https://paulnystrom.com/tags/muscle-relaxers/Recent content in Muscle Relaxers on Paul NystromHugoen-usTue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://paulnystrom.com/posts/pain-medicine-101/Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://paulnystrom.com/posts/pain-medicine-101/<p>Pain Medicine 101 Acute and chronic pain are common reasons to visit the ER. Obviously, the list of painful things is endless: acute injuries like smashing a finger in a door, ankle sprains and wrist fractures from falling, headaches, chest pain, abdominal pain, back pain, dental pain… The list goes on.</p> <p>It’s quite common for patients not to try anything at home for their pain. There seems to be a widely held belief that taking something at home will cover up their symptoms and somehow lead to a missed diagnosis. I’ve never seen this happen in practice, and I’m not sure where the idea even comes from. If you actually have something serious going on, a couple of doses of OTC meds won’t cover that up. If you are already prescribed opioid pain medicine and you load up on that to the point that you’re barely awake, well, that’s obviously a different problem. For the sake of argument, let’s assume most people fall into the former category and not the latter.</p>