Question for medical types: Do pain drugs like ibuprofen and various OTC types mask the pain or do they do something about the cause. I see the ads that say, "I couldn't play tennis, but then I took Brand X and I'm on the court," and I think, sure, you can now play on that damaged tendon and do more damage. I suppose it's my Puritan upbringing that only whimps took drugs when you hurt. So am I suffering stupidly when my hands hurt and I don't take anything or am I relieving the cause when I down a couple of ibuprofen?

Depends on the drugs, Connie. Some are anti-inflammatories, which may help the symptoms as well as mask the pain, whereas others merely mask the pain.

MY SiL who is a nurse who has rheumatoid arthritis takes anti-inflammatories more for that than for the pain. So, yeah, you might want to look into that.

I'm on the keyboard all day, and sometimes I'm fine and sometimes it hurts, especially when the weather's changing. Poor Hubby, at home in a narcotic haze and he still hurts. I suppose it's time to check for actual arthritis.

Yeah, Advil and Motrin will cut down the inflammation, at least temporarily. They're NSAIDs, which is the same class of drugs as the ones usually prescribed for arthritis.

Yes, that article makes Obama seem even better and Bush seem even more of an ass. (Who knew that was possible?) Also, Barack the Elephant is terribly cute - and who doesn't feel "tramply" sometimes?

Wait, so now Barack is an elephant and Bush is a jackass? I swear, I will never understand American politics.

The guy who does Hubby's joint surgeries--as opposed to his back surgeries, the man has a whole entourage of surgeons--recommended ibuprofen to help with the problems with my knees. So I guess it's just my stern ancestry telling me to just suffer silently and not be a big girl about it. Though I am a big girl. Hmmm.

My mom nearly died from a reaction to a prescription NSAID (Clinoril), which I always tell a doctor when they ask about potential allergies. I haven't had any issues with drugs, but I've never been on an NSAID, so who knows? I'd rather not find out I'm allergic the way Mom did.

The only things I'm allergic to are latex in bandaids and llamas. The things one learns at the State Fair.

Connie, there's no virtue in suffering silently -- pain is bad for you.

(And Kathy, NSAIDs include things like aspirin, ibuprofen, Aleve... I dearly hope you don't find out the hard way that you're allergic to something, but if you've taken the OTC stuff without incident, you may not be as sensitive to the whole class of drugs as you fear. Still, best to tell the docs all rather than withhold any potential risk.)