Quality of life?

I am new to this forum and I was just wondering what types of pain management for severe pain have worked for people? I was in a bad car accident in 1999 where I (in addition to other things) had a burst lumbar fracture. A burst fracture is a really bad type to have and when I had my last MRI in 2002 they said I had degenerative disc disease, arthritis, spinal stenosis, and some nerve damage below the injury (60% of people with this injury are paralyzed but I wasn't). Since my last MRI 12 years ago I have not been able to get a doctor to order another one and have insurance pay for it, so who knows what is happening in my back now. I also have ehlers-Danlos syndrome which causes hyper mobile joints and collagen problems and also has led me to have autonomic dysfunction which means my body is unable to regulate blood flow/pressure correctly and I get very very very tired and dizzy (and have purple feet). Ehlers-Danlos also causes a lot of pain.

My pain has been bad since my injury, but my heart problems have left me unable to do the things I used to do that helped (yoga, exercise, swimming, etc.). So for the last 10 months I have been in really bad pain 24/7. I took pain medicine for about a week in October, but that is the only treatment for my pain I have gotten at all during that 10 month period.

I find that when I go to a new doctor or a specialist they always start by outright accusing me of being a drug addict. This includes doctors for other issues where I am not even there for anything to do with pain and have only mentioned it as part of my medical history. In the last 5 years I have been on pain medicine for a total of three weeks. If I am a drug addict I am a terrible one-- I also don't drink or do recreational drugs.

The suggestions I get from doctors are: a pain psychologist, Aleve, and physical therapy. They also have on multiple occasions listed my injury as a stress fracture and don't include the other back problems in their notes. My problem is that I am in pain 24/7-- for me it is not a matter of not being able to do the activities that I want because I am so far from that it isn't even a goal anymore. I am in pain in any position, and when I can sleep I have terrible dreams where my back still hurts. So I have 0 quality of life-- I don't even watch television because I am too uncomfortable.

What I need people to understand is that I am in too much pain to go to physical therapy. I am in too much pain to go to the doctor. Again, I am not even on anything for the pain at all now. I honestly at this point don't see how the need for pain relief does not outweigh a risk of drug dependency. At this point who cares if I do get addicted to pain medicine-- it's not like I have a life now. Plus, I have never been addicted to anything before!

Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences? I feel like I have a very real, concrete, visible reason for pain and I still get treated like I am faking it for drugs. Any ideas on what to do?

Sorry this was long and rambling and thanks!

I do have a similar experience to share with you. I am also a CP patient but are not getting treatment for it.
Not even pain medication.
I am now a 31 year old mother of a two year old daughter who is currently in Colorado CPS custody directly due to my chronic pain and inability to care for her, let alone take care of myself.
I have had Degenerative Disc Disease, several herniated discs, severe Osteoarthritis, and scoliosis for about three years now. It happened out of the blue right after I became pregnant, and I still get asked by doctors and nurses why I decided the best thing to do was to become pregnant when I knew I couldn't possibly take care of a child. I was 3 months pregnant when I went to the ER in pain and had never had that kind of back pain before. The nerve I have for not being psychic!
I have been to over 15 doctors literally begging in tears to be helped just so that I could take care of my daughter, but since I complained of pain and mentioned I'm a mother, I became a seeker to every doctor I've seen.
Not only do I live in pain daily to the point where I can't even wipe my own butt without crying due to the pain, but I have been court ordered by the state to get medical treatment for my back so I'm not in so much pain I can actually attend the parenting classes they want me to so I can start the reunification process to get my daughter back. The problem is that no doctor will refer me for anything but physical therapy that I can't do because I hurt too much. I visited a new doctor last week who wants me to do physical therapy too and gave me a treatment completion date of 10/2014 just to See if it will work. The only problem with that is December marks a year since my daughter has been in state custody, and after a year they will adopt her out. I've been screaming for help for 3 years, being given the shaft, then abused by the state like a bad mother, yet no one will help me get the treatment I've been court ordered to obtain.
This morning I went to the ER where the ER doc refused pain medication because my doctor did, and his reasoning is that if my own doctor refused them to me, I must not need them. All I wanted was a little relief so that I could remember what it feels like not to be in pain, and I was denied as if I were a rabid animal everyone would like to see put out of its misery.
So yes, I know EXACTLY what your going through.
I would say something means, like "quit complaining if you actually get pain mess because at least you can get SOME escape", but that would be mean and unfair because I don't know what their pain is really like, and if I said that, I would just be every other doctor these people have seen for their chronic pain.

So sorry about your daughter-- that is awful. I haven't had children because of all the pain and health problems.


I lost an inch after my injury. I have tried a lot of stuff over the years. I refused narcotics for pain (even when they were offered) because I was worried about tolerance and dependency, until about 10 months ago when I developed other health problems and a substantial increase in pain at which point I felt that I needed something more that PT and OTC pain meds to get me back to a point where I can cope.

I have done regular PT, water PT, massage, yoga, nerve blocks, a tens unit, lidocaine patches, cymbalta, gabapentin, low dose naltrexone (not the alchohol withdrawal dose range), flexaril, psychotherapy, hot/cold packs... Until about 11 months ago I worked out every day doing low impact cardio and strength training. I feel like I am just shutting down from so much pain for so long, and I can't do anything to get back on a healthier track without a major improvement (I am not over weight, so that is not a contributing factor).

When you go to a new dr, do you take a copy of your medical records including diagnostic test results ? If you ask for a specific med for pain, that is probably why you're not getting any meds. Also if you ask for meds on the first visit that is probably why you're not receiving any.

I do have a suggestion, but I'm not sure if it will help. If you're unable to walk well enough to get to PT in the clinic/hospital, tell your dr that you need a wheelchair or walker in order to get there. Then if he gives you a rx for the wheelchair get it and use it to go to PT and anything else you need it for. PT does hurt and make the pain worse in the beginning, but it isn't for very long. And if you don't go, the possibility of the pain improving is not good. The counseling from someone who deals with teaching people how to cope with chronic pain is also a good suggestion. The days of chronic pain patients just getting meds for their pain and not having to also do other types of pain management, are almost gone.

Not sure what drug used for injection your saying isn't FDA approved but there's far more used then one! In fact there's many different types of injections.

There's not one single person here thats been a CPer for any great length of time thats not tried about everything coming and going.

The vast majority of us dont rely solely on our narcotics but combination of other meds, creams, therapy, counseling, and various other modalities to keep our pain controlled.

You have to find an approach including a combination of things that each serve to bring those pain levels down in small amounts and adding up to a better quality of life.

It takes a team of Drs not one to reach those goals and again they work with us as a team. Meds alone are never going to be enough for chronic pain.

Have either of you tried hydrotherapy? Movement is much easier, smoother in water and this type therapy is very successful.

Regardless of whatever reasons you have for not using this treatment or that treatment the bottom line is your not allowing the Drs to first try this or attempting to use non-medicinal therapys to try to alleviate your pain and under the guidelines set forth concerning the prescribing of narcotics in the treatment of chronic pain he has to be able to show non-narcotic methods have been tried and failed.

They can nolonger use narcotics as a first line of defense against chronic pain.

This site has many CP Moms myself included. We certainly understand the hardships and complications in parenting in pain. Many of us also were single parents as well. I raised 5 children that at least a good many years of their lives were under the chronic pain era. I still have a 16 yr old whose never known me as anything but a CP mom and all my kids turned into healthy, happy, well adjusted and productive adults!

You both need copies of your medical records and see what the Drs are saying. If somewhere, someone made one entry about you in a negative way concerning narcotics then that would explain your lack of treatment. Always know what's in there and never guess it's favorable.

Being in pain is certainly difficult. No doubt about that. I'm sorry you are having such a hard time finding treatment that works. I would agree with what others have said, that even though PT is often very painful at the beginning, you have to give it a chance. If it's too painful, let your PT know that, and tell them you need to start slower/with something easier. And I don't know how it works, but if you cannot leave your home due to pain, maybe your doc could arrange for some in-home PT to get you started. Or have a friend/family member/neighbor/whoever help you get to PT. I know you are hurting, but it's true that docs try other things before looking to meds, and certainly before more invasive treatments like surgery or injections.

I also think you really need to hunt down your records from when you were first diagnosed, to allow the doc to see what started it all.

I wish I had better advice to help you. I guess I would just start with getting all the records you can to back up what you are telling the docs, and do everything in your power to show them that you are willing to try whatever treatment they suggest. Ask them for ideas/resources to help get you to appts or PT. You can do it!

By the way, I think Vickie was just trying to say that she understands how hard it is to have chronic pain and be a mother, and that pain does not mean someone would be a bad parent. I really don't think she was trying to attack you.

Hope you find some relief soon. Post again if you want to "talk" some more or just to let us know how you are doing!

I Clearly mentioned in my post that lumbar corticosteroid injections have not been FDA approved. The corticosteroid injection can be a great way to relieve pain if used in the right place in the body but unfortunately the lower back is not one of those places which is why it has not been FDA approved.
Furthermore all I do at my appointment especially when I see a new doctor is tell them I'm having problems functioning because my back is in pain and the first thing they want to tell me is that they will not prescribe narcotics. I have never walked into a doctors office and asked for narcotics for my back pain but since I told him my back hurts that is their first reaction towards me.
I even bring the medical records I have where my back pain started and when my back pain started and I still get the same run around.
I'm not lucky enough to be able to afford to have a team of doctors working with me either because I can't work due to my disability. In fact my case worker with the state of Colorado as well as my daughters guardian ad litem as well as my lawyer as well as the judge cannot understand why I am having so much trouble getting medical care and why I am being singled out.
I still don't think that many of you can even comprehend what I am saying. If I do not begin the parenting classes in treatment plan to get my daughter back she is going to be adopted out by the end of this year.
I don't have time to see if something works and I have no problem doing any treatment that I need to as long as my pain is taken care of enough so that I can actually have my life back be able to function and get my daughter back in time before she gets adopted out. As the original poster said I am so glad that you're able to raise your five children and that you will never have to know the pain of having your children taken away from you because you're in too much pain to take care of them because a doctor simply doesn't think it's important enough to treat your pain.

Also my doctor refuses to set up in home physical therapy for me even though Medicaid is accepting of it and will pay for it.
On another note I am NOT a junkie. I have never popped pills in my life. I don't even like taking ibuprofen. Before my back became this way I was the spitting image of the goddess of war. I was very muscular at 5 foot 11 185 pounds and I could outdo any man Wielding a shovel gun knife baseball bat or anything else you can think of. I worked on an organic farm and was promoted from intern farmhand to resident farm hand within 3 months and given my own house. I would take crews out into the field And we would work from dawn until dusk 16 to 18 hour days every day except for the winter when I would personally go out and work 8 hours by myself in the greenhouses and grow houses. I was looked down upon by the owner who had certain thoughts about where women should be and how women should be me leaving the field planting daisies. I dealt with that. I was the only woman in all the years this man has been alive to show him that women can do more than just having babies.
I have never been dependent on drugs and I have never had a need to. I have never been lazy and I have never ever shirked my responsibilities once.
Right before my daughter was taken away I was gritting my teeth through the pain to do everything I could to make sure everything was taken care of for her. I was lifting her I was carrying her I was doing everything I could. I was still exercising my body while taking care of her and unfortunately my condition continued to get worse and worse. Now tell me that after years of doing these little exercise is out of the pamphlets they give you when you go to your appointment and taking care of my daughter that I have not been working my back muscles and for some reason they continued to get worse. Why don't you explain that to me. And for the love of God can someone please explain to me how are normal 31 year old woman could lose 4 inches in height over a two year period and not be in pain Because I am dying to know.
Also I was wondering that if you had several discs which are now completely flat due to lack of treatment wouldn't that cause pain enough to prevent you from going to physical therapy especially if you had bony Spurs present in your spine as I do. Someone also please answer me that question. Also I said osteoarthritis not a muscle spasm.
And getting an attitude because I think that my pain is worse than someone else's is ridiculous to assume. All I'm saying is that no one understands my situation. I don't know of many parents who have had their child taken away by the state because they're in too much pain to function and can't get a doctor to help them. So in short I am not complaining that my pain is worse than anyone elses but what I'm saying is that my daughter is going to be lost forever to me if I don't get my pain needs met as soon as possible so that I can take the proper steps in order to get her back. If anyone else knows what it's like to lose a child in this situation I would love to hear their advice.

Post Edited (arctikchild) : 4/15/2014 6:02:16 AM (GMT-6)

Look all I am saying is this someone comes on to this site and says I have degenerative disc disease I have tried going to physical therapy but I am in too much pain to complete it not only that but on top of everything else my doctor refuses to make any other referrals for me refuses to treat me with pain medication and I am left to suffer at home where nothing I do matters and makes a difference to my pain. Then what I see is someone posting a question to that responds someone says something like well have you actually tried going to physical therapy Or do you just want the narcotics. And then the person who is the original poster actually says and replies that no I don't just want narcotics I want treatment but that doesn't matter what that original poster said in response to that comment matters not because it is in the opinion of these other people who have had experience with physical therapy the physical therapy will work for everyone not only them when that is not the case. So then a cycle is created of the person who asked the question wanting to know an answer or get advice and then being berated and being told that they are making excuses because it hurts them too much to go to physical therapy. Do you see what I'm saying now?
Not to mention that this is the first pain forum that I've been on for my chronic pain and I'm already not liking the results. So I think I'll just keep my pain to myself and not even bother talking to other people in pain anymore because they can't get their heads out of their asses far enough to see the point of view of other people.
Thank you for making yet another one of my chronic pain experiences full of agony and distaste.

Post Edited (arctikchild) : 4/15/2014 6:35:11 AM (GMT-6)

What makes you so sure that we haven't been where your at? Do you think that everyone here is on a boatload of narcs and nothing else?? Is it reasonable to assume that many of the ppl here spent years and years with no pain management before they relentlessly found some one to help them? I can assure you that I have seen more Doctors that didn't write then did!! I can also assure you that I have spent countless hours in PT that did absolutely nothing for my pain or at times even made it worse!! I have had more injections then my teen has in years of living,some that worked sometimes,some that worked not at all,and some that worked a little more then the others and all by a vast majority of Doctors I wouldn't have trusted with my cat!!

We have folks here that have holes the size of Texas in their stomachs from having spent far too many years on anitinflammatory meds that Doctors prescribed before they would prescribe anything that really worked and regardless of what they knew was happening from those meds it was pain relief at its best for them at that time.

We don't sit around here all day high on a ship of narcotics and try to tell others what pains like,we know what its like and no matter how much or how little meds we each take we will never be pain free!! That is the reason its Chronic pain not acute. As a CPer your not likely to ever be pain free or even close,finding a place in comfort you can live with is where the search ends.

It will be a lifetime of doing whatever,whenever,you can to keep that quality of life when you do find it.There are not very many CPers who ever find a surgical procedure that gets them out of pain or a single therapy or med and this is what we are saying to you. There is no cut and dried answers,there is no magic,no one thing that is going to give you all that you seek and not anytime quickly either.

Its a long and tiring trial and error thing and it may take years and years to get anything remotely like a functional quality of life. Its taken me 12 years and Im one of the lucky ones in that I have managed to find good Doctors in the midst of horrid ones and I lived in two of the very worst states for pain management there is,KY and FL.

I have to sign away my first born just to be able to fill a narcotic in this grand state of FL where the addicts have virtually destroyed medical care as we know it. I have to allow pharmacys personal health information that is really none of their business, My Doctor has to use time filling out paperwork so I might be able to get my meds so the DEA and FDA are happy and allow me to fill here. Otherwise I have only pieces of paper and no meds. I take random urine tests, I answer the phone for pill counts at random and pray I never miss that call, I do whatever they tell me to do whether I think it helps or not and do it with a smile or I get nothing because the governing agency not the DR says I have to.

They say I have to have taken those meds that caused this stomach bleed for so long and give it a fair chance at working for my pain,they say I have to have this scan or that scan regardless of whether my insurance pays for it or I have to sell my car to pay for it. They don't care they don't discriminate unless your a CPer. I drag my rear to the hydropool 4 times a week no matter how sick I feel from the pain out of fear that one of those governing agencys will view my refusal as not cooperating with my health plan set forth by my Drs.

Am I at a place where I can get up and go to the store? Some days. Do I take care of the house and my daughter? Yea if I do nothing else!! Do I not pay for that in the end? I do!! Do I have any choices? NO!!! Not unless I want to go back to the days when finding my answer to my pain was seeking Doctors like Kevorkian!!

This is the exact reason that the first Dr we try to get is a psych dr experienced in pain management!! To teach us how to keep getting up when just giving up is so so much easier some days.

You think we don't get it? Really?

No Doctor owes you pain relief in the form of anything. The hardest part of my journey was learning I had no right to expect anything and didn't and if I got help then it was a blessing and when I didn't well I wasn't disappointed. I learned to help myself in more ways then imagineable.

Im actually on less meds now then I have ever been on in my 57 years of life and 14 in CP. I had 3 kids natural with not so much as an aspirin and 2 emergency C-sections, I had 4 kidney stones during one of those pregnancys and meningitis so I was no stranger to pain when this started but it soon became my constant companion after my accident and that is a entirely different game.

Its not the Doctors,its not the clinics,its not even medicaids fault we don't get treatment. You want to blame then place it where it belongs. The politicians and this war on drugs, the addicts and dealers who don't care about anything but their own needs and the reaction of those regulating agencies to this epidemic of drug abuse. Search this forum,read all the links we have here,the threads about this war and the changes that have been brought to our door, the legitimate pain folks. We have had to change the way we seek help,the way we keep that help,and the very attitude of our expectations of our health care team.

Gone are the days the Dr just whips out his pad and writes you something to stop your pain,the laws say he cant!!! He must first do this and that and he must try all of these things first and then and only then after all the criteria has been met he can offer you certain things,never can he just give you what he once would have. If he does he joins the ranks of overprescribing,gets sanctioned by the license board,could go to jail and lose everything he has spent years building,the essence of his survival.

Overdramatic? Not,this is where pain management is today and nothing we say or do can change that.

If I had easy answers for you? I would give them to you and the original poster but unfortunately all I can give you is the quickest route to get the relief you need and that's not going to be quick enough nor painless by any means.

 

I feel like this conversation is pretty divided with some people feeling that they are struggling the way that I have, and feeling attacked by people suggesting that the problems others experience with pain management are somehow a result of just not trying hard enough. I feel that there have been many barriers to my treatment that have prevented me from improving my quality of life and have in some ways contributed to it. Just because I am new to this forum does not mean I am new to dealing with pain. In August of this year it will have been 15 years since I was injured in a car accident where I broke my back and all the bones in my left arm. If after all this time I still expected a quick and painless fix I would be awfully naive.

Vickie, you said that it was "rude at best" to suggest that some people have worse pain than others. I don't know how bad your pain is. You are obviously a tough and hard working person who has made the best of a difficult situation and come out on top. I don't know if my pain is worse than yours. I think that how people experience pain is very subjective, and what might be intolerable to some people might not be to others. I do know that my pain combined with my other health problems does limit what it is possible for me to do. I cannot work right now. At my last job I did not get my contract renewed because I kept collapsing at work-- and I am worse now than I was then. I cannot stand in line at the grocery store, not to mention tolerating long bus rides or lines. Does this mean that my pain is worse than your pain? Not at all. It does mean that due to a combination of factors it is not physically possible for me to do things that you and other people can do. Again, this is not only due to pain, but to a combination of pain and other issues. Again, I don't think I or anyone responding to this post is refusing to do things that doctors suggest and only wanting narcotics. Here are some barriers to treatment I have found:

1. Financial: When I stopped working I didn't have health insurance for a year and applied for financial assistance at the teaching hospital (The University of Virginia medical center) where I live. I have turned in multiple copies of all the forms they request, but continue to get the run around from them. First they say they didn't have a bank statement, then they found it but said it was too old. Then I turned in new copies of everything and the next communication I got was a court summons. I have no income and no assets and I have read their by-laws about their financial assistance policies and there is no reason I don't qualify. A few weeks ago I got a court summons that they are suing me for $1500 (after they took my tax return, which was never deducted from my bill). So while financial assistance programs do exist they are often difficult to access and require the assistance of a lawyer (which obviously I cannot afford) to get. Perhaps in other areas teaching hospitals are cheaper than regular hospitals, but not here. We have a free clinic, but to go to the free clinic you have to prove that you did not qualify for financial assistance from the hospital-- which I technically do-- and they do not offer specialists or PT services. The free clinic here is really only set up for basic routine healthcare, such as vaccines, annual check-ups, minor illnesses, etc... My state did not expand medicaid, so I got private insurance , but there are a lot of limitations on what they will and will not pay for and there are other expenses like co-pays and deductibles. A co-pay of $40 for PT is not so much to pay one time, but when a doctor says, "first try PT three times a week for six weeks and then we will talk about other options," that is $720 in co-pays, which is just not an option for me. When you have a finite amount of money to spend on health care the "try everything" approach becomes challenging if not impossible. The same is true of other treatments: nerve blocks help some, but they are about $2000 (with insurance) and last about 4 months. If money were not an issue, I would get nerve blocks, do PT, go to chiropractors, get acupuncture and massages, etc... And if I had been able to do that all along, I may not have gotten this bad off in the first place. In order to gather a "team" of doctors, at least here, you would have to shell out $40 for every 15 minute consult, which adds up fast.

2. Time is not an issue for me right now because I can't work, but in the past if I worked enough to make the money to pay for specialists and therapies I didn't have any time left over during which to do things like go to PT 3 times a week between 9 and 5.

3. Energy-- Vickie, it sounds like you have a lot of energy. That doesn't mean you are in less pain, but it does mean you can do more. There are many days where I don't leave my apartment and I am still exhausted. If I go to the grocery store that is all I can handle in one day. This is not just due to pain, but to other health problems. I think that many people with chronic pain have other medical problems that have either caused or contributed to their CP. When you are chronically ill and in pain the smallest tasks are exhausting. I have had to take a break from typing this every 2 minutes or so because sitting up and holding a laptop is hard and painful. Making phone calls is tiring, especially when you encounter people who are rude and when you have to keep trying over and over again to get something simple accomplished. I have to rest between taking a shower and getting dressed. This doesn't mean that I can't go to a doctor's appointment, or that I won't go to PT, it just means that every step of fighting to get treatment is exhausting and overwhelming. Not because I am too lazy for PT or refusing treatments offered by doctors.

What I think you are not understanding, Vickie, is that neither myself nor the other people who responded to this post are refusing to try anything but narcotic pain medicine. If I had a great team of doctors working together to come up with a treatment plan, that would be amazing, but I don't. And the University of Virginia hospital is a pretty good hospital, so I don't think that my experience is all that unique. The idea that there is all this wonderful free health care out there just waiting to be had is not true, at least not in Virginia. I know my situation is that I am in so much pain and am so exhausted that even if cost were not an issue I need something more than swimming and PT. That doesn't mean I would never do those things, it just means that that is something I need to work up to. Also, like many people, I have tried many many many different treatments, and PT has never helped before. So when I am trying to decide what treatment I can or cannot afford I am not going to chose something that is expensive, takes a long time, and hasn't worked before.

Vickie, it does sound like you have worked hard to get through your pain, and to manage to be single and have 5 children. Just because other people don't work multiple jobs and raise 5 kids, however, does not mean they are having an easy relaxing time.

Someone else said in response to this that they felt they were just being attacked on here, and I understand that feeling. The assumption that when people say their pain is too severe and has not responded to non medical therapy they are really just looking for drugs and a quick fix is the exact problem I was talking about. I came to this forum looking for advice and support and to hear what has helped other people, not to be insulted and lectured.

Also- I am not a man, SAM are my initials, my name is Sarah. Easy mistake.

And Vickie, some advice to you, before you condescend to people and tell them to do their homework, a quick lesson in the English language: you use an apostrophe with an S to show possession (Vickie's pen) or as a contraction (it is --> it's), not to make something plural (trials and errors). "Hear" is what your ears do, "here" describes a place. "You're" is a contraction for "you are," "your" describes something that belongs to you.

Finally, it is actually a doctor's responsibility to treat pain. That does not mean it is their responsibility to prescribe drugs or to fix the pain, but to find the source of pain and to treat it if necessary is absolutely their job. In the case of a pain doctor, it is in fact their only job. Just because someone has M.D. behind their name doesn't mean that they are infallible.

Nowhere in your post did you say that any state took your child Vicky. So what do you mean by signing away your first born because that is apparently what I did unwillingly because of my pain and doctors unwanted to treat me.
And I never said that anybody on any kind of medication sits around high all day feeling good. Because even if I were on medication I am pretty sure that I would still be in pain and I would still have boats were I was unable to get up and go to the store. All I am saying is that right now I can't even take a shower or get out of bed I am too depressed to even try doing anything because of the pain. I would just like to have maybe a few minutes where I can remember what it is like not to be in pain constantly. Agonizing pain.

arctikchild, Medicaid pays very little compared to other insurance. That is why it is so hard to find a dr who will take Medicaid. Even if a provider is listed as accepting Medicaid, that doesn't mean that they are accepting new patients. The link below may help you find a Medicaid provider. Also check with your Medicaid Health Plan to be sure a dr accepts the plan before you make an appointment.

You need to see a Pain Management Dr, but I'm not sure if Colorado Medicaid will pay for that. You may also need a referal from another dr, like a PCP.

Being on Medicaid does make it more difficult to receive pain meds. I have also put a link below explaining that. Even though the senator in this info isn't in Colorado, he has sent letters to states demanding to know how the states are going to go after high prescribers of pain and other meds when Medicaid pays for it. The same thing is happening with Medicare, but it isn't as widespread, yet. Pain meds and certain other meds seem to be more abused/diverted when Medicaid or Medicare pays for them.

Colorado Medicaid Provider Search-
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/HCPF/HCPF/1251646860795

Grassley Pursues Prescription Drug Abuse in Medicaid, Medicare
http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=39902