Dangerous sitution

Dear Dr Nicolson  I am a 49 Yr old female diagnosed with MS,degenerative disc disease,arthrites and chronic pain. I am having much oain running down my right arm along with numbness and alot more muscle spasms in my back and legs.well a Doctor in Santa Fe,NM started putting shots of seripin ?something derived from the Pitcher Plant directly into my spine and siatic (sciatic) in my hips along with adding Noritryptline now up to 210Mgs a day said the antidepressant would take away the cravings for the morphine away? I have been on 240Mgs of MS Contin for over five years and was trying to lower the amount of MS,I have gone down by 60Mgs so far.anyway I had asked this DR who was supposed to be my Pain specialist how long i would have to take those shots for, and he said i should be able stretch the shots out to every three months.well my last appt. I was feeling pretty good so i ask to see if I could do without the shots that day because i had been taking them every month for around six months and the DR said nothing and filled out the rest of my medications,I made my next appt for 11/11/2010 and left. The next day i recieved mail with a termination letter saying i was just using him to prescribe narcotics!!!! I am beyond myself. HE has put me in danger!! the meds im on cannot just be stopped safely can they ? neurontin, baclofen,nortryptline,klonipin (klonopin),oxycodone,morphine sulphate,combvient etc....?? Please DR can you help? I have been on all these meds for over twenty years documented multiple illness and medications. I need a DR in NM ASAP. and the numbness,pain,spasams anxiety attacs are causing FEAR.Please contact me.  Thank you  Karen

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

Rather than just prescribing pain meds, your physician should have also been looking into alterntives.  With your dx of MS, arthritis and chronic pain, I would have guessed that a chronic infection(s) might be involved.

Among the common infections found in situations similar to yours are: Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, Borrelia, etc.  These infections can cause all of the symptoms that you report.

I think that it is time to rule-in or -out a possible role for the above infections in your situation.  You can go to our website, www.immed.org and look under Clinical Testing for a list of possible chronic infections.  You don't have to have all of these tests, but you and your physician might consider the first few.

Patients that have these infections benefit tremendously from their successful treatment.