Pain Meds-Debbie

[Guest guest]

Hi Debbie:

Even though I have a firm diagnosis of SOD and CP, the pain specialist

refers to me as having " severe, recurrent chronic RUQ abdominal pain. " I

know it's kind of splitting hairs, but I would rather he used the correct

diagnosis. He has about 50 patients with " abdominal pain " ranging from IBS,

Crone's Disease, calcified pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and idiopathic

abdominal pain. He is very familiar with the medications that work.

The first time I went into see him, I had been without any medication for 24

hours (I take every day, usually). I was in very bad shape. My husband had

to drive me, while I lay in the back seat. When I am in alot of pain, the

worse position is sitting, in fact it's almost impossible. As we waited to

see the doctor, I lay in the car because they didn't have an examination

room available. They took a picture of me for my file. The next time I

came in they showed it to me, how pitiful did I look? Pretty pitiful.

Anyway, I didn't participate in that first appointment very much. My

husband tried to tell him everything, but Dr. Samora just said we need to

get medication back into her system for the next two weeks, then come back

and we'll talk. My husband really liked him right off the bat. We had

really taken a leap of faith changing doctors, what if he didn't want to

give me medication? But so far it's worked out really well. And it's not

just that he is good with medications, he understands. I think it was good

he saw me in pain, though, because as he said, " you need medication every

single day just to function, and I don't want to see you ever like you were

when you came in here. " I have seen him twice since my first appointment,

and he can't get over the difference. I can actually function and look

pretty normal!

And I hear you about the ERCP, my condition is always worse after one. I've

only had 2 but neither one was a good experience. Except that it was the

first one that finally provided me with a diagnosis. It showed high basal

scores from the mamometry, as well as blockage from sludge. So they cut the

sphincter (which pretty much cured that problem) and put in a stent (I don't

think that it helped very much at all). When he did the second ERCP he found

a stricture in the duct, as well as more blockage from scar tissue.

Fortunately he knows enough about cp that he knows he has to listen to the

patient and go by symptoms, not entirely base his diagnosis on test results.

Since the second ERCP, I have been feeling pretty rotten ever since. I

spoke to him last week, and he said he thought it was time to actually have

surgery to correct my drainage problem. He just can't do much with a scope.

I am all for it, except I'm dreading the recovery.

Anyway, I kind of rambled didn't I? Thanks everyone for listening, guess I

need that therapy appointment later today, huh?

Robin R.

Sr. Production Planning Specialist

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