New to Forum but not pain

Hello & welcome to Healing Well & the chronic pain forum. Oh yes, the military does have a way of addressing medical issues don't they. One of our mods here is retired from the Air Force & he too has some stories to tell about the medical care he received while in there. I have my own story while my kids dad was in the service. My daughter had appendicitis attacks for nearly a year & hospitalized several times. Their dx was she was doing this to get attention & needed to be in counseling!!! Those clowns had no clue what they were talking about. I ended up taking her to a civilian dr when she had an attack & he took one look at her & said she has a hot appendix & its has ruptured. He alerted the childrens hospital we were on our way & off to surgery she went immediately. Sure enough her appendix had ruptured & the first 24 hours could have went either way according to the pediatric surgeon. You think I didn't want to knock some heads.

Lets hope this new hip takes care of the pain & problems. Sounds like you have had more than your fair share of suffering in the pain department. Please know we don't get into who hurts the most or the least here, lol. It is an individual thing & only you really know the affect & impact it has made on your life. Pain just stinks no matter what anyone says.

Please keep us posted on how you are doing & for sure remind us of the surgery date so we can send healing thoughts & prayers your way.

Take care.

Thank you. We don't have Pain Management where I live, rural SW Va. Instead, you sign a contract with your PCP. With the fast paced assembly line medicine these days it seems doctor's want to ge t you in and out as fast as possible. Prescribe a pill instead of finding out what is wrong. Very frustrating. I am lucky as I have a super supportive wife and 16 year old step daughter. They will not let me do anything they think will make me hurt. LOL. Between an ex wife, wife, three grown draughts and a step daughter it seems I have been taking orders from women my whole life!! LOL.

I have to agree with you on most doctors want to get you in and out, so that your already out the door once you get back to the exam room, it's not good medicine! Doctors need to spend more time with you.
Stay strong until your hip surgery, you can hang in there...For now read up everything you can on hip surgery and look at what type of recovery time your really looking at, my friend took a little 6 months to fully heal, but she said it was brutal they way they push you up to walk after surgery. So give yourself time to heal and expect to be up and walking after surgery! Have physcial therapy placed looked into so you can get a good one...if you can choose the therapy place. I was able to choose my pt after knee surgery last year and that helped.
Prayers for a speedy recovery, but follow all the doctors orders...

I also live in SW VA. How far are you willing to drive for a Dr?

Are you going to the VT/TN game in Bristol :)

I'm in the Roanoke area. I adore my pain dr and I know he has an office in Christiansburg as well. It's a pain to drive for healthcare, but it can be worth it. I travel down to Duke(3hrs) a few times a month. It's extremely inconvenient-sometimes I have to recruit folks to drive, but I couldn't ask for better care.

Hi Proud but Hurting, Welcome to the forum, Yep living with pain is no fun! Being on pain meds isn't any fun either, but if it can give you relief and you can get at least a portion of your normal life back in my opinion, it is more than worth it! I've been told in the past I needed a right hip replacement, but unless they fixed my back first it would not do any good to replace the hip. So I've not had it done, did get a total right knee replacement back in December of 2014 and that was enough! Anyway I've had allot of back problems all through my back, multiple fusions in my neck, and surgery on my lower back, but the thoracic disk's nobody will touch, so I ended up having to go on disability, which ended my second career. After I retired from the Air Force I went back to school and became an RN. But that was short lived, as I only got to practice nursing for 5 or 6 years after I graduated and got my license! So I can appreciate how you feel and how your pain affects you and your life!

I moved here to Kentucky about three years ago, from Illinois, had trouble finding a good Pain management doctor that would continue my treatment with pain meds, and was going back to my PM doctor in Illinois every month. That got old really quickly as it was a 300 mile drive one way! So I opted to get an implanted pain pump and my Illinois PM gave me a referral to the Pain Center at the University of Indiana at Indy. They put it in a little over two years ago, best thing I ever did! It injects minute amounts of morphine directly into my spinal canal, directly around the affected nerves. It doesn't relieve all the pain every where, but it does an excellent job of relieving my worst pain which is in my lower back pain and the sciatica pain going down my legs! Anyway I go up to Indianapolis every six months to get it refilled and it has been a real Godsend for me! Might be something to consider if they can't get your pain under adequate control????

Best of luck to you, and again Welcome to Healingwell Chronic Pain Forum.

White Beard

Welcome!