Pain meds

[KBear]

Saw my pain management doctor today (he came in after I spoke with the nurse practitioner) and it didn't go so well. Him and his nurse practitioner are about the most unsympathetic people on earth. I left wishing that they would one day have a spine injury and have a doctor treat them EXACTLY like they treat me.

I told them I was having increased pain, was taking 6 vicodin a day (hence why I ran out early, which is the 1st and only time I have ran out early). Told them even with 6 a day, it was hard for me to function and perform everyday tasks. Basically, that I have no life, because heaven forbid I try to do something and end up in horrible pain and don't have my heating pad handy. Well, apparently, that isn't enough for them. I'm told I need to be cutting down from 4 to less! Holy crap, what the heck do you want me to do. If I do that, I will just be in bed all day, crying. And if I'm going to be in bed all day, I might as well not be living.

They then had the audacity to suggest I see the psych and get pain counseling (basically, you don't think about the pain and some other crap and you don't need pain medicine and you just feel better magically) Sorry, but what a load of crap! If I didn't hurt like hell, I wouldn't think about the pain; but it's hard not to, when my body is throbbing with pain. Trust me, I wish I didn't think about the pain.

Then, he gives me the bs spill about the effects of acetemenophine (sp?), how 'have I seen in the news all the reports about them wanting to pull it from the market?' It's not good for you and you can get toxicity. Ok, dude, there is a reason they call you dr, and you should really know better than buying into the hype. You know how much is safe and I am way below that level! His next arguement is that when people are on narcotics for a long time, it makes them feel more pain than they have. So, if I get off of them, I may have no pain! Right.....

When I suggested injections, they told me that I need to see my surgeon, as that could interfere with the study. You know what, I don't give a crap about the study. I'm concerned about me, a real person who is in pain. So, I'm going to see the surgeon on Monday and going to demand injections. If he won't, gonna tell him that I will quit the study if that is the issue. Sorry it's not working out perfectly for the study; but you can't just make me suffer to make the study look good.

So, the doctor called in a refill of vicodin. I get to the pharmacy and pick it up, it says 4 a day; even though he agreed to 6 a day until we could get my pain under control (for up to a month). I call them and they give me the we did this intentionally, as he wants you on less than 4 a day. Freaking jerk. I am so sick of being treated like a junkie who just wants their next fix. Ughh

I left his office, contemplating how I could quickly off myself. I went and picked up my kids and decided that was a bad idea. I can't even talk to my husband or family, because they will just give me more useless advice and end up pissing me off. I honestly, just wanted to talk to you guys. Even though words can't physically help me, they help me emotionally more than you may ever know.

Thanks for listening to my super long vent and sorry CL for hijacking your thread.

[Justin]

Kathy,

I can almost feel your pain. I understand where you are coming from and your frustration. In regard to psych, biofeedback is very helpful when used with other types of therapy (medication, manual, etc.) when treating chronic pain.

Here's a blurb about Biofeedback:

What Is Biofeedback And When Is It Used For Pain?
Joshua Prager, M.D., M.S., Director, Center for the Rehabilitation of Pain Syndromes (CRPS) at UCLA Medical Plaza
Link to Original Article

Question: What Is Biofeedback And When Is It Used To Relieve Pain?

Answer: In the chronic pain patient, we often need many different tools to treat the patient. Biofeedback is one of these tools that helps the patient to modulate their pain or tune it down.

Pain is often associated with anxiety, and anxiety can certainly be managed with biofeedback. There are various forms of biofeedback. Biofeedback can be measuring muscle tension; it can measure skin temperature; it can measure sweating; or the most sophisticated forms of biofeedback now measure brainwaves that are associated with the pain. This type of biofeedback is called brainwave biofeedback or EEG biofeedback, for electro-encephalography or EEG.

Brainwave biofeedback has the advantage of actually allowing the technologist to look at what's going on in the patient's brain in terms of the impact pain has. By teaching the patient through brainwave biofeedback to minimize the brainwaves that are associated with their pain, the patient can learn to tune down their pain. The patient can also learn when a situation is likely to provoke the pain without physically provoking it, but by emotionally provoking it. And when the patient, through biofeedback, learns when pain is emotionally provoked, they can actually use the tool that they learned in biofeedback to tune down the situation and tune down the pain.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

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Here's a link to the Biofeedback FAQ from the Mayo Clinic.

We are here for you.

[Cindylou]

Kathy, no problem hijacking the thread. It's all pertinent to our situation. You and I should have talked after our appt today. Altho, I have to say, I was so pissing mad, I wouldn't have been much help myself. It sounds like you got the treatment I got today. Complete humiliation. Groveling. I ended up with Tramadol, but I honestly am not getting any relief from it. Just making me sleepy. I don't have any pearls of wisdom, but I want you to know that I get where you are at and how you feel. And I am sorry that you got that treatment today as well. Hang in there. I hope you turn the corner real soon. I also just want to add something and this is coming from a psych major, personally, I myself am not a big fan of biofeedback. I'm really not. It may work for some folks. Not for me.

[KBear]

I did the whole psych thing before I was allowed to be a canidate for surgery. They determined I was depressed, "no **** Sherlock!" That took a friggin genius to figure out! Anyhow, I did the biofeedback, had temperature, respirations, pulse, etc. The guy who did the stuff said I was the calmest person he ever met and didn't really have anything more for me, because mine was 'perfect'. They wanted to do hypno therapy; but I told them that my religous beliefs prevent me from doing so. Not that I think they would try to plant stuff in my brain; but just want to protect myself.

I don't want to discredit this stuff, but I think it has a time and a place. Maybe for a patient who has pain and has no obvious reason for it (like fibromyalgia- it's my understanding this is pain with no known cause?). Maybe then, it would work, since it is a brain thing, not a physical thing causing the pain. I think when someone like me clearly has DDD, arthritis of the facets, and 2mm herniations above and below the operated level; then I obviously have a reason for pain. Not to mention that they cut into me, moved all my guts around, yanked crap out of my spine, put more crap in and caused trauma to my body, less than 4 months ago!

Ok, hope I'm not sounding like a complete jerk, today is just not my day. Praying tomorrow will be better. Gonna call the study lady who is in charge of my study and discuss with her. Will let her know that I expect the surgeon to do something to try and get me out of this pain, especially since my pm dr wants my meds cut back. If I get the adverse event crap, gonna tell her that if they are denying treatment because I am in the study, I will call the FDA and let them know they are tampering with results. It's bs and I have never heard of this happening.

[Cindylou]

I think that is an excellent idea to call your study people. Sometimes I forget that you are a part of a study, so I hope this helps you in the long term. I also hope today is a much better day for you.