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Chronic Back Pain With Arthritis. All I Get Is Ibuprofen And Motrin

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I was in my VA pain clinic and they would only give me NSAIDS......my VA Pcm even had me on higher meds but still just tramadol.......however, the NSAIDS aggrevated my SC'd GERD but the pain clinic wouldn't give me anything else until I gave them my Gastro recrods, I never gave them my Gastro records but a note from my doctors office saying no nsaids and numerous other meds...needless to say I never went back to the pain clinic but I should have. I did have a referal to the crazy pain doctor but did not know enough about him to go.

anyhow I really do need some meds but not sure how to go about it since i have a new va pcm who sucks.

Tell them you want a referral to the pain clinic. Just remember that if and when you start to take narcotic pain meds that you will develope a tolerance. You will need more of the drug to deal with the pain and the VA will probably not want to increase your amount of narcotic without a knockdown, dragout fight. The VA will never be reliable when it comes to getting your pain meds to you on time. Get them from a private doctor if you can. Do you have other insurance besides the VA like medicare?

Edited by yelloownumber5
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I have been through pain clinics both at private hospitals (since 1989), and the VA. The VA pain clinic program took about 2 years to get into (when I started getting the referals from my primary)...

I had to wait until my pancreas disease stabilized before I could go in sooner... so I had to wait a long time...

I currently not only take morphine for lots of pain all over, in and out, but also get shots in my back..

one of the requirements to get these injections, is that I cannot be taking anti-biotics, nor have an infection...

(The stuff they injuect can carry these problems into the spine and really destroy your body..)

I have degenerative disc disease, arhtritis, etc... have had a back operation many years ago to remove a broken disc (L-4)...

I get an injection every 90 days.. it wears off with time..

I would never stop the treatments, because it takes a long time to get into these programs...

a few minutes of these injections in a surgical procedure is a small price to pay for moderate relief... better than crawling and crying...

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Tell them you want a referral to the pain clinic. Just remember that if and when you start to take narcotic pain meds that you will develope a tolerance. You will need more of the drug to deal with the pain and the VA will probably not want to increase your amount of narcotic without a knockdown, dragout fight. The VA will never be reliable when it comes to getting your pain meds to you on time. Get them from a private doctor if you can. Do you have other insurance besides the VA like medicare?

I have been taking narcotics for pain for 20 years.. and have even been on pain pumps... and cant definitely say, every pain pill is knock-down drag out fight,, getting a pain pill 3 days earlyis a nock-down drag out fight.. I have had to go to the enrgencyu room in withdrawls several times of the years when I was shorted or ran out with stuff eithye rnot order, lost in the mail.. in a corner in a dark room crying in pain in withdrawls waiting for the meds..

just a couple weeks ago, I was short one of my pain meds and had an infection in my intestines... I called and begged my doctor to get them to me on time, and told them I was shorted a couple months backs which finally caught up.. they refused to mail them to me this week, and I have to drive one hour hext week to pick them up so I don't run out while they are in the mail. Theywil not budge one or 2 days on pain meds,, it's insnae the way people are treated on pain meds, like criminals..

I have not had an an increas ein my pain meds in many many years, and though my tolerance has gone way up, I must live with what they give me..

I was once taking morhine by pump, and then I had injections and pump with Dilaudid... then went back to hourly injectionsof morhin and a pump, then back to pill for several times a day...

I get no increase...

necrotizing pancreatitis, degenerative disc disease.. nerv diseases... etc..

just live on both immediate release and srt morphine..

which enables me to eat and function... until the day I die..

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The part I don't like most about the VAs pain management policies is the requirement of a monthly check up and discussion at the pain clinic. In the Navy, after my injury, they tried to accommodate my pain in a manner that was conducive to recovery and living, but the VA seems to think that every vet is attempting to score dope to get high. What about the litany of of traumatic injuries and chronic diseases that require medications of a strong nature? Sir, you must jump through five more hoops before we'll considering treating your pain!

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I am on what is called the "opioid program" which means I gets refills every month without having to see the pain clinic. The pain clinic doctors changed my scripts every month. Some said opiates were terrible and some thought they were a useful alternative. It was a fight every month. Now I am "stable" I just get the same amount every month. I found out you must use less that what they prescribe or the dope will stop working. If I have a good day I use less and if I have a bad day I use more. The way to get what you want is to go to all your appointments and try whatever they suggest. Pretty soon they write you off as a person with incurable chronic pain.

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I have had several knee and ankle surgies on both knees and ankles to stablize and repair ligaments that were torn with broken bones and compound fractures, ruptured cartilage and torn cartilage. Now 5 years later - most of the damage has been reparied but the lingering affects are still there with bone grinding on bone since there is no cartilage in areas. rhumitoid arthritis has set in and some of the ligaments need to be redone. they lock and pop due to floating cartiliage and bone frags that are still left over. The doc's won't prescribe pain pills because of PTSD and depression saying that I can't be on them due to I may get depend on them as is a symtpom with depression. and i am already taking narcotics with the depression meds so it's not a good idea to mix pain meds with depression meds. so they give me motrin and some sort of sulindac which doesn't work at all. i ask to be changed but they still say no. and we wait and wait for an ortho appointment that never seems to come. so i sit and i suffer.

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