Finally got appt. with pain clinic

Hi ladies!

Well, I finally got my appt. with the pain clinic, after only 4 weeks of waiting - and now I only have 9 more weeks to wait - my appt. is April 30. Most days the pain is bearable, so I guess that's OK. Every now and then though, I'm out for the whole day.
It will be interesting to see what they decide to do. The doctor that I'm going to is in the Anesthesiology dept. of the pain clinic, which sounds like trigger point injections to me, but I guess I'll see.
I hope everyone is doing all right today.
's
Shelley

Dear SHelley,

I am glad you have an appointment. I hope it works for you.

Where I live the Pain Clinics are all staffed by anesthesiologist. The PM I saw was also an anesthesiologist with special training in pain management. He does medical therapy (ie. Oxycodone, Methadone etc.) as well as referring to counseling and doing injections and nerve blocks. In fact, before he prescribes the really addictive narcotics he requires that you see one of the counselors he works with... and then keep that up periodically during the time that you are on the drugs. His view is that he is willing to prescribe the drugs needed but he wants to do as much as possible to avoid or minimize people ending up with another problem when they are trying to relieve the pain (ie. addiction). It made sense to me.

The other thing that I noticed was that he did not "spot treat" but was interested in life style issues that contribute to pain, ie. lack of sleep, stress, poor diet, unsupportive home environment. His view was that every little bit helps to reduce pain, and the above mentioned can cause bearable pain to become unbearable.

This PM didn't do the trigger points on me (I did have that done by a GYN) but did two presacral nerve blocks.

Best of luck!!



Sarah

Hi Sarah

There are other doctors in the clinic as well - psychology, neurology, physical medicine and rehab. I guess they all work together. I think the doctor I'm going to is a women!!
She has a hyphenated last name and first name Pat, so really it could go either way, but I'm hoping it's a woman - I'm so much more comfortable and able to express things with a woman doctor. I sure hope this works, I've gotten my hopes up and then had no success so many times. I guess you probably know the feeling, as well as many others.
I hope you're feeling well, and recovering nicely from your surgery.
Shelley

Shelley,
I'm glad you finally got an appointment! I am sorry that you have to wait so long, hopefully it will be worth the wait. Did you ask to be put on a cancellation list? Some clinics have such a list for when people call and cancel and will call you to come in sooner. Whenever I've had to wait a long time for an appt I always ask about a cancellation list.

Many anestheologists work in the pain control field. My first pain doc was an anestheologist.

Good luck!