I received the whispering of angels, and came to see what I might contribute.

Pain is a real challenge to treat on your own. I'm sorry you have to balance one aspect of your health against another one like this. As for which treatment would be more painful, I don't know. I'd probably choose the laser, myself. It cauterizes the wound at the same time as it's created, reducing the risk of infection dramatically.

Anyway....I've done the 12-step thing, and I was in the position of using narcotics for a medical condition while attending NA. I guess it helps that I don't like them, but I had to use them following joint surgery. They have an excellent publication with guidance on the use of medication while in the program. It helped me with my decision-making.

If you're adamant about not using opiate pain medication (even with supervision, as by having the meds held by a trusted associate), then you're going to have to rely on ice packs (possibly hard to manage, depending on the location of the lesions), and turmeric. It's the only natural substance I know (other than opium) which addresses serious pain.

About a year ago, I fell and broke the bone inside my elbow. It didn't heal right, and I was just assessed for surgery. Part of that assessment was finding out where it hurt, so they had to hurt me to make the complete assessment. Well, it hurt so bad I was back on percocet. Totally forgot about turmeric. I was supplementing ketoprofen with percocet. Then yesterday afternoon I remembered turmeric. I dumped a heaping teaspoon into a glass of water, stirred it up, and chugged it down. Within a half hour the pain was gone. And it's still gone, 16 hours later. That's typical for my own response to turmeric, lasting a good 24 hours or so, usually. I don't get that sort of response to any other pain med, ever. I used Vioxx and Celebrex and all those others (I have a lot of joint problems), and turmeric beats them all, hands down.

I can't promise this will work for you, but it works very well for me.

Turmeric contains a very potent COX inhibit called curcumin. I've recently seen curcumin extract capsules sold in a local pharmacy. I just use the whole ground root, the same stuff that goes into a curry. I don't know if the extract works well, or not.

Be very careful of one thing if you use turmeric. It can stain nearly anything it touches....countertops, clothes, skin.... I take mine over a stainless steel sink, and rinse everything thoroughly right away. It tastes a little funky, but it's not gross or anything.

Good luck,
Lar