new and don't know what to expect...

I was rushed when I made my first post but am terribly frustrated. I've seen so many doctors and had so many different diagnoses that I am ready to give up. They thought chron's then it was ulcertive colitis & gastritis, then a doctor told me there was nothing wrong with me (that was the most frustrating because if there was nothing wrong, I wouldn't have the pain I have). My original doctor (the one that told me ulcertive colitis and gastritis) is the one who had been prescribing me pain medication for the last few months (i believe 15mg percosets) but he no longer is doing this. I understand his reasoning, he was calling in prescriptions for me and not making money. He cut off all 'long term pain management' prescriptions w/patients and sent me over to this new doctor. Now I have to wait until Mar 31st and have no idea what to expect. I've never gone to a doctor that was a pain specialist. Friends think I'd be happy / excited that maybe he will help but I've just learned to expect disappointment because of the experiences I have had over the last 4+ years...

my advice to you is just be honest about the pain and symptoms. Pain meds are a double edge sword. If you take to many you are a pill popper, if you take too little, well you must not be hurting that bad. Hopefully you have medical evidence to help document your illness, unfortunately, alot of pain disorders do not show up in tests. Be open to the pain management teams approach to therapy. Not all of it will include medicine. Just like when dieting, you can't just take a pill to lose weight. You must exercise, eat right and take the meds, so follow the advice and be an active participant in your recovery or management of pain. The pain doctors will start with the most minimal methods of pain control and work their way up. That is the safest method for you. You don't want to rush right in to a massive dose of morhine or fentanyl it could be very dangerous. Be patient as you and the doctor discover what meds and dose works best and safest for you. My doctor is an angel in my eyes. I hope yours will be for you. Good luck you will be in my thoughts.

aaricwon -
You didn't mention if the gastro doc is doing anything to help with the gastritis and colitis. Are you on acid reducing medication?

What about the hernia? Is it large enough or of the type that needs surgery?

There are a bunch of us on the GERD forum who will listen to you too.

Prednisone won't help GERD. Did you mean Prilosec, the proton pump inhibitor? Have you tried a few types of meds for reducing acid? Or is there really nothing wrong with the stomach???

Is your pain constant, or can you relate it to eating, especially any particular trigger foods?

Have you been tested with barium swallow for swallowing problems, weak lower esophageal sphincter (LES) and gastric reflux, and endoscopy to look at the inside of the esophagus? The barium will also show how bad the hernia is.

I'm sitting here with pretty bad chest pain (right under the sternum) after eating a very small meal because my stomach, which was previously repaired, has re-herniated (ripped the stitches) partly through the diaphragm again. My repaired LES is holding and I don't have acid burn, but I am taking Nexium to combat nausea.

A pain doc will help with general pain or the spine, but there SHOULD be something being done by the gastro doc, or he should be referring you to a really good thoracic surgeon. (Yes thoracic. Although the stomach is in the abdomen, a lot of work done is in the mediastinum, which is above the diaphragm.)

Hi aaricwon, Sounds as though you have a few different things going on and mostly related to your GI system and that makes it difficult sometimes to treat pain and the very reason alot of us now suffer from Gerd and ulcers and such,longterm PM ad the meds we take have a profound impact on our stomachs and cause a great deal of problems in treating us, a dominoes effect if you will. In the early years of this game for me every Doc wanted to shovel me full of naproxen,motrin,meds containing high doses of tylenol and lo and behold those meds destroyed my stomach and left me with horrific gerd and a huge ulcer!

Do you keep a pain journal? If not I suggest you start one even though you dont have alot of time between now and your appt but at least it will have something to discuss with them and they may see a pattern of something going on.

It doesnt have to be a great writers essay here just a spiral book that you enter when you have pain where it is and describe it it and what you were doing before it started and what you did to treat it, did it help or make it worse? Things like this.

I cant say this enough as I am a big advocate of pain journals since we tend to have anxiety over new appts and new Docs and I get in there and totally forget everything I wanted to say therefore ending up only answering the questions they are asking me and not getting any of the questions answered I wanted to ask.

Hope this helps and and I am sure others will have some good advice as well for you.

Hello and welcome to Healing Well's chronic pain forum. I am sorry that you have had such rotten care in the past, but unfortunately, that is the way it is a lot of times for people. With some patience and work we can usually end up finding some drs that do care and want to help. Its not uncommon to have to advocate for our care these days. I can tell you first hand when it comes to crohns disease and ulcerative colitis the golden standard test to dx either of the two is a colonoscopy. Generally this is the first test the drs do to rule out either disease. Even then sometimes the dr cannot give a dx. It is not uncommon to be told you have crohns then years later it be switched to UC either, happens a lot. I am really surprised the gastro rx'd pain meds to you for as long as he did. Most will not write scripts for pain meds unless it is for about

I know you said you have been tried on many medications in the past and I am assuming you are speaking of meds for the UC. By chance have you been tried on Lialda? It is a fairly new drug they have a good deal of success with. What kind of symptoms do you have besides pain? The test you spoke of you really should get a copy of the written report. I have heard of this situation before and I am drawing a blank about it right now. You need to be sure the pain mgt has a copy of this when you go see him. Most of us here keep a copy of our medical records for our own personal use too.

The only other thing I suggest for the appt with the PM dr is to make a list of all medications that you have taken in the past and write down what it did do or not do. This will keep the dr from trying to give you a script for something you have already tried that did not work. You also need should list what meds you have taken that has helped.

The PM dr will review your medical records and ask you questions about the pain. The best thing to do is just be honest and forthright with him. Don't sit and worry about whether or not he thinks you are a drug seeker. These PM drs have seen it all and they pretty much know when a person is legit and when a person is there just to get drugs. Do not be surprised if he talks to you about further testing of the gastro tract, its is a possibility.

Take care and again, try not to get all worked up over this appt.