Dear Lori,
I am so glad you are finally getting something to help you with the pain. 9
months is a long time to be in pain for sure. From the Drs. side, in order
to protect their licenses, they have to be sure that 1} it is not something
that can be fixed, thus all the tests and 2} only narcotic drugs will
alleviate the pain. Unfortunately, too many people that don't need these
drugs try to get them and it wrecks it for all of us that truly need them to
have a quality of life. It is not unusual for it to take many months before
the Dr. will prescribe them but it is extremely frustrating to have to wait
that long is pain. You probably have a consciences doctor though, in his
favor. Any Dr. that would give you narcotics before checking out the other
options is not doing a thorough job. At least you know, he probably is a
good doctor. I'm just glad you are finally getting some relief. I have been
on pain meds for 8 months now and went from being totally bedridden, to
having a semi-normal life back. It makes me grateful for each day that I can
even clean the toilets. The small stuff I couldn't do before, I appreciate
now. I hope it goes as well for you also. It may take several months of
trying different drugs to see what works best for you. The best advice I got
when I started on this course of having to take pain meds was from a chemical
dependency counselor. He said to monitor the pain level in my gut, not how
the drugs made my brain feel. It's a hard thing to explain. If you want,
drop me an E-mail and I'd be happy to chat with you about it. I did a lot of
research and talked to a lot of people, including my friendly local
pharmacist, before I decided this was the only option I had left.
I just pray, it works as well for you and you get the relief you need!
In friendship,
Debby