need a doctor who cares

[hurtin186]

I have had severe pain for 5 yrs now. I have adhesions real bad. I had the first surgery for my apendix removed. After that the pain has never stopped. It seems like every year my doctor was going back in to remove them and instead of it getting better,I feel like I was butchered. I have been to several pain manegement doctors who keep sending me else where. No one is helping me. I thought I finally found a doctor who cared. He performed an epideral block which did nothing. I have been on some pain meds but nothing that has worked. Then this doctor wants me to see another pain management doctor. I am hopeless and thinking that all doctors don't care. I live in Ohih and would love to find a doctor who will help me. I can't live with pain any longer! Please any sugesions

[Sarajmt]

Oh, I'm so sorry. I too suffer adhesions.  Finding a doctor to treat them is really tricky.  It's possible that all this has left you with nerve damage in the abdomen.  I do take meds for nerve pain that help.

Jaybay has given you excellent advice.  You're certainly not alone.  Finding the doctor and right combination of meds has been a long process.  And very frustrating at times.  I'm not completely out of pain and never will be.  Some days I'm in bed most of the day in pain still but I am better off than before.

Keep us updated and good luck.
Sara

[Jaybay]

A few years ago, I was exactly where you are now.  Since 1998 I've battled the pain, nausea and vomiting of abdominal adhesions.  My goal was always to be cured, and certainly no doctor ever told me otherwise.  Get rid of the adhesions, go back to work, live my life until symptoms return.  Repeat.  Like you, that became an annual or even semi-annual routine, once with the added bonus of losing a couple feet of colon.

Finally, when symptoms returned within a couple weeks after my last surgery I knew that was it.  No more work.  No more active life.  No more life.  I was devastated when my surgeon referred me to pain management.  I was even more devastated when she suggested I see a pain psychologist.  Those first months were pretty rocky.

The worst problem faced by new PM patients is understanding what pain management is all about.  It is not about curing your pain.  It's about managing your pain.  Everybody on this forum still has pain in spite of throwing meds and other therapies at it.  Much as I NEVER wanted to hear it myself, at some point we all have to find a way to live with a certain amount of of pain.

It is extremely important that you have a very frank discussion with your doctor about your pain management goals.  It's not that they don't care; it's that they really don't have the tools to completely erase your pain and restore your life to what it once was.  All they can do is try to improve your situation, and much of that process is simple trial and error.

If you haven't tried psychotherapy with a pain psychologist, give it a whirl for a few sessions.  You might be pleasantly surprised.  It won't cure your pain, but you can learn some new skills to better cope with it.

There are a couple other adhesions patients here, and I hope they chime in soon.  You're not alone by a long shot.  :-)