all?
I have had a X ray which has shown up Arthritis which i already knew i had but the pain is off the chart now. I can't take codeine because of side effects, but was told by GP to try the Voltarol and see if it helps.

[emmie]

as do boots, its where i bought it a while back

[Deskdiary]

Fair enough - I stand corrected; I could have sworn it could no longer be bought in tablet-form over the counter.

[emmie]

oh i see, no i bought the cream voltarol. i have boxes of boots own make ibuprofen as well.

[naomi24]

I don't know about tablets. I just googled the name and it came up on Amazon in tubes.

[emmie]

i bought the tube cream voltarol in Boots, sure they still sell it.

[bhg481]

The tablets do not contain the same active ingredient as the gel. They are completely different and are only available on prescription.

[emmie]

i have just the plain ordinary Ibuprofen tablets, which have had no affect on the pain. i don't know anything about voltarol tablets...

[Sqad]

Voltarol and Ibuprofen are non steroidal anti inflammatory painkillers and are different chemically.

Both can be prescribed either topically(gel or cream) or by mouth. Topically application is fine for muscular and soft tissue problems but would not touch the deep seated arthritic pain that is experienced by our OPer and millions of other sufferers.

If the pain is as bad as the OPer describes then she needs Nsaids by mouth, Voltarol in this case or knee replacement.
Rubbing anything over the skin of the knee is useless.

[emmie]

will try it sqad and see, knee replacement may not be an option, seeing as how long the recuperation time is and the fact i have four flights of stairs to climb and i won't be able to do that on crutches.

[emmie]

the pain is non stop and nothing i have tried before has stopped it, its acute. I used to play a lot of sport and also walked a lot in my younger years, but this last year has been bad. I will speak with the clinician at the MSK clinic on 31st December where we have a telephone consult and see what he suggests.

[Sqad]

emmie,if yougo down the tablet route then take adequate doses, in the case of Voltarol at least 150 mgms a day in divided doses and inthecase of Ibuprofen at least 800mgms both taken with food.

[emmie]

ok sqad, thanks for the input.

[carolegif]

Voltarol is not Ibuprofen, it is the dyamethalene or something like that. I used Ibuprofen gel on my knee at first and it solidified! Couldn’t move my knee and it took days to get off!

[-SharonA-]

Emmie, I recently had an x Ray as the gp thought I had arthritis but it showed just wear and tear. Was advised to lose weight, half a stone lost but I am determined to enjoy Xmas then back to sensible eating.
But the pain is horrendous and nothing has worked. So read this thread with great interest. At the moment only paracetamol provides me with a little relief.

[ladybirder]

Doc gives me Zapain capsules which whist not killing the pain, does help.

[burlyshirley]

Voltarol didn't help me.

[-SharonA-]

Nor me Shirley.

[ladybirder]

Makes sense Sharon. The more weight you put on your legs the more they will hurt.

[Buenchico]

Irrespective of the views of anyone here (and clinical studies, such as the one I linked to earlier), surely what this all comes down is simply a "suck it and see" approach, isn't it?

As an analogy, when my prostate cancer lead to severe oedema in the 'most intimate areas of my anatomy', the locum GP I saw suggested trying furosemide, which is a diuretic most commonly associated with heart conditions. She freely admitted that she didn't know if would make the slightest bit of difference but thought that it might be worth a try anyway. My cancer consultant clearly thought the idea was totally bonkers, expostulating "But that's for heart problems!" However the GP's suggestion to give it a try anyway resulted in a fantastic improvement in my condition.

So, if your GP suggests trying something (even if he/she doesn't have total confidence that it will work), I think that it ought to be worth a try. You seem to have little to lose anyway.

[burlyshirley]

^ Good point.