The time has come to join a pain management program - have questions and concerns

Being desperate can be very misunderstood now days. Sometimes it does take a few days for a drs office to call you back. What your pain dr thinks of you should be important, because that will have an influence on how he treats you. I'm not sure what you thought they could do at 1am. The pain meds you've taken that worked can't be called in.

In the past when we were in pain we were givien something to ease the pain. Often long before the drs knew what the cause of the pain was. But, it is not that way now. We have to go by the rules and we have to jump through hoops. And even then, the dr is the one who decides what, if anything along the lines of pain meds he prescribes.

Your way off. Why wouldn't he care about the regulations any more then you care about your job? That's the work he put years and years into money and education,ungodly hours of internships and likely his family's only means of survival just as your job is and you expect him to risk it for you? One person in pain in a practice of many possibly thousands? Leaving them without any Dr or meds and in pain again after they followed the rules and became a established patient before demanding drugs? Really? Read your posts you have made some of the most outrageous statements I have seen here and I have been here a long long time. Not to diminish your pain but personally I think your attitude is coming across as one of entitlement and your diminishing anyone else's pain. You think we haven't been desperate? You think we haven't been to the edge? Do you honestly believe narcotics are your lifesaver here when in fact they do very very little for nerve related pain?

Signs of addiction and diversion according to DEA guidelines and the APA. Seeing multiple doctor's in a short time span
Paying cash to see multiple des
Not filling non-narcotic meds prescribed
Demanding opiates only claiming allergies,side effects to nonopiates
Persistent calling and insisting on appointments before scheduled time
Multiple ER visits
Anger,entitlement and displaying behaviors inappropriate of given situation


Fact is your not entitled to anything and he doesn't have to see you at all since he has no obligation to you and can drop you from his care at his choosing without ever giving you anything and he could flag you so you would have a really difficult time getting another Dr to even see you. You better calm down and look for diversion techniques or something to help get that pain under control a bit.

As for your attitude here its belittling to other pain sufferers and for the moment I'm giving you some leeway since you claim to be in so much pain but let this be a word of caution Jayne we don't tolerate any kind of attitude or posts diminishing others pain,derogatory remarks against medical personnel and fyi many here are or now retired from the field of medicine. We also will delete flaming remarks and questionable language as we are a family friendly forum. If you haven't done so please see HW rules regarding posting.

Thank you Backtolife as well as the many others who have tried to help. For every negative commenter, there are 3 kind ones so you are the reason I keep coming back here. As for the pain meds, IF I had tried the Lyrica a week ago as originally planned, I would've held off in calling the pain clinic so soon but the doctor (even as of this morning - I received a call from pharmacy about it) has yet to send the authorization form so how can he expect me to find relief from that (and nothing else) if he won't do his job and send the approval form. I am open to trying new meds and not having to take narcotics but as of right now, they are the only thing that helps. I've spent over $500 just on herbs, vitamins and prescriptions alone. No one knows for sure that this is in fact nerve pain but you'd think after going to all these doctors, someone could figure it out. As stated before, I HAVE tried 3 other nerve pain meds but none have helped and the side effects were awful to the point I could not function or even breathe. So after having no such luck with them so far, I went home on Friday praying the muscle relaxers would do something at least but no, all they gave me was a bad case of RLS. I know it's a fine line bringing up pain meds to a doctor but keep mind HE brought it up to ME, not the other way around and for him to do that and not even prescribe them afterwards seems ridiculous. I have NEVER had a problem being prescribed them before by 2 other doctors within several months time AFTER I had surgery mind you, both who are a member of the prescription monitoring program, so for people to insinuate that I'm a drug seeker and an addict is truly insulting. I have always been offered them, not vice versa, so the doctors must know they help. I went over a year without relief for this but like I stated before, the pain only spread further so much that even smiling or talking triggers a surge of pain down my spine. Anyway, call me crazy all you want but I called the pain clinic this morning just to ask them what I should expect today because I am losing even more wages by taking off work and I live an hour away. I asked a different nurse specifically what would the doctor do differently this time as far as relieving my pain and yes, I even brought it up to her that HE mentioned he'd give pain medication but hasn't yet and until then I don't know how long I'm going to be able to live with this pain. She was as nice as can be which I was surprised about and just said "come on in and he'll take care of you". I hope so even if it means injecting my face with an numbing agent although to be honest, all that would do is make me feel claustrophobic.

Everyone may already know this, but I didn't. Our pharmacy allows you to pay for a partial amount of a prescription, so if you're waiting for pre-authorization to come through (like I am right now), you can just buy one or two days' dose at a fractional cost, stop by in a couple days for more if it's still delayed, then pick up the rest of the prescription when the insurance company pays for it. Don't know how widespread that is.

How did your appointment go?

Also-feel free to message me if you want. Our reason for pain may be different, but I do think I have a good understanding of what you are dealing with.

Wasn't suggesting any such thing but considering she has a long history of meds not being tolerated or working why not spend money to get a partial amount to see if perhaps it would have been tolerated? I mean seriously if your willing to spend money of that ilk on vitamins why not on something many get awesome relief with when your claiming unbearable pain at those levels for that amount of time while waiting for pre=auth.

Does anyone give any thoughts to why insurance coverage is so costly? How many billions of dollars each year they pay out to cover meds prescribed like lyrica that gets thrown in the garbage after a few pills are taken and the person can't tolerate it? She said she's taken pretty much all of the meds in that class and no dice making the chances this one wasn't going to be taken either. Those costs of wasted billions come back to haunt other folks paying for insurance in premiums and copays.

MG, yes you are absolutely correct about the medications that can take several weeks to see if they are going to help & be effective for the patient. I am not saying this is Jayne's case at all, but how many times have we seen it here at the forum someone get rx'd a medication & they take it a week & say I stopped because it wasn't helping me. It is usually something that may need to be taken anywhere from 2-3 months before knowing whether it will help or not. Its sad because what they gave up on may have been the winning ticket towards getting relief. Vickie & I both always say give it the time needed before giving up on it.

I don't think Jayne has posted since she saw the dr early.