I have a question

[Braley]

I have a question. I have severe lower back pain, chronic knee pain, and neck pain. I've only been diagnosed with Degenerative disc disease. My current pain management dr is currently treating my lower back pain by doing radiofrequency neurotomy, and prescribing me 7.5 Lortab twice a day, which doesn't even take the pain away a little. The Radiofrequency Neurotomy hasn't worked either, and he said I won't feel a difference until my 3rd week. Well I'm in my 5th week, and I'm still hurting really bad. So I'm thinking of trying another pain management dr. The only problem with that is they don't accept my Medicaid so I will have to be a self pay, which is $300 for the first visit, and $175 each month after. My question is since I will be a cash only patient, what are the chances of them giving me a higher dosage pain medication? Cause in my experience, that is the only thing that helps me function and do my job.

 

[d1nach]

Im confused you say hydrocodone doesnt take away your pain even a little but opioids are the only thing that help you.?

 

[Braley]

I forgot to mention that my primary dr had me on 7.5 3-4 times a day, but he wanted my pain management dr to take over my pain meds, but he took me down to just 2 a day so no the 2 a day don't help at all, and I've told him that but he won't give me more than 2 a day. I also have gotten 10mg from my cousin and those help a lot.

 

[T. Calderone]

We can't really say what your chances would be of getting more pills by switching doctors. If you have a history of dependence and don't want to go down that road again, give the treatments more time to work. I would hold off seeing another doctor. There may be other medications they can give you to ease your pain.

 

[ghostandthedarknes]

imho the road of doctor shopping etc eventually leads to a methadone clinic or the hron dealer. I'd try every treatment available for pain before taking opiates.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I'm really sorry, but this isn't something that we help people with. I'm sure there are plenty of resources out there for dealing with prescribers' bullshit, but we like to keep far away from it and focus on strictly the nature of the drugs/medications. Just as Opioids were overprescribed for a period, they are now being underprescribed like in an economic boom/bust cycle. I really hate to say this, but I think the actual level of a patient's pain is absolutely secondary to "how the dotor feels".

 

[LucidSDreamr]

imho the road of doctor shopping etc eventually leads to a methadone clinic or the hron dealer. I'd try every treatment available for pain before taking opiates.

spoken like a person that has never experienced chronic pain.



OP, how old are you? Have you had surgery for you conditions? These two factors are huge in determining if they docs will take you seriously. Not sure if surgery is a possible fix for you or not, but I found that even though I was only around 30, when i had back surgery. After that doctors took me seriously and getting legit meds wasn't much of an issue anymore. (from the docs...the pharmacy was a whole nother fiasco)

If youre willing to risk having spine surgery thats proof to them that your arn't just doctor shopping. Sadly thats how it is.

at a certain point, if the medical system refuses to help you. you have to take matters into your own hand and break the law. This IS harm reduction because losing your job or killing yourself is more harm than breaking the law

 

[ghostandthedarknes]

spoken like a person that has never experienced chronic pain.

lol. you're untitled to your opinion, even if you're dead wrong.

 

[Cotcha Yankinov]

In my personal opinion, I would really think about trying physical therapy rigorously. Stretching muscle groups like the hip flexors and hip adductors can really help with back pain and function even if there is a degenerated disk (often times these muscles can cause the degeneration in the first place). Many people have degenerated disks and have no problems, while some people have no disk degeneration and severe problems, hinting the degenerative disk disease may not be the whole picture.

Additionally, many people with back pain such as yourself have widespread musculoskeletal pain, and that hints that there are different problems afoot from solely degenerating disks. Poor spine/hip posture with tight hip adductors/flexors can cause knee pain (adductors especially) and tight anterior neck muscles/chest muscles can cause poor neck posture and pain - later on doctors will find the degenerated disk and they may assume it is the cause of all your problems but I don't think that's a correct assumption. I would focus on the musculoskeletal issues that could've caused disk degeneration in the first place, but often times a lot of these pain management doctors are not very keen on curing disease at the root cause. There is a lot of money in doing otherwise, while physical therapy is not going to make them much money.

I'd find a good physical therapist.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I normally don't like to get involved in the "politics" of things because it can detract from the HR discussion, but treating pain has become especially tricky in this country. It's funny because the quantity of available Opioids hasn't changed whatsoever. The market has adjusted itself and now what the Doctors have refused to write for is reincarnated as Heroin on the street. The medical community is literally like watching an episode of the 3 stooges. They cannot get anything right.

First, they overprescribe powerful painkillers for over a decade. They "didn't know how addictive they were. Purdue assure them they were non-addictive", despite the fact that Oxycodone had been around and in use for decades as an analgesic and the fact that any idiot should have been aware that Oxycodone is no different from Morphine or Heroin. They've claimed complete ignorance and have tried blaming Purdue. It's like people blaming Big Tobacco for the smoking-related deaths, when in reality, people know full well and continue to buy the cigarettes. It's nobody's fault but theirs.

You have a long road ahead in trying to find a doctor who is both compassionate and willing to give you the treatment that you require. You've gotta be assertive but not threatening or intimidating. You need to express yourself fully and not take shit from anyone. You just can't ever be too intense, as it doesn't really take anything for a Doctor to decide you're a drug addict. It could be as simple as appearing nervous during the visit. It's gotten that extreme.

 

[Pilll_head]

I'm really sorry, but this isn't something that we help people with. I'm sure there are plenty of resources out there for dealing with prescribers' bullshit, but we like to keep far away from it and focus on strictly the nature of the drugs/medications. Just as Opioids were overprescribed for a period, they are now being underprescribed like in an economic boom/bust cycle. I really hate to say this, but I think the actual level of a patient's pain is absolutely secondary to "how the dotor feels".

I have to agree with Keif. Five years ago I would have said "just upgrade to oxy", or at least, there were plenty of black market options. Right now, doctors don't want to prescribe anything and it's tough to find much "elsewhere".

 

[sekio]

make sure to take anti-inflammatories, they will do more of the heavy lifting for pain relief than opioids can

 

[T. Calderone]

Sorry, we have no way of knowing what a doctor may prescribe and how much so I'm closing this.