Hi everyone. Checking in

Mental, now that you are moved in try allowing some time for yourself, a nice quiet tub soak, take a nap, what you have been doing has been very taxing on your body and it needs a rest I am sure. Kind of like adding insult to injury so to speak. Give yourself a break.

Take care.

thanks everyone. i've been doing that. ready to get back to finding out what's wrong, kept eating vicodin to kill the pain and keep it on the back of my mind because i just couldn't focus on it. going to the primary tomorrow to talk to him and making the neurosurgeon appt as fast as possible. want this explained as soon as possilbe and addressed for whatever it might be. we've got a lot going on right now, financial problems ( had to happen as soon as we got this place, right?) so i need to know what this is and manage it and face the other problems. but, we have a nice jet tub and i've used it a bunch, been super nice I have to say.

Thanks Paula. I saw the primary today and asked whether he thought we needed to make this was a c-spine issue only. He said he felt it was coming from the c-spine and recommend a pain management doctor across the hall. He said this guy can do the nerve block shots. I don't feel good about that. First, I want to know that this isn't some other issue first. So, I got ahold of the neurosurgeon, a great one, and have an appointment Feb. 25 with him. I had wanted an MRI of the entire back and perhaps the shoulder, just to make sure what this is. I don't feel good about masking pain until I'm certain of the cause. I hope that guy gives me real answers. Whitebeard and Straydog suggested I see a good neurosurgeon before I went tinkering around with anything else and I consider that smart advice. I'm looking forward to seeing the guy. I don't have any pain meds, I've been taking my mothers and she's annoyed by that since with her MS, she needs it. I'm hoping that I won't need them, or Neurotin, if in fact this is a c-spine thing and the nerve block shots work. I would expect to have some answers before this month is up. I don't like not knowing for sure. If I have to manage the pain with drugs, so be it, that's life, but not until I know what I'm managing. :)

Hey Mentalcompass,

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you can't take your mom's meds. She needs them. Also, if you go in to see PM and have meds in your system that are not written for you, then they are going to see you as a drug seeker. This is NOT a good way to start the relationship in the office. They can, and likely will, do a UA on the first visit. They also can't see your true pain unless you allow them to and this means taking nothing to mask the pain signals. You need to be very clear whe you go in. RFA does wonders for me. It doesn't work for everyone, but it (along with the proper meds) gives me a quality of life that I just don't have without them. Don't get me wrong, RFA hurts to me when I have it done, but about three weeks later, it's a God send!

Good luck!

And you're right, my mother needs her pills, she can barely walk without it. These last three months have been so hard, nonstop pain, that I've been worn down by it. This last month I grabbed a grip of her medication just to tolerate it, to have at least four hours of relief. I told my primary yesterday that the pain reminds me of how I felt with labor pain, that feeling that grates every nerve in your body and just wipes you out, it makes me on edge and angry. It's insane. I need my own meds because it's two weeks before the neurosurgeon sees me. I don't know why the primary didn't give me something? I should have just asked him outright.

I'm glad you see that you cannot do this to your mother and I'm glad you addressed the issue with your PCP. I'm not surprised, however, that you weren't given meds. PCP's don't often give pain meds unless there is a specific condition they are prescribing for (IMHO). As far as the RFA....well that is basically where they use a special tool, guided by a special scope, to burn the nerves that may be causing your pain. I can't explain it as well as some others, but they burn the nerves and you wait for the nerves to die. If all goes well, in about three weeks, the pain goes from horrible to a 3-4 for me. I can live with a 3-4 and be happy. It's the 8-10's that get me when they just won't stop.

IMO, You have to be completely and totally honest with your PM when you give them your background. Leaving out anything pertainent is a mistake because it can come back to haunt you. You will likely have to sign a pain contract if they give you meds and they will terminate you from the program if you don't follow the rules. It's really going to be hard to expain to a new PM why an old one let you go without divulging what happened. Either way, honesty is the best policy and the only one that can really help you find relief.