Howdy

[Guest guest]

I am glad I discovered this site. I didn't know it was around. I

heard about it on the other flatback site. I perused some earlier

postings and found a lot of familiar names. I'm glad to have found

you guys again!!!I posted last year at the other site and asked a lot

of questions about doctors, pain management, etc. I guess I'll just

have to break down and call UCSF and find out if they need a referral

from a person's doctor or specialist. I also need to find out if they

take my insurance. I just tried to get in to see another ortho in the

same office as the one I saw last spring, but I just found out he

doesn't take our insurance!!! I didn't like that ortho's attitude.

The pain med's he put me on were too strong and made me dizzy and

vomit. (Fentanyl patches and I already know I can't take Vicodin--it

does the same)I've been trying to make it on Darvocet, Ibuprofen and

Rabaxin. I found some pain med's mentioned in previous members

postings and will do some research on them. The main problem is I

don't know names of med's, and doctors don't seem to know much,

either. I don't know if I just seem to get worse in Spring or it's

psychological that I have to get another doctor's note for work each

spring for my work restrictions. Could be psychological somewhat(?!).

I also have been in denial for years about my pain. I can usually for

the most part put it out of my mind, but some days it's bad and it

just exhausts me so much. People have wondered why I don't do much on

weekends--it's because I have to rest up to do the work thing next

week all over again. I have noticed the past year (since I have been

paying more attention--and I guess not in so much denial either) that

it always gets worse when I stand (can only do so for a few minutes)

and walk for long periods and when I bend over. I guess the few

unfused, arthritic vertebra (L4-L5) just can't take it. All I know is

he told me I have arthritis there and I don't have stenosis--so I

guess I don't have any bulging discs showing after the CT scan last

year. He really wouldn't tell me much, and when I mentioned it

possibly being the Sacro-iliac joints, I didn't get much response,

then, either. Sorry this is so long, but I really don't know if going

to this other ortho in another town is just a waste of time and

money. This vaste " medical wasteland " of Central California is just

the pits sometimes.