NEED DR CHICAGO- OMG HELP

Hi AllenJames, and welcome to the forum! I am so sorry to hear what you are going through right now! I do not know anyone in you area and I am sorry. Have you been to a pain management clinic? Because you called your previous doctor a pain doctor, I am assuming you have. Hopefully there will be someone in your area on the forum, but I just wanted to welcome you and tell you that there are a lot of amazing people here that will be glad to listen and help if they can! I realize that does not do a lot for your situation and I am sorry.

Hang in there and take care of you!

Beckey

Naaa.. I messed up though.

I was abused as a kid and have a hard time talking to adults, or telling them they are wrong.

I was trying so many differenjt meds from the dr that the3y where getting filled at different times. So instead of 3 oxys a day, 2 ms a day. I did MS for one week, oxys for three weeks. When I got teasted at just the wrong time it showd no MS in my system.

The dr didnt want to let me go, but rules are rrules. He will wright a sugestion... THanks

I am unsure if you are here looking for support or just for doctor refrences, but either way I wanted to welcome you to the Chronic Pain Forum. We have a great group of folks here and I think you will find this is a relaxing environment to be in. You didnt mention why you are suffering so much pain? It sounds like it is very bad, and I am so sorry you are having such a hard time right now.



I wanted to mention that many of us here have what you term "INtreventional pain" releif methods as a part of our overall pain management. It is done in addition to other therapies.... meds, physical therapy, pain psychology, et al. I myself have cortisteroid done in a series of 10 (5 on either side) along my spine. But, it is only one small part of my overall pain management.



~~> http://www.spineuniverse.com/treatments/pain-management/interventional-pain-medicine-options-chronic-pain

I am not sure what you mean when you say your perscription meds were improperly perscribed? I am kinda confused. Reguardless though, if the doctor messed up the perscribing times, then he/she needs to correct the mistake. The last thing you need is a mistake like that in your medical records!



As far as doctor go, if you have tried many places without any result, you might want to try a teaching hospital? So that your pain can be approcahed with the most up to date procedures, technologies and medicines. Hopefully this link will help..



~~> http://healthguideusa.org/teaching_hospitals.htm

It was very nice to meet you and again welcome to the CP community.

Hello James,

And welcome to Healing Well. I'm sorry you're so miserable right now. I looked again at what you are taking. You take BOTH Oxycontin and MS Contin? I've never heard of any doctor prescribing both of those at the same time. I searched online and could not find any recommendations for using them together. If you are using one particular pain medicine it seems risky to add a different one to it, especially the high doses you are taking.

The other question I have is your age. Your comment, "I was abused as a kid and have a hard time talking to adults, or telling them they are wrong." This implies you are still young and not yet an adult since you are not able to "tell them they are wrong". I know of no doctor who would prescribe even one of those medications to someone who is young unless they are dying of cancer or another extremely painful disorder. Most physicians will not prescribe any kind of opioid for young people. We've had many people under 20, even under 30, who truly need pain relief and no doctor will prescribe anything strong enough for them.

James...are you taking medications that you shouldn't? That combination can kill you. I'm very concerned about you so I have spent the last hour reading on drug sites where guys discuss how they abuse and misuse these two drugs. I've also been reading about how these medications are prescribed. I do know plenty about these as I have been prescribed MS Contin to try for pain relief. That didn't help and I've been on Oxycontin for several years. These are not something to mess with.

I'm sure you are getting frightened and you have good reason to be. Get yourself to an ER and tell them what's going on. They can help get you on a Suboxone treatment, like Hellokitty suggested, so you don't suffer most of the withdrawal effects. Not only can these drugs kill you but going cold turkey can also. Please ask for and get some help. There is no doctor who will prescribe what you want in just a few days. ER is your best option right now.

Please keep in touch. We really do care that you are OK! Let us know that you are OK and what you are doing.

Hugs,
Chutz

I didnt just hop onto these meds, but you understand my problem now. Ive been going doctor to doctor for years, the same time attempting suicide once, and thinking of it non stiop.

The pain I feel is so god darn bad! I played football for years, I played LB and my job on that side was to run into the full back, usually the tuffest guy on offense. My job on Offense was FB, and I ran into the LB(Line backers) usually the tuffest guys on D. After college I did construction, and waited tables.

I cant even do laundry now without being hunched over after and barelly walking for a day to a week.

A great doctor finally realized I need long acting pain meds all day. But now as I go to other so called pain clinics, they are **** jokes that only care about themselfs. Ive tried lower pain meds, and lower numbers of pain meds. It didnt help, I simply cant live without having this pain I have to deal with.

And ive tried 17 injections, therapy numerous times, chiropracters numerous times, and was up for surgery before Noam Stadlen and the CINN clinics of back surgeons. They recomend never to let anyone operate on my back.

Please I need a doctor that is more about patients and not themselfs or im gone.

(put * in place of curse words)

Post Edited By Moderator (Dani Henson) : 6/20/2010 11:05:34 AM (GMT-6)

Kitty its imposible, ive been to more then 15 I did the math on this a hour ago. They are all rediculouse *****. Care about themselfs more then any kid crying for help.

(put * in place of curse words)

Post Edited By Moderator (Dani Henson) : 6/20/2010 11:06:47 AM (GMT-6)

Im sorry. I just cant quite seem to understand your prediciment. I have many medicines that I have to take...all of the more..stronger meds had to be slowly increased over time (months in some cases)and I am not permitted to stop taking them suddenly under any circumstance. Not even if I wanted to. shakehead Even when I had to switch to a new doctor... the new and old doctor come up with a transition plan so the switch was easy. There were no lapses in dosing or care. The transition was done very smoothly.



It occurred to me if it has been three weeks since you took your med, and are only on one other type of pain med, that should be easy to stop whille you look for different doctor. I was under the impression that you took many meds that cause withdrawl. So, it is good you are only on one. Hopefully you will be able to get a new doctor quickly. Did you hurt yourself playing foot ball? Or was it slowly increasing problem? Mind my asking what areas of your spine are damaged and how?



I hope you found the hospital link useful. I hope you can find a few moments to relax today. Hang in there

Hi AJ-
I thought maybe it would help to give you a link to some resources that explain how pain clinics work, factors that doctors consider when deciding what treatment(s) is(are) appropriate, what treatments are used for treating pain, and what the benefits/risks of different medicines. They update it regularly & a lot of pain clinics refer to it for updates. One of the nicest things about it, imho, is that it includes some of the very newest meds that sometimes can be used even in people who struggle with addiction (not saying you do, just that there are options).
But there is an important quote from it that I wanted to share with you:
"The dilemma with the long term use of opioids is that while there is a role for opioids in chronic, non-cancer pain, it is well known that prolonged use of opioids may result in problems including tolerance, hyperalgesia (increased pain sensitivity), hormonal effects (decreased testosterone levels, decreased libido and sex drive, irregular menses), depression, impaired sleep patterns and suppression of the immune system. The chronic utilization of opioids may also impair functional recovery in an individual’s recovery from surgery or with long-standing musculoskeletal disorders."
A lot of doctors weigh these factors heavily -- perhaps a bit too much, even -- so it is important for you to be aware of that. For me, personally, when I was on a higher dose & more meds, I experiences many of those issues -- though I didn't realize it until I got healthier and was able to cut back dramatically on the meds. I have to wonder whether some of the extreme depression & horrible pain you are feeling might be the result of being on such a high dose of pain meds.
The one thing that my PCP would always tell me, and it was wise of her, was that if I started on extremely high doses of meds in my mid-20's, what would I do when I reached my 40's & completely maxed out on pain meds. You're probably already at the maximum daily dose on the MS & oxy. So forget about 40's, what are you going to do when you hit 30? I'm NOT saying you should live in pain, just that it might be worth trying even more non-pharmacological options.
17 injections seems like a lot of shots if you had absolutely no benefit whatsoever. Maybe that was the case, but most of us get maybe a couple of days with 25-50% reduction in pain. If you had at least 20% less pain for 2-3 days, that is considered successful. If you did get that kind of relief, then there are other options out there for you for longer relief. If you really did get no relief at all, then either the doc wasn't finding the right place or shots aren't the right treatment for you. There are different types of PT (some that are entirely passive -- some are done in a heated pool -- etc.).
So I just want to encourage you not to give up on everything. Things really can get better. I was on 17 meds (either for pain, or for side effects of pain meds, or for side effects of the meds for the side effects of the pain meds). If I had 2 people helping me, I could be dragged from my bed screaming at the top of my lungs until I went hoarse. But my PM worked so hard at figuring out what I needed & getting everything set up for me. He worked closely with a NS to help me avoid low-back surgery. It did take time -- after year 1, I got quite a bit better; after 2 years, I now can walk nearly 1 mile at a time, I go to work every day, I do shopping & laundry and can do light workouts for 15-20 minutes at a time. No, I'm not back to running 7 miles a day and I'm probably never going to be running half marathons again, but my life is not totally ruined either. Things got better & I'm now on very low doses of 2 meds and am cutting back on one of those (the other is Lyrica, so I'll probably be on that forever, but that's ok).
If you do end up in withdrawals, I've had friends who've said Chicago Lakeshore is pretty good -- they do take patients on an emergency basis (most ER's send patients there anyways, so save yourself some time & money & just go straight there), but if you can set up an intake appointment that goes smoother. They are the most humane by far.
And if you can talk with your ex-PM asap about slowly reducing the meds you're currently on until you run out, that would almost for sure be better than just going from your current dose to nothing at all.
good luck,
frances

Hey all,

Sort of off topic... :) ... but I just wanted to say that for a period of time (1 year+)... I was on a combo of Oxycontin and MS Contin, plus a med for breakthrough pain (all through a pain clinic, of course). It's not a "typical" thing that's done.... but, sometimes meds work differently for people.... and, instead of going up so high on one, they'll add another one on board. This was done after experimenting w/ a ton of different combos... again, not a typical thing - but I have seen others prescribed different combos of stuff.

Anyway, I just say that for an "FYI" kind of thing.... I know we sometimes read something here that's not typical - and we think something is not right.... I guess I'm extra sensitive to it....because before I finally reached the right combo of meds and became the assertive woman I now am... :) I went through a period of time that people (doctors, nurses, family, so forth) would see my combo of meds and pass major judgment.

The person's situation may not relate to what I've said and there definitely sounds like there are other factors going on. I just think we need to be careful when we see something here that's "atypical" (two long-acting meds, etc).... and try hard not to pass judgment w/ the way we say things here.

AllenJames - I can tell you are really struggling. I've been through many hard times, too. Hang in there; I know it's difficult, I really do.

--Tina

PaLady,

I appreciate your thoughts... just wanted to say, though, that I wasn't targeting you :) (or anyone in particular) w/ what I said. I just wanted to make sure I shared my experiences. But I hear what you are saying re: only using meds as prescribed, definitely...and the concerns you raise.

Take good care... --Tina