Aching, throbbing, sometimes shooting and piercing.

Pain in Kathy Havlock's back and legs has manifest itself in so many ways - slumping her over a grocery cart, limiting her ability to do even the most basic tasks such as washing dishes, and reducing her to tears.

But strong medications have helped her get her life back.

"Before the medications I couldn't do much of anything, could I?" she said, getting a confirming "No" from her husband, Don. "Even going to the grocery was a challenge."

Havlock's pain is caused by spinal stenosis - the narrowing of spaces in the backbone that can put pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. Sitting with some discomfort on a couch at her home, she spoke matter-of-factly about her pain, exuding an air of unselfconscious strength.

Don, a retired bricklayer, said that when it comes to pain, he's a wimp by comparison. He's not a big fan of medications either, but he's glad Kathy, 57, has hers - powerful drugs that include opioids Vicodin and morphine sulfate.

Medications don't alleviate her pain, but they make it tolerable. Now she can shop, clean, even garden.

"I love to plant flowers," she said. Begonias, snapdragons and hibiscus are among those that bloom in warmer weather outside the Havlocks' modest one-story home in Fort Wayne.

Havlock is hoping that treatment with a spinal cord stimulator will do even more to alleviate her pain. She's a patient at the Centers for Pain Relief, which has six offices in northeast Indiana.

Dr. William Hedrick, the practice's president and founder, said narcotics are just a small fraction of what the practice prescribes to address pain. He and Havlock are hopeful she will be able to come off some of her medications with the new stimulator treatment.

Like Havlock, Hedrick said the majority of his patients take their medications responsibly. But a small fraction of patients - perhaps 5 percent - abuse those medications or give them to others, he said.

Hedrick's biggest concern is an overreaction to the potential downsides of powerful pain medications that can make it harder for those with real pain to get relief. He sees the increase in prescription pain narcotics across country as an appropriate response to the underdiagnosis and undertreatment of pain.

Havlock complained for years about her back pain before a physician finally took an X-ray and diagnosed her spinal stenosis. Havlock said she's probably lived with pain for 20 years. Now that she's taking medications, it irks her to be lumped with others who use opiates recreationally.

Havlock said addiction runs in her family - her brother is a recovered heroin addict - but it missed Havlock and her sister. She says she's been on and off pain narcotics for about 10 years without any significant problems. She keeps her medicines stowed away, out of the hands of those who don't need them.

Don is glad she takes precautions. When his previous wife died of cancer, he had guys asking him on the job whether they could buy the OxyContin she had taken for pain relief. Of course, he said, he refused.

Kathy said she is generally able to do what she wants, including driving, because she knows how her medications affect her.

"I'm comfortable driving with (my grand) kids in the car." Medication instructions urge caution while driving but don't restrict it.

Kathy said the worst side effect she endures is dry mouth (she's constantly drinking fluids, often to no avail). And the drugs make her sleepy.

"But sleepy," Kathy brightens, "is better than the pain."

mschroeder@jg.net