Help with Pain

[LadyJenna]

Hi. I'm need to this site and feeling very alone and frustrated.  I am in pain pretty much all of the time. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, but I also have other medical conditions.  I h as been chronic IBS with constipation, even though I do use colace,  miralax,  metamucil and sometimes fleet suppositories or dulcolax.  I have a history of surgical interventions from Endometriosis,  and I have arthritis in my knees and neck, and I suspect that I have it in my back too. I have a lot of low back problems too and hip issues.  The spine of my neck is curved the wrong way, called reverse lordosis,  which showed up on my My Chart records after an X-ray was done.  I have a lot of different like D's of pain and this has been going on for 5 years.  There's actually more, but I've said enough to give a summary anyway.  My legs hurt alot all the time and lately,  the pain in my lower back is worse. It runs down through my buttocks and down the back of my leg.  There's no break from it. I have bad balance and fell about two months ago and this started.  It goes down to my two last toes on the right foot.  This among a lot of other pain and issues is sending me over the edge.  My pain management doc has referred me to a comprehensive pain management therapy at another hospital that my insurance doesn't cover.  Other than that,  he gives me Lyrics and Cymbalta, which probably helps some,  but I'm still in lots of pain.He also sends me for monthly infusion treatments where they use a general anesthetic and an anti inflammatory through an IV.  These help some for a few days too. His stance is that narcotics don't help fibromyalgia.  I happen to know that they do help me because I had two surgeries a few months apart a couple of years ago. One for the removal of a later e endometrial cyst along with my ovary and tubes. The other was an abdominal hernia where mesh was put in my stomach.  I was  on narcotics after each of these procedures and they really helped me with all of my pain issues. I am unable to work and receiving Medicaid.  I changed my medicaid plan to one that covers this comprehensive pain therapy the current doc wants me to go to and this will kick in the first of January.  I'm willing to try whatever they recommend, but w at if all they wanna do is what this doc is already doing?  It's not enough.  I wish these docs could spend a couple of days in my body to see how it feels.  I bet they'd be begging to get out of it just to have a breaking from the pain I'm constantly in. I went from having a pretty full life,  workibg and volunteering,  to barely being able to be out of bed much.  I've withdrawn from all activities and most of my friends.  I'm embarrassed that I'm so debilitated by this pain and I don't want the pity I see in the eyes of my family.  I don't know what to do. I am anxious,  depressed and terrified that things won't get better.  Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've tried meditation, herbal remedies of all sorts, tapping, and anything else I can find. I literally cannot be on my feet for more than 15 to 20 mins at a time before I get shakey and overwhelmed by the pain. That's on a good day. Please let me know if anyone has some helpful suggestions. The insomnia I suffer from is terrible too. The psychiatric doc I was seeing put me on ambient which Did seem to help. But she retired and the new doc said doesn't prescribe ambient because it's addictive.  She gave me trazadone which didn't put me to sleep but if I took a high enough dose it would help me stay sleeping if I was able to get there.  It also gave me terrible headaches,  for which I'm already prone,  so I quit taking it. Next was Mirtazapine.  Which also increased my headaches as well as the nausea I'm prone to having. But they Did not help me sleep and I'd wake up, when I finally Did sleep,  groggy and extremely anxious.  I didn't go back after I took myself off of that one.  After January,  I will be going to a different healthcare system and getting all new docs,  including my pcp. How I should go about this is creating a great deal of anxiety for me. Further,  I have a knee that keeps locking up or popping out of place.  I was supposed to have an MRI on it but I've been so miserable I never made the appointment. I am also supposed to return to a GYN specialist for a follow up and exam. I saw him once after m tug regular GYN referred me to him. He's a robotics specialist and she wants me to have a complete hysterectony after finding another cyst on the partial ovary I have left.  He says I've had so many surgeries already that he'd need a GPS to get through my abdomen and that I'm not a good candidate for another surgery.  He told this all the while bragging about how good e is and that I should assume if he won't didn't it t enough no one will. I didn't bother to tell him I wasn't really excited about the idea of surgery anyway. My regular GYN said it was this that was best for me, which is the only reason why I went. Anyway,  there's actually more and I could drone on but I'm sure I've already bored anyone compassionate enough to have read this far.  So I will stop for now.  Thanks for allowing me to vent. I think that helped some on its own, but once again, any advice us greatly appreciated!  

[Pattinich]

I am so sorry you are feeling this bad and understand having been in the same place.  First suggestion is to find yourself a Dr who understands Fibromyalgia and is sympathetic to you.  Hope this is possible on your new health care. Stop with the surgery unless there is no alternative and be careful of strong drugs as they all have an affect on the immune system and Fibro is an immune system dysfunction.  There are several drugs known to help symptoms of Fibro.   Cymbalta works for me too and take 40mg each morning with food.  Have found that making the effort to strengthen your immune system is the answer and there are many ways to do this.  Spend some time reading the posts on MedHelp..there are some wonderful treatments that people have found work for them.  Check out my posts if you like, you may get some ideas that have worked for me for the last 12yrs.  It has taken time but my improvement has been huge.

[S_Chaney]

Any doctor who tries to say narcotics doesn't help fibro pain is either a moron or a coward, most likely both.

Narcotics are simple, they fill the pain receptors so the pain signals can't reach their destination and be registered with your brain. So it is highly effective at doing what it is suppose to do.

The problem is not with the doctors themselves, but the governing bodies over seeing them. The DEA has proven ineffective in the war on drugs so they attack the low hanging fruit of domestic usage, not caring whether that usage is legitimate or not. They push a ridiculous propaganda campaign on the medical community, but at the same time are the first to use narcotics to manage their own pain if, lets say, if they get shot in the line of duty.

Most doctors are terrified of writing a narcotic prescription in anything but the most severe instances. Otherwise it is like an open invitation for the DEA to perform a colonoscopy on the doctor, the office and all the staff.

As for "pain management" doctors who take this stance, there is nothing more disgusting. Here they have abducted their personal and professional integrity/responsibiity because someone who isn't a medical professional pushes propaganda at them and threatens them. I can understand wanting to stay as far away from that problem as possible, but choosing to stay in that field and doing an incompetent job is immoral at best.