It was fine when the pain was just the creeping achiness that curled down my leg from hip to toe. I could limp around and pretend I was brave for a week or so. It was O.K. when the sciatica attacks came once ever 9 or 10 months. I could suffer through 3 or 4 days of not being able to lift my leg.
But, goddamn it, I cannot be out of work for a week every month. I cannot spend the rest of my life walking down the street and moaning so that strangers thing I have some kind of vibrating love toy in my pants. I cannot come to work and sit at my desk and not work because I can’t move because if I do sharp, searing pains shoot about my ass like lightning bolts of molten terror.
Three days rest and then moderate exercize is not cutting it anymore! I’ve told you that more than once the 3 time I visited you in the last 4 months. I am personally responsible for any increase in Moltrin’s stock since I go through 2 bottles of that crap in less than a week.
If you are the kind and caring doctor you say you are you’d shoot me now. Yea, would be nice. “I don’t think stronger painkillers a warrented,” You’d say for the thousandth time, “Would like to hear the story about the rabbits again?”
If you’re going through that much Motrin OTC, you’ve got it. Your doctor should be listening closely to that quantity, and advising accordingly, since (not that you need something else to worry about) there’s potential other nasty side effects from it. I used to take great quantities myself, weaned self off same, but my level of pain is no where near yours.
Ask for a referral to a pain management specialist. you deserve better.
I am all over that! Me: Migraines. No, let me make that MIGRAINES!
I tried Imatrex[sup]tm[/sup], I tried bio-feedback, I gave up chocolate, nuts, and onions. I don’t drink anymore. I’m reponsible for any increase in the stock of Excedrin Migraine[sup]tm[/sup] formula.
I’ll eat Advil like it’s candy. Does any of this help? - NO!
The only thing that keeps me going is my daughter all because those fucking doctors treat narcotics like they were are potentially the end of civilization as we know it.
What are these things for, if not for extreme suffering? Oh, sure, legalize booze which kills so many people directly and indirectly every year. And cigarettes, too. What’s a few hundred cancer deaths a year. But let a doctor prescribe me the medication that would end my suffering? Noooooo.
It’s ludicrous to think a grown man or woman can’t be the judge of how much pain they are in.
They make Demerol[sup]tm[/sup] tablets. I have enough trouble getting vicodine (which won’t even make a dent in my headaches). I can only imagine that you you have to actually severe your head to get those.
All you doctors that are not in pain and not prescribing narcotics for people who are, kiss my rosey red patooty over and over and over…
FYI: I’ve had back problems for a long time, and one of the problems was sciatica. It fucking sucks big time- it got so bad I had trouble walking at all without shooting pain, knee buckling, etc.
Get thee to a different doctor, first and foremost. Then, get thee to some physical therapy so they can help you. Some good massage, ultrasound, and heat might make a world of difference.
I hear ya, Biggirl! I thought about you last week when I had a really bad sciatica attack while visiting Spider Woman and imthjckaz. I spend the Sunday morning we were to leave in the St. Cloud emergency room, getting an injection of Demerol.
My doctor is actually pretty cool. She listens to me and she makes me feel like a partner in my own health. She is the type of doc who gives you three different plans of action and then helps you decide which is the best course to take. I wouldn’t change her for anything.
Except for this. It’s almost as if she has some philisophical problem with perscribing pain killers for back pain. But. . . she has given me a referal to a chiropractor. I’m going to the chiro my husband went to when he was suffering from back spasms. He had no problem perscribing pain killers for my husband.
Added upon preview: Hi Cajun Man! They give you shots for this? I never thought to go to the ER, even when the stupid leg starts to tremble and I fall down.
I have a white and pure burning hatred for poor doctors who don’t understand what I see to be their goal, which is to keep people functioning well. Chronic pain is not functioning well. This is no time to get touchy feely about drugs.
When Cajun Man was in the emergency room for sciatica problems, they suggested surgery. I am not a big advocate of back surgery, because I have heard that it doesn’t always work. Has your doctor talked to you about this?
warmgun, it is easier for you to get Vicodin than Demerol?!? Damn, the times have changed. If Vic won’t make a dent on your pain, don’t bother with Demerol, it’s toothache-level shit at best. Besides, I thought people were much more frightened of Vic addiction than they ever were of Demerol addiction.
At least, that’s what I remember from my narcotic daze… er, days.
PS- for a sec, I thought this might be a labor pain thread. My labor the first time was such that I may have endangered a nurse’s life convincing her it really WAS time for some IV bliss…
Are you sure about that? Once I had to got to the emergency room for a particularly bad migraine and they gave me a shot of 100 mg of Demerol and it went away in about 15 minutes (and $250.00s) later.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what I though they gave me.
Have you had an MRI? My husband had terrible back pain, and the doctors prescribed physical therapy and ibuprofen to no avail. He finally went to a back specialist. He had the MRI, and it was immediately obvious what was wrong with him. Unfortunately, he did need surgery–but he woke up from the surgery with a smile on his face because he was out of pain for the first time in memory.
My GF has Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy due to a bunch of neuromas in her leg. Her latest pain doctor put her on a Methadone and Chlonidine (sp?) regimen, with a couple of epidurals thrown in for good measure. It’s starting to work, thankfully.
The pain doc before this one put her on oxycodone for two weeks, decided that drugs weren’t a good idea, and prescribed physical therapy and counseling (in addition to her own shrink.) He spent more time worrying about the possibility that she might become addicted to her medication than he did actually treating her pain. She told him to get fucked, but quick.
Yes, she now gets withdrawal when she skips the methadone for a couple of days. Big deal. At least she’s not confined to bed because of the pain any more.
My advice: make appointments at several pain care clinics. If they emphasize coping skills rather than treatment, ditch them and move to the next one on the list.
That sucks. I have a lot of pain problems too… bad knees, bad back, bad teeth, RSI in my arms/hands… my HMO sucks though. 90% of the time I make an appointment I don’t even get to see a doctor, just some “doctor assistant” guy. When I do get to see a doctor, he is very dismissive and tells me to deal with it. I’ve never gotten a pain med script from them EVER. My dentist, on the other hand, is wonderful. He knows about my knees, and when I get pain meds for one of my (many) root canals or such, he gives me an extra prescription because “wink wink” my teeth still hurt after the first one runs out. I keep the second bottle of pills stashed for flareups… but 10 vicodin pills don’t cover much when you have 4 months of joint pain to cover with them
Ahhhh. I am walking without limping today. Just a little left over soreness. If I’m very careful and don’t aggravate it, I should be fine until I see the chiro in two weeks.
Never had an MRI. My doc thinks (from the way I walk, where the pain begins and the way the pain flares up) that my sciatic nerve missed the little opening nature intended it to go through and goes through the muscle in my back and pelvis. This is why she thinks OTC anti-inflamation meds should be O.K.
I see my doc is not the only one reluctant to perscribe pain meds for chronic pain. While I’m in agony I think addiction would be a fine, fine condition to be in. Once the pain subsides I always hope it’ll never come back again and I won’t have to even think about addiction.
Everyone take care of yourselves, all right? I’ll be off to see the chiropractor who isn’t afraid to give pain meds when his patients are in pain.
Biggirl, dear, I hope you find something to make this better, and maybe that chiropractor CAN help . . . But promise me, if he so much as whispers the word “subluxations,” you will limp out of his office as fast as your aching back can carry you?
biggirl, I have a real low threshold for ordering MRI scans on anyone with persistant/recurrent symptoms of sciatica. The only way to really understand what is and is not going on is to know the anatomy, and the only way I think that I can do that is to use MRI. I also order a lot of EMGs and Nerve Conduction Studies on my patients, to see whether the nerve function is really being compromised. Then if these tests show something I’ll send my patient to the anesthesiologist for consideration of epidural injections or nerve blocks, and also send them to the neurosurgeon if indicated, to see if there’s anything that neurosurgery can offer.
If this testing is complete, shows pathology, and appropriate treatment for the condition is being initiated, I have no problem with considering using opiate pain killers to manage the chronic pain in select (non-alcoholic, non-addict) patients, if they’re willing to be re-examined by me every 3 months, and discuss any change in their narcotic medication requirements with me first.
YMMV. But the above points would be legitimate topics of discussion between a patient and their physician. IMHO. Feel free to email me. I won’t be hurt if you ignore me completely either.
