SAN DIEGO -- Pain is a part of daily life for many of us. People who suffer from chronic pain are desperate to find relief, 10News reported.

Local Researchers See If Medicinal Marijuana Eases Pain For Cancer Patients -- Tuesday On 10News Live At 5 p.m.

For the past 25 years, Barbara Hammond has been dealing with relentless pain from arthritis.

"We couldn't go any place and do anything because I was hurting all the time," Hammond said.

Until recently, nothing has worked to ease her agony.

"You name it, I've tried it," Hammond said.

She finally found the relief she had been desperately seeking with an implanted pain pump.

"We can deliver very, very small doses and try to target various pathways within the spinal cord to try and suppress these pain impulses from every reaching the brain," said Dr. Mark Wallace, a University of California, San Diego researcher.

For years, doctors did not take pain treatment seriously, according to Wallace.

"Now we're finally understanding pain as a symptom of a disease -- a chronic disease (or) a chronic Illness -- and it's OK to treat the symptom, which is pain," Wallace said.

Many times the only option for people in constant pain are addictive medications like oxycontin.

But now doctors have a better understanding of pain and they are discovering alternative treatments.

Neurontin, a treatment first prescribed for seizures, can work wonders to relieve pain.

"These drugs suppress areas of the brain and the nervous system that can (be) generators of pain," Wallace said.

An anti-depressant called cymbalta can also decrease pain.

For a non-drug option, there's a spinal cord stimulator that delivers tiny electrical impulses to the spinal cord to mask pain, 10News reported.

"We can generate small electrical currents that stimulates the spinal cord and it almost tricks the brain -- it replaces the pain with a pleasant tingling sensation," Wallace said.

The pain pump was Hammond's solution for pain. She hopes others in agony will find relief.

"It's just been a whole different way of life," Hammond said.