To Heidi - pain psych problem

[Guest guest]

Hi Heidi,

You gave me good advice and stuff to think about. You are so

logical and rational, I wish I had that in me. When I get to doctor's

appointments I get very shy and end up not saying much. I

guess I have learned to treat doctors as adversaries rather than

partners. Too many bad experiences I guess.

I see the pain psych about two weeks before I see the pain

doctor. It will be my third psych visit. I am thinking that it may be

the last one as she seemed ambivalent about making the May

appointment. Which surprised me as in her session she

seemed very involved (ie.all that stuff I told you about getting off

pain meds) but then when she was asked about booking the

next one, she was kinda evasive.

My plan was to be cautiously optimistic with my pain doctor that

things will not change but to have some mental and procedural

preparation planned in case she starts to mention that it is time

to start a tapering schedule with the idea of stopping all meds. I

am hoping, though that the pain doc is more familiar now with

CP (and me).....but I am also afraid that because my visit to

Indiana ended up to be non-productive that this will also be held

against me. I am very sensitive, I guess, to not appear as being

non-compliant. I have done almost everything that the pain doc

has suggested...the TENS unit, the myofascial massage, the

trigger point injections, the scar release, and now the psych

sessions. I have refused certain meds that she prescribed

(muscle relaxants made me feel like I had a huge case of the flu,

elavil made my eyes go bad and gave me nightmares) but I have

also re-tried some meds that initially gave me bad side effects

(neurontin). But if you put all of them together, none of these has

really helped much and I have told her so. Cynically, I can see

how this can be viewed as me using the system to just get the

narcotics....that is, by continuing to insist that only the oxycodone

gives me some kind of a lifestyle.

I wasn't aware of the other applications for the yoga and

breathing exercises and those that you mentioned have given

me a better understanding of the approach that this pain psych

is using and maybe I can talk to her about this in a more helpful

way now (that is, be positive about using these techniques as a

way to handle the baseline pain but I can be very frank about it

not doing much good for the flares).

Thanks!

Laurie

[Guest guest]

Hi Laurie

It dont sound like your pain clinic sessions are going much better

then mine.

u cerainly hae been compliant to her suggestions and I know what you

mean about clamming up I am the same

Is there anyone youcttake with you andalo take a ist of questiosn you

wnt answered. i oten do this and i use the excu thatits easier to

rememeber, as when in pain its hard to focus. Can you take someone

with you to these sessions

Debs