Chronic Pain

[Steppenwolf]

I have received 180 Darvocet and 60 Percoet monthly for 4 years, and I've never heard of this form.

This is ordered by my PCP, and 2 shrinks. I suffer from CPS, back, migraines, etc.

I have never been to a "pain clinic" before; however,I have been on the waiting list for a "pain clinic"

for 1 year now and every time I call to check, she just says it hasn't been scheduled yet.

Can anyone suggest anything I can do to get my appoitment set? Please..

Not that this will help but i'm curious which VA do you use?

As far as getting an appointment i can tell you this about the VA(s) in FL. We get vets who spend the winter in FL and it clogs up the system. Then if what Betrayed said is true ( and i have no reason to doubt him ) the VA is prioritizing the incoming vets moving them to the front of the lind so to speak.

In my med-center the waiting list for accupunture is 8 months long but it seems that i've been on the list 15 months so maybe there are unwritten reasons why we all get pushed to the back of the line.

[Steppenwolf]

Title 38 Code of federal regulations Title 38: Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief

9422 is under mental disorders, specifically somatoform disorders

Somatoform Disorders

9421 Somatization disorder

9422 Pain disorder

9423 Undifferentiated somatoform disorder

9424 Conversion disorder

9425 Hypochondriasis

General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders:

Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name 100

Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a worklike setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships 70

Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships 50

Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as: depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events) 30

Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or; symptoms controlled by continuous medication 10

A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication 0

Is this a hyper link? It doesn't work on my computer. Can you post the page with the full address? ie www.xxxxxxx.com

[betrayed]

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-....1.1.5.2.109.72

[augoldminer]

Figure this one out. Some of the vets i know have found out the criteria for the pain management contract in SoCal is that you have to go through the system of the contract, If you are a cigarette smoker. A ex drug addict, Or a drinker. And by a drinker they mean two beers or more a week. Or have mental health conditions. LIKE DEPRESSION. And many people that have a chronic pain condition are depressed. Even if you are not depressed you are automatically labeled depressed just because you have a pain disorder. AND I AM NOT DEPRESSED BUT LABELED AS DEPRESSED BECAUSE I HAVE FIBROMYALGIA.

Other wise you do not have to sign the contract.

I have fibromyalgia but i am lucky that i found on my own a med that works (gabapentin) that is not a narcotic.

I know that many VA doctors think that fibromyalgia is a somatoform disorder and ignore all the research that shows that it is a central nervous system neurochemical disorder.

I am a emergency medical technician and have been since 1978 and have had to use my training to trick the VA more then once to get the meds i needed.

[Steppenwolf]

Figure this one out. Some of the vets i know have found out the criteria for the pain management contract in SoCal is that you have to go through the system of the contract, If you are a cigarette smoker. A ex drug addict, Or a drinker. And by a drinker they mean two beers or more a week. Or have mental health conditions. LIKE DEPRESSION. And many people that have a chronic pain condition are depressed. Even if you are not depressed you are automatically labeled depressed just because you have a pain disorder. AND I AM NOT DEPRESSED BUT LABELED AS DEPRESSED BECAUSE I HAVE FIBROMYALGIA.

Other wise you do not have to sign the contract.

I have fibromyalgia but i am lucky that i found on my own a med that works (gabapentin) that is not a narcotic.

I know that many VA doctors think that fibromyalgia is a somatoform disorder and ignore all the research that shows that it is a central nervous system neurochemical disorder.

I am a emergency medical technician and have been since 1978 and have had to use my training to trick the VA more then once to get the meds i needed.

Thanks for writing.

i have been told that your ailment is considered by many medical people to be "all in your head" "psycosomatic" and will treat you with any and all things approved, allowed and or associated with fibromyalgia. Once again it is my experience that doctors learn to be two faced about this condition treating you with a straight face while in your presence. Behind your back they joke about people with this condition. i have heard doctors and even chiropractors joking about people with FM. It's wrong in my opinion but what can we do? Make a hidden tape and suit the doctor?

IMHO even if a persons illness is rooted in anyway to their mind, brain, or way of thinking then it is still a disease and needs to be treated. That said i am not implying that FM is just in your head. It is my opinion that all diseases are effected by the way we think about it.

My PTSD gets triggered by any number of things, many of them are in my head and are my take on whatever....a lot of my current angst is connected to my perception of the VA and the current war as well as all the other wars where the soldiers are more or less pawns for the crazies in power.

Good luck with getting help for your FM and the VA. Keep checking in here i am working on starting a new resource of help for Veterans.

Wolf

[Steppenwolf]

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-....1.1.5.2.109.72

Sometimes i think i'm just blind or simply dense. Can you please copy and paste a few words and or a specific number for this chronic pain rating or whatever it's called. This page of: PART 4—SCHEDULE FOR RATING DISABILITIES is so long that it would take me the whole day trying to find what best applies to it and or me.

Over the past couple of months what was once called " a simple one page form " has turned into calls to several different attornies, a visit to the service officer for the DAV who gave me 28 pages of info on standard form 95, and conflicting information about how to file the form and what my rights are as they pertain to the FTCA. My "pro bono" attorny has not gotten back to me and when i told him that i have had experience with records and files disappearing as well as doctors being relocated or dismissed he wrote back to me and told me to "manage my expectations".

It's obvious that the more complex things are the harder it is to know the best and quickest way to find a solution. In many cases people just give up. The VA counts on that....that should be a crime!