quote:

ORIGINAL: Maahsatti

Hi Phoenix,

It is a common way of treatment for those who endure chronic and extreme pain, to be treated with dismissal of our Doctors, they treat us like off the street drug seekers, looking to use this med as recreation.
My advise, which I am not just handing out without self experience is. Call your doc ASAP, before he goes away and TELL him you will not tolerate or allow yourself to be dismissed like this...TELL him, you want a pain med that will WORK and NOT turn you into a zombie...here are 2 I know that indeed take the edge off pain and do not zombifie you
Vicodin and Percosett...ask for either the 7.5 or the 10/500 mg...on either med.because truthfully, anything lower would be the same result as you mentioned...taking a sugar pill.
But you need to know, you must be direct and firm with the Doctor.telling him outright, that you are not using these meds for recreation and that you are NOT a drug seeker and will not allow yourself to be treated like you are. REMIND him you have a ligit reason for pain meds and reasons that can be seen, showing the pain is NOT imaginary.


Good Luck,
Maah

quote:

ORIGINAL: Karynn

Hello Phoenix,

Another suggestion for management of pain is to tell your primary physician that your pain has reached a point that it isn't likely to be well handled by a GP. There are specialists that address long term pain issues. In Charlotte, there are about 8 clinics that do nothing but pain management. I don't know how big an area of the country you live, or what you have access to, but if you can't get a pain specialist, try seeking a more refined neurologist (nerve damage), rheumatologist (joint damage) or something equally as specialized. Once you've been pushed into the next level of doctoring, the likelihood of you being a storytellere street drug dealer or addict slims. They get paid more for their work and they don't get recommendations lightly, so once you're there, it seems that they take you more seriously. At least that's my experience so far.

Someone asked about learning acceptance. I think it is something that takes a lot of courage and a lot of will power. Acceptance is different than empowerment. Different than learning coping techniques. It's different in a lot of ways as a healing process because it includes the possibility that you won't get better. Not now. Not ever. Admitting defeat isn't easy for anyone, but we're here sharing on a Gorean board. My best estimation says that Goreans are even less likely to admit defeat. Surely there must be one more thing I haven't tried yet, and that will fix this. Surely there's a new method to do this and that will help me heal. If you never admit defeat, you're always waiting for the next ray of hope over the horizon. Depending on the level of damage and disability coupled with the amount of pain you're handling, you might NEED to accept the possibility you won't heal sooner than later. The more energy you invest in thinking that you're not done with every potential cure yet, the less energy you have to commit to dealing with the day to day weight of bearing the pain itself. Pain drains us of energy. It gobbles it up like a battery hungry digital camera that constantly says battery low. But I just recharged it! Anything that creates stress will drain you of energy and you end up fighting harder to keep chin above water.

Except - I don't want to accept I'll be like this forever.

No one does. Maybe you don't have to accept defeat yet. Maybe there are a lot of avenues for hope still to try. Maybe your word can be adapt. In the short term, you may not be able to rock climb because your knee is injured. You will have to choose a different way to spend the summer holidays. Adapt. Maybe you'll find adaptation an easier pill to swallow and the acceptance part will come later.

If you've ever studied the stages of grief, denial is a big part of the process, and acceptance only comes later. Anger comes along and other things as well. Those stages of grief are VERY present when someone is learning to deal with handicaps. I went through a year or more of denial. I was fine. I could just grin and bear it. I went through another year of minimizing the truth. I said "Oh I don't feel well." but inside my head I was screaming. I wasn't ready to deal with it even then. Finally, about 2 1/2 years into the real process of doctors offices and tests, and hop here and hop there, and exhaustion and more pain, and confusion, I finally just mentally stopped. I realized it was what it was. The year 2007 was the year I had to find the definition of the word acceptance and do it. It's not an easy thing. Still.

I hope things settle for you this evening and you can have a warm bath or a soothing wrap of herbs and warm water around your knee to calm the tension and let you ease the pain. You're in my thoughts.

K

quote:

ORIGINAL: amelliagrace

*Grace enters the thread slowly, quiet as a mouse...carefully peaking around corners...and tip-toes across the microphone...
 
"Ahhmm..." *tap tap on the microphone*...'Ummmm....my name is Grace, and I'm a pain in the ass."
 
Sorry, folks, I just couldn't resist.
 
I don't talk often about my own health issues - but I don't not talk about them, either.  It's kinda strange.  I know they are there, and I own them.  I live with them, deal with them.  And I don't think of myself has having "poor health" at all.  But when I do talk about them, and list them out, I find myself thinking, "Crimeny!  I sound like a broken down old wreck of an old fart."
 
In my teens, I had what would now be diagnosed as fibromyalgia - and more than one doctor has said so, after reviewing my medical history.  What fun...NOT...as others here can testify.  By the grace of God and pure cussedness, I was blessed to beat it.  I am forever grateful for such a blessing.  This is far more common in those who get it as teens, than those who find themselves saddled with it in adulthood.
 
In my early thirties, I developed bilateral stenosis in my lower spine.  I suppose it could be said that my back decided to get old before its time.  A year and a half ago, I became the not so happy owner of 5 herniated discs (one cervical and 4 lumbar), a seriously straitend cervical spine, and an even more seriously straitened lumbar spine.
 
At least four of the women in my family, myself included, have what is thought to probably be a genetic defect in B12 metabolism.  In my case, I don't absorb it, and thus will be taking B12 injections for the rest of my life.  Further, my body doesn't utilize it well, or properly, on the cellular level.  This has made for several issues over the years, including prenicious anemia, macrocytic anemia, chronic fatigue, and some neurological issues.  Poor B12 metabolism also impacts seretonin, which plays a role in depression.  Paradoxically, in spite of the fact that pernicious anemia makes for lots of fatigue and sleepiness, it also makes for insomnia in some individuals, such as myself.
 
I'm in a high risk group for diabetes(heredity, and a personal history of gestational diabetes), and in the last couple years have had some minor blood glucose problems.  Things are stable in that regard right now, which is a blessing........
 
Especially in light of the fact that I'll likely have to have some eye surgery in the not too distant future, and opthamologists are loathe to perfrom that when blood glucose isn't good and stable.
 
And I do amazingly well.  I've weathered the back injury far better than I had any right to dream.  I lead a life that looks rather normal from the outside.  On the inside of my life, I do a lot of juggling, rearranging, punting, compensating, and schedule amending.  My home is not nearly so neat and tidy as I'd like.  I don't putter around outside in flower beds.  Sometimes, I make hard choices about where to spend my physical resources that day.
 
And life goes on.  And life continues to be a beautiful thing, even when it sucks, bites, and frustrates.
 
I am also the mother of a child who has dealt with serious health issues for 18 yrs.  Some of them have been beaten.  Some will be, to one extent or another, permanent.
 
Pain is, like so many things, both blessing and curse.  My dad used to say that the depth and intensity of pain serves as a ruler, to show the depth, intensity, an breadth of life a person is capable of.  *Smiles*  Chew on that one a bit.  "Your pain can only go as deep as your life."
 
That concludes this commentator's program for this evening.  This presentation brought to you by Pain In The Ass Productions, where pain may be a daily thing, but we try to smile about it.
 
Blessings to you all -
Grace

quote:

But even if he insists on continuing with Dilaudid i don't really care as long as i can be mobile. I'm not one of those people who can just lie around, i need to be as active as possible.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Maahsatti

quote:

But even if he insists on continuing with Dilaudid i don't really care as long as i can be mobile. I'm not one of those people who can just lie around, i need to be as active as possible.

Hi phoenix,

Yes, I understand how you feel.Thats why I suggested the other meds. You stated that the Dilaudid made you very drowsy and lathargic...and did not do as well working on the pain as you would like.There for it is very clear, this med is not working for you, that it is working against you.As far as demands. I do not much see it as demanding, more then just being firm and straight forward, being very clear, so that they know exactly what you are going thru and what it is you are needing.
Believe me, if you are not very clear and firm, they will in essance walk all over you.
But, clearly, this is your choice and your pain, you do as you feel is best for you.
It is just a subject I am very touchy over, from my own past and current experiences and from what I have seen other family and friends have gone thru.
My mom had  surgery a yr ago, she had cancer in one of her kidneys, that had to remove half of it.
After the surgery, she was in a lot of pain...she tried to express this constantly to the nurses on staff and to her Doc, when he did his rounds...she over heard some nurses outside her door, telling each other she was a pain in the ass patient...my mother called me crying from hurt feelings and the pain..she did not understand why she was being labled as such, just because she was in pain and was telling them so and wanted something to be done about it...my mother is not a complainer at all, so when she says she hurts and actually brings it up..she must be in so much pain, neither of us could concieve it.
well..I went off...I called the director of nurses, then called patient advocate...that did not seem to work..my mother then suffered at the hands of these nurses, her meds coming to her later and later...her pain meds could not work cuz they had trouble keeping up, after being given so dramatically late.
I then went down to the hospital and I went postal...lol...no guns involved Im sure you know...but I think at that point the nurses would have preferred a gun over my ranting and raving..
I told them, if they did not stop their games they were playing with my mother and did not tend to her appropriately and timely, I would make damn well sure every one of them were fired...I told them, they better make a note of this as well, for the other shift nurses to read and UNDERSTAND...then I walked myself down to patient advocate and made that woman go see my mom.
Well, needless to say, my mother was treated much better after that and the next day, when I came to visit..I actually heard the Doctor literally screaming at the shift nurses.

I sat beside my mom listening with a huge smile on my face, holding my moms hand as she shed tears of both relief and greatfullness.

Take good care,
Maah

quote:

ORIGINAL: Maahsatti

well phoenix, go to the ER and do not leave,let them admit you for pain control, then tell your doctor you are finding a new one.

sorry you are having this trouble,
Maah