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Chronic Pain management for post gastric bypass patients

I'm fighting a battle with the whole chronic pain management thing.  It only recently occurred to me that one likely reason I'm not getting the relief I *should* be getting is becase I had gastric bypass (about 11 years ago).

Also when I got switched to another doctor in the pain management practice I'd been going to, I thought he was an actual pain doctor and just found out he's a Doctor of Osteopathy.  I can't even talk about my last appointment without crying. I tried explaining that there possibly were factors like gastric bypass malabsorption etc that weer the cause but he wasn't interested in listening.  

He suggested I try going to church to help with pain relief since I have so many chronic pain variables (hips, knee, spine) that nothing will give me relief and I need my hips replaced.  End of story.  He also said he should probably take me off everything since nothing really provided good relief.

I'm about to cry, need to stop this but I wondered if any GB patients with chronic pain issues had ever had issues with medication absorption and relief?  I feel like I could just crawl into a ball and stay there forever I feel so badly. Physically, mentally, emotionally. I feel so devalued and angry
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A related discussion, chronic pain bariatric patient was started.
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hello,

I am sorry that you feel that way and more importantly you feel not helped. It is difficult to give you a very accurate assessment of the situation without actually meeting you or getting all the details of your medical history, but I can give you some pointers.

Gastric bypass surgery is known to cause malabsorption of medications in an unpredictable fashion. It is very likely that your pain meds may be getting improperly or inadequately absorbed leading to breakthrough pain. I am not sure what your regimen is but it may be worth talking to your doctor about patches or sublingual medications which may be able to "bypass" your gut and get into the blood stream quicker.

I am not sure how to work out the doctor situation but my suggestion would be to contact the center where you had your gastric bypass surgery to see if they can help plug you in

hope that helps
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