Received referral to a Pain Specialist...

... to a hospital 350 miles away from my house. For reference, England is about 400 miles high.

I really do despair, they have no idea why my details ended up so far away, and now I'm back on the waiting list. It took two months+ for this appointment, but there's no way I'm going cross-country for 7 minutes.

I do have a point to this post:

Can anyone tell me what a pain specialist/management clinic actually is/does? i.e. - what am I going to get out of this aside from a few patronizing nods? Hydrocodone isn't available in England, so I'm guessing my only real options are Oxycontin &c ?

tc,

jay

My pain clinic, reccommended pain patches as well as anti depressents for nerve pain. They also recommended physio, plus I saw a psychiatrist who deals with pain management. He sent me to an arthritis support group which was wonderful. So all in all I found them quite helpful, they sent all the info to my GP to help her with my treatment.
Quite detailed sessions, each one lasted an hour, full history and lots of questions on how I cope both physically and mentally. It was quite exhausting actually.
But I felt listened to and cared for, so a positive experience overall.
I was sent literature about what they do before I went, mine was run by the local hospital. Again I had to wait months to be seen but it was worth it.
Best wishes, golitho