Undertreated pain/Terry

[Guest guest]

I agree

with Terry. The US is one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to

treating chronic pain. The cost of living with pain everyday is too high. I

hate feeling like people think I am an addict or having doctors think that I'm

just drug seeking.

My pain is real and it is constantly reminding me of the fact. We have to be

our own advocates. We need to educate people and doctors about the reality of

life with chronic pain. Now I too will get off my soapbox. Hang in there

Kayla. Don't back down. Get the treatment you need to help you manage and have

a more fulfilled life. Hugzs, Tami

--- " Terry " wrote:

> I have been on a kind of tirade lately due to my pain issues, my parents pain

and my father in laws pain. I have seen a lot of suffering in the past two

months with all of them and a lot of it was ignored or under treated. The

guilty parties need to spend a week in bed totally dependent on another person

and then they would see us differently.

[Guest guest]

Full agreement from me, too!

Earlier this year, my doc insisted that the MS Contin was making my usual

exhaustion even worse (he'd upped the evening dose to 30mg) and not the

neurontin as I kept trying to tell him. Long story short, I ended up on a " drug

holiday " from the morphine and the exhaustion was unchanged.

We re-introduced the evening dose, but at 15mg. I'm still in as much pain as

before he raised it all those months ago, but still no move to raise it back up

again. I've been planning on being more insistent, but worry about being too

pushy. My doc's not a jerk about it, I just always worry about looking like a

drug seeker even though I constantly strive to keep my dose as low as possible,

reducing activity, etc. instead of taking an extra dose here and there.

Recently he wanted to refer me to a pain management clinic, but I balked a

little. I asked, " Do you really think we've done all we can to pinpoint the

cause of my pain? Or do you think that some investigation would be a good idea,

like an MRI or something? "

Well, he agreed and 3 months later I've got a new diagnosis that could be

responsible for more than half my pain!!! That never would have been found out

if I hadn't pushed for an actual diagnosis before going to get " the pain "

treated. Even though I frequently tell my doc that I don't want to blame

everything wrong with me on Lyme disease, HE DOES!

It is important to advocate for yourself, but very hard to do when it's all you

can do to get out of bed. Personally, I don't communicate as well verbally so

make a point of writing things out before any appointment, which seems to help

with my " meek in the office " syndrome.

And I can't stress enough how important I think it is to have copies of your own

medical records! That's how I knew my doc thought he was treating me for damage

done by a long Lyme disease infection instead of helping me to find out if the

life I've got is the best I can expect. Now things are clearer between us, to

say the least. LOL.