Re: Frustration continues to Bob

[Guest guest]

Dear Bob,

I am truly sorry for all of your troubles. It can be a touch and go

situation with pain managment clinics. It seems that some have

different philosophies than others, some want to get you off all

the narcotics and treat with exercise, therapy, counseling and

non-opiods. Others, especially those that handle a lot of CP

patients and patients with chronic, terminal pain illnesses,

understand the pain and are more interested in treating the

patients pain, so that he or she can regain some function and

substance in living. It's usually the latter group that will treat with

suitable opiods and other beneficial therapy.

If you're at a dead end with this doctor, all I can suggest is that

it's time to find a new doctor. If he feels that he can't treat you

more aggressively for your pain issues, and will only refer you to

a clinic who also only follows their own adgenda, then it's time to

move on. Many of us have had to do this, to change doctors

when our treatment reached a dead end with the one who had

been treating us. It's difficult, and often means nearly starting all

over again from the beginning until you can build up trust and

understanding between the patient and practitioner, but if you

can find a good one, it's worth it, and it can help to turn your life

around.

Would finding another specialist be covered with your insurance

company? You didn't mention your location. If you tell us where

you are, it may be that one of us may know of a doctor in your

area that treats CP patients. We also have a list of

knowledgeable doctors in our files that may be in your region.

Lastly, I am a member of another chronic pain group on the web

that may be able to assist you in your doctor search. They have

referrals to numberous pain mangement clinics and doctors

who treat chronic pain issues with compassion and success. If

you would like to write to my email address offline, I'd be happy

to give you their web address.

I'm sorry to hear about your tooth. Unfortunately, this disease

wrecks havoc on our teeth and many of us have had similar

experiences. I've got two right now that are due to break any day,

I've just been prolonging it best I can because (as I'm sure you

well know) the expense of the dental work to fix these problems

is enough to pay for your dentist's kid's first year at college. I'm

sure that my problems a couple years ago paid for my dentist's

boys' first two years at Auburn. So that probably means that this

year's work will probably pay for his graduation year and his

summer trip abroad!!

Let us know how we can help you. We're here to support you

with our experience and our understanding as much as we can.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

http://www.pancassociation.org/anthology.htm#Heidi

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and

should not be

substituted for professional medical consultation.