Back Pain Support Group
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical care. In fact, about 3 in 4 adults will experience back pain during their lifetime! The term back pain includes pain affecting the neck, midback and low back. Acute back pain may begin suddenly with intense pain but typically lasts fewer than three months. Usually, chronic back pain is persistent, steady, and...
Hi all, thanks for the good advice and kind words.
My back pain/spasm starting in mid March.....I was hospitalized for 5 days because of intensity of pain. They found spasms in muscle and nerves.....but could not locate origin....whatever that means.
I trusted the dr's in hospital to send me to back pain clinic. I started going and at first was treated very well...back therapist tried light exercise type stuff but because of the intensity of my pain he could not do much. So I went for 3 weeks. The 4th visit the therapist wanted me to do some exercise with my legs, I told him I had a bad knee and the exercise hurt the knee...it seemed he didn't believe me and and then said "who told you that".... I explained to him that I dislocated my knee 1 1/2 yrs ago, that I developed a blood clot which lead to a pulmonary embolism and so the ortho could not perform much needed surgery and thus my knee healed wrong and so my ortho said be careful with the knee and do not do anything that hurts it....
Well this lead to the physical therapist reporting that I must see a pain pyschologist because he thought that....he never said it to me but had a nurse call me and say no more physical appts til I see the shrink.
I was upset but went ahead and met with the psychologist...who said I do not need psycho therapy, I need physical therapy for my back and all the meds I take are appropriate for the back issues...made no sense to the psych that I was even sent there....he said he would send a long letter to the therapist stating this...no psych problems, physical therapy along with pain meds more appropriate.
So I was starting to feel a little better with the physical therapy and was not needing the meds so much....and boom...all of a sudden no physical therapy appts....pushed me back 2 weeks to original bad back pain.
Today I asked for a refill of a lesser pain med that i have been using for a recent arm surgery and all of a sudden I get the surgeons saying oh no you already have strong pain meds use those......I am soo pissed that again, my dr did not bother to talk to me, even after we had this conversation last month about what meds I take what was working and they agreed it was such a low dose of pain meds that it was no problem, call them if I need refill.......well I called and they say no can do.....just like that, try to cut me off without explanation or consideration.
Today was one of the worst back and elbow pain days I have had in the last month. And dr did not want to help.
What to do? I do not want to go to ER......I cried for 5 hrs at work, could not get up to leave, soooo much pain.
Why are they doing this? Dr's are backwards.....I depend on them to listen and help with my decision making on what is working for me and listen when I say that I have extreme pain now again since I did not get back therapy for 2 weeks.
What would you guys do? I have Kaiser....I feel like I am just getting lost and mixed up because they don't want to give meds to people who really need them.
I am only 1 3/4 months out of hospital...for all I know I can get worse end up back in hospital or get better with proper therapy and pain meds.
It seems like my honesty was taken for granted.
What do you think I should do next? Please any advice or kind words of some encouragement is helpful.
R. Leslie
My back pain/spasm starting in mid March.....I was hospitalized for 5 days because of intensity of pain. They found spasms in muscle and nerves.....but could not locate origin....whatever that means.
I trusted the dr's in hospital to send me to back pain clinic. I started going and at first was treated very well...back therapist tried light exercise type stuff but because of the intensity of my pain he could not do much. So I went for 3 weeks. The 4th visit the therapist wanted me to do some exercise with my legs, I told him I had a bad knee and the exercise hurt the knee...it seemed he didn't believe me and and then said "who told you that".... I explained to him that I dislocated my knee 1 1/2 yrs ago, that I developed a blood clot which lead to a pulmonary embolism and so the ortho could not perform much needed surgery and thus my knee healed wrong and so my ortho said be careful with the knee and do not do anything that hurts it....
Well this lead to the physical therapist reporting that I must see a pain pyschologist because he thought that....he never said it to me but had a nurse call me and say no more physical appts til I see the shrink.
I was upset but went ahead and met with the psychologist...who said I do not need psycho therapy, I need physical therapy for my back and all the meds I take are appropriate for the back issues...made no sense to the psych that I was even sent there....he said he would send a long letter to the therapist stating this...no psych problems, physical therapy along with pain meds more appropriate.
So I was starting to feel a little better with the physical therapy and was not needing the meds so much....and boom...all of a sudden no physical therapy appts....pushed me back 2 weeks to original bad back pain.
Today I asked for a refill of a lesser pain med that i have been using for a recent arm surgery and all of a sudden I get the surgeons saying oh no you already have strong pain meds use those......I am soo pissed that again, my dr did not bother to talk to me, even after we had this conversation last month about what meds I take what was working and they agreed it was such a low dose of pain meds that it was no problem, call them if I need refill.......well I called and they say no can do.....just like that, try to cut me off without explanation or consideration.
Today was one of the worst back and elbow pain days I have had in the last month. And dr did not want to help.
What to do? I do not want to go to ER......I cried for 5 hrs at work, could not get up to leave, soooo much pain.
Why are they doing this? Dr's are backwards.....I depend on them to listen and help with my decision making on what is working for me and listen when I say that I have extreme pain now again since I did not get back therapy for 2 weeks.
What would you guys do? I have Kaiser....I feel like I am just getting lost and mixed up because they don't want to give meds to people who really need them.
I am only 1 3/4 months out of hospital...for all I know I can get worse end up back in hospital or get better with proper therapy and pain meds.
It seems like my honesty was taken for granted.
What do you think I should do next? Please any advice or kind words of some encouragement is helpful.
R. Leslie
Do you have a pain management Doctor? If you don't you need to ask your GP for a referral, that way you only have one doctor that prescribes all of the pain meds.
Surgeons only give patient's about 3 to 4 weeks of pain meds, and if you are in more or same pain after that, they want the patient to get meds from another source, which is usually a PM Doctor. Call your Doctor's office and explain to them, calmly and clear in the situation that you are in, and then ask them for a referral to a PM Doctor, if they refuse to give you one, then call your GP and ask him for the referral
Pain management needs to be done by a PM expert, they know what to do, how to do it, and what works, and what doesn't. Take care, and I hope that you get some help soon.
I did ask who or if I had a pain mngmt dr.....to my surprise all my doctors ran around for the last 2 days blaming or naming others and no one was still helping.
I saw my primary today he said back dr suppose to be pain mgmnt dr and I said, that's funny cause he said you are suppose to be....anyways, I have a hot temper so I said to my primary "ok so either he's lying to you and me or your lying to me"...he's been my primary for 15 yrs so he knows me....he said, no I am not lying...back dr supposed to be.
Well, after several emails and phone calls to all and to the member services, I get the back dr to finally say he will give me a prescription for what I was already taking and so on.
I can't believe all the mess. My heart is broken for not only me but for all others that have to go through this. It's bad enough that we can stand, sit, walk or sleep at times; but to be tossed around with no care for the human condition is unreal to me. I am a social worker, so I can advocate.....it was hard for me to do for my self with all my skills and advance education. I hurt for all that maybe don't understand the language clearly or can't communicate for whatever reason is there frustration and pain.
This site comforts me, I want to do more though. I asked if the HMO has a "patient's rights" advocacy group...no response...I asked who governs patients rights....no response....I asked who their board of directors where...well, I can probably find out.
Long reply, just wanted to share and say thanks for the advice!