Posts Tagged Management

Question by ♫Orion’s Mommy♫: What will my pain management doctor do next?
I’ve been to a pain management doctor for my scoliosis and the first visit he put me in a physical therapy program and gave me a script for some patches. The PT made my back worse if it did anything at all and the patches dont work. He said I was too young for pain killers but I need them badly. Whats the next step? if the pt and patches didnt work will he reconsider pain killers?

Best answer:

Answer by Jodie75
Ask him again in a very mature way, no pleading or whining.

Tell him he ought to give you a chance, and if necessary, you’ll even submit to random urine tests to prove you’re not going to abuse the medication. Tell him your quality of life is suffering, you’re no longer able to enjoy social activities or babysit or work at whatever part time job you have. Tell him your sleep is suffering. Tell him you’re simply willing to do whatever it takes – you’ll comply – for him to give you a chance. Say you deserve a chance.

I understand what you’re going through, sweetie. I have serious chronic pain myself – nerve damage from lupus – as well as several kidney infections every year from a complication of a birth defect I was born with. I’ve been battling with doctors for years over pain management issues. It makes me absolutely furious when I’ve been treated like nothing more than a drug seeker.

Unfortunately, for everyone of us genuine sufferers of chronic pain, there are a hundred people who fake pain and/or injure themselves to get pills, people who “doctor-hop” to get multiple prescriptions, and people who try to get prescriptions so they can sell the drugs on the street. These assholes have ruined it for people like us.

I had given up long ago to try asking for pain medication. Unfortunately, I started drinking too much to numb the pain, and overdosed daily on Tylenol (like 12-20 per day, and you know you don’t get high on Tylenol). I knew I was likely doing serious damage to my liver, but I didn’t care. I cared more about my quality of life (which means having less pain and not begging god to kill me every day) than I did about quantity of life. In other words, I would take 2 years of living with less pain over living many years with severe pain every day.

I finally ended up in the hospital with acute pancreatitis, and I told them the truth of what I had been doing. Finally they took me seriously, and did a rush order on getting me into the pain clinic at the hospital. Later, my family doctor apologised to me for not helping me better. He had given me a real bad attitude before.

So now I’m on good painkillers, and they are strictly controlled. I did the same things I advised you to say to your doctor. He was nervous, especially that I had now created a past with alcohol abuse (by the way, I don’t believe I’m an alcoholic, no matter what anyone says. But I don’t drink much now, anyway).

So anyway, I empathise. It is horrible being looked down on by condescending doctors. I have always wished that every doctor have to experience a day of the pain people like you and me suffer. They would quickly get the point.

good luck.

Add your own answer in the comments!