I TOOK 20 PAINKILLERS A DAY — NOT ANY MORE

WENDY DRIVER, 49, from Chingford, a customer adviser in a bank, has taken painkillers for neck, shoulder and back pain for two decades.

WORKING as a cashier, reaching forward for money all day, I had repetitive strain in my elbow. The pain was unbearable. My GP prescribed diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory, and I took paracetamol every four hours.

By 2013, I couldn’t use my arm without a burning pain that reduced me to tears.

My GP prescribed co-codamol three times a day. I took it every four hours — I didn’t realise you’re not meant to take more than eight tablets in 24 hours. I was also taking ibuprofen pills in between. I was taking 20 pills a day and was ratty and irritable.

Dr Chris gave me a box with two weeks of pills, some of which would be dummy pills, he said. In fact, as well as some placebo pills, they’d also tapered my doses right down.

But most of the time I didn’t feel too much pain. It proved to me that the painkillers didn’t work and I stopped taking them.

An MRI scan revealed the real cause of my pain — two slipped discs in my neck pressing on a nerve. He prescribed a cortisone injection to reduce the inflammation, which has really helped.

A physiotherapist has taught me some gentle exercises, and I’ve had my desk area assessed to improve my posture.

I’m pain free for the first time in 20 years – those pills did me more harm than good.