Discontinuation of ALL meds due to Pain Management...

[anjel75]

Last month, my spine surgeon referred me to Pain Management. I had to go to a particular on due to it being workers comp. WC only authorized the initial evaluation. 2 days before I went, I went to my spine surgeon and he told me he wanted surgery. I told him OK, he wrote me my scripts and told me he would get the paperwork filled out and we would take it from there. I still went to Pain Management and she wanted me off of all my meds and referred me for her multidisciplinary treatment. WC didn't authorize it pending surgery. My dr. had sent me to PM to pick up on my meds. She didn't prescribe on first visit and nor did I need her to. My spine surgeon refuses to fill my scripts now because PM should do it. PM won't do it because I was only authorized for the first visit. What do I do?

[Heather3418]

I don't know what in the world you are going to do.  You certainly cannot just STOP taking all your medications.  Is there anyone with WC that can answer that question for you?  You need your pain medication.  

I hope that things get resolved for you quickly, Anjel.  I don't know what I would do if something like that happened to me.  Luckily, for now; I have good insurance that will take care of all my presciption and office visit needs, without question.

Please keep us posted...

Best Wishes, Heather3418

[anjel75]

As of now. I was taking Lyrica 75mg BID and Hydro/APAP 7.5 2 TID. Lucky for me, I had went to my family doc a little while back and she wanted me to up the dosage, so she gave me the samples in office and I upped them to TID until the samples ran out. She wrote me a script but I told them to put it on file due to samples and I wasn't going to "up" it forever. So, yesterday I called the pharmacy and told them to run it under my WC insurance and it was approved. So, I have 90 count of Lyrica. If I take that BID like my WC doc ordered, I will have enough for 45 days. I know this will look sketchy to Pain Management when I go back that I am not taking them like my family doc ordered, but I don't care because she has pretty much refused to help me until I get to her next week. I am out of the Hydros altogether. The pain is very bad but if I lay around, it makes it worse. So, the first 5 minutes on the treadmill, I just really cry but the more I walk, the better I am. I have to walk or I will be really bad during the day.
I get up at 3:30am to take my meds, by 4 I get up to walk, 4:30 or 4:45 I am in the floor for my crunches and the exercises that PT has shown me. It is hard, but I keep going. At 5-5:30 it is shower time, 6 make-up, 6:30 wake up oldest daughter for her shower and I do my hair at this time so I can keep an eye on her. She will get in that shower and stand there if I am not in there to watch. 7 it is time to wake up baby, give her all of her meds(allergy and sinus infection that normal antibiotics won't touch). Omnicef, liquid so that goes well, but then it is time to spray her nose. This is a struggle. The Singulair powder! I have started putting it in cake frosting and faking her out. 7:30 time for hubby to get up for shower and at this time I can get dressed. 7:45 out the door to drop daughter off at school and get to work by 8. Work till 5 no lunch because I have to save all of my time for appts. for me and daughter. Leave at five or sometimes after go pick up daughter, most of the time rush her for softball practice, feed baby when at the ball field. Stop get oldest something to eat after, get home, bathe little one, get them both to bed after coating little one up with Vasoline and salve for Ecxema, then I can eat or sleep or whatever. IF the house work has been done enoguh to get by for a while. This is about 9 pm. Go to bed at like 10 and get up the next morning and do it all over. This is a hard schedule for anyone. I have Moderate DDD, Facet Syndrome, now 2 disc bulges, one with a tear in the annulus. Can you imagine how I have been getting by without pain meds? I am allergic to NSAIDS, but have been popping them without hesitation for the extreme damage I am doing... Thank you for you response!

[Heather3418]

With a schedule like that, I would hurt, even if I didn't have a disease that causes pain...in MY case. (remember? MS)

I am glad that you were smart enough to put some scripts on file for later use.  Just think what would have happened if you hadn't done that.  You would be going through some hellacious withdrawal.  I frankly don't seen how you are getting by, without your Hydrocodone.

I am glad that WC approved your meds.  Now who is going to prescribe the Hydro?

Heather3418

[anjel75]

I don't think anyone will. My spine surgeon won't because he turned that over to the Pain Management, and she won't because I am not technically her patient yet due to only being approved for the intial eval. I "sneaked" with the Lyrica refill and I don't think I would be able to do it again. One coming through under another docs name would be different if they all would. They would question it and then probably drop me. At this point, I am ready to be dropped in a way. In another way, I want them to know what they are putting me and my family through.

I have a friend, distant though, who was diagnosed with MS. She mustve been bad when I saw her, she was in a wheelchair. Let me tell you something else though, an dI know that you guys go through "bouts" of time when you are OK and when you are really bad. I am in the medical field as far as medical records. I used to work at a nursing home and there was a lady there that one of her diagnosis was MS. She was permanently in a wheelchair. She was so bad that is the only way she got in to a nursing home. She was not even 50. She had other diagnosis but nothing that would justify wheelchair except MS. We all knew she would put on a show. Drama, you know... She had pseudoseizures as well. Pseudo means false. When she would go out to the ER because of one of her really bad seizures, she would test positive for pot. She would swear she doesn't know how but she would, every time. Anyway, my husband and I saw her last week at a chinese buffet. Not even a limp!!! That is why that doctors are the way they are. Prime example!

[Heather3418]

Anjel.

I know that there are people out there that "fake" alot of their physical problems, but in defense of those of us that don't...people with MS can be using a walker one week and walk totally unaided the next week.  I am serious.  MS is a flaky disease.

When I was first diagnosed with MS 11 years ago, my first "attack" resulted in me walking with the aid of a walker.  Today, you wouldn't even be able to tell that I have MS, unless I told you...BUT, the chronic pain that I have to deal with, day in and day out, is something that weighs heavily on my quality of life.  I am one of the lucky ones, despite have many lesions caused by MS in my brain and one in my spinal cord...I can walk unaided.  How cool is that?  Add the MS into my mixture of bone spurs on every vertebra, two bulging disks in my lower back and a benign Lipoma in my lower spine and that's why I believe I need strong pain killers to make it through the day.  Without the use of medication, I would have no quality of life.  It would be unbearable.  I am so thankful that I live in the day and age of medications, that can give me a chance of a relatively "normal" life.  I thank the man "upstairs."

Despite the pain I deal with 24/7, I try to always be considerate and understanding of anyone elses life...that is burdened with pain   I am grateful for a forum such as this, where we are able to share our experiences, good and bad; with each other and to offer each other support...It's SO important to know that we don't suffer alone...

Try to have a good weekend, Anjel.  I am saying a prayer for you.  You have your hands full, that's for sure.  Hope you are feeling better, soon.

Best Wishes, Heather

[anjel75]

That is the way my friend Carmen was. I don't think she is always in the WC but she has it if she needs it. I am so oblivious to this disease, I get it and the one that Montel Williams has so confused. I too, feel for you.
While dropping off my daughter at school yesterday, she asked me if my back was hurting badly. I told her yes and she said why can't you just go home and not work? I told her that God only gives so many days and it is up to us how we live it! I told her that I wasn't gonna let some silly old pain keep me from doing what I need to do for my family. I told her that there is alwys someone out there with a worse story. We went down the line of people who were worse off than the worst. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeves is where we wrapped it up. I told her that while he was living, he fought against his disabilities enough to be able to communicate even though he was completely paralyzed. I told her that his "blessing" was he had money. I told her he used that money to fund research into his disability. Same with Fox and Williams. Hats off to them! I don't have much money and even less now this has happened but God has given me enough strength and money to get by. True that I put on the happy face most of the time and then go to the restroom or somewhere and cry and do pelvic tilts but I am not in the house in the bed and that is something. I have hope. They have tried to rob me of that. Hope is what is getting me through the pain. I am hoping that the pain is so bad due to my body being used to this med and once the W/D which isn't bad except for the excruciating pain, that maybe I will learn my pain isn't as bad as I thought. That it was just the med fooling it. I don't know. Do I sound stupid?