Well, I just got back from my pain clinic appointment. It was interesting. This first visit consisted of an hour long evaluation with a doctor. He evaluates my situation and then makes his recommendations to my pcp who takes over the treatment. This doctor concentrated mainly on the muscular-skeletal system, which is understandable considering the fact he is a DO. It turns out that my MRI was not normal, even though this is what the pcp office told me. I have two bulging discs, L4 and L5 I believe, and 2 hypertrophied something or others that start with an "f". He explained that many people in the general population have this and have no problems at all, but it *could* be an explanation for my pain and therefore should be looked into. He also said he was recommending I start on Celebrex, one of the new antinflammatories that work better with less side effects. Another recommendation was a physical therapy consult which would address the problems of psoas muscle disorder and the like. He also mentioned injections into these problem areas. He was not concentrating on what he referred to as *intraabdominal issues* because he felt the best in the area have already adressed those issues. (adhesions, hernia, etc.) This is okay with me. We can always go back to the intrabdominal issues if the muscular-skeletal approach does not work. Okay, here's where I lost it. I left the pain clinic, came home and called my pcp to ask him to start a trial of Celebrex. I just got a call back from his nurse and he said No, he would rather wait for the full report from the pain clinic. She asked if I could ask the pain clinic to fax the report over, not realizing of course that I had seen the doctor just one hour before and I know this is a ridiculous expectation. Well, I went ballistic. I told her to let him know I was NOT happy about this and also NOT happy they told me the MRI was normal when in fact it was not. I deserved more of an explanation than what I got!!!! So I get off the phone and tried to calm down. What to do? Call the pain clinic and ask them if they'd give a verbal report over the phone. She said she'd get back to me. I told her that what I was going to do was increase my ibuprofen (which the pcp told me not to do)and risk putting a hole in my gut!!!!! Well, I'm waiting for the pain clinic to call back. Am I being unreasonable? I don't think so, and I've waited a long time. I know those reading this may be wondering why I am so determined that this not be due to adhesions when this is an adhesion board. I guess I just want to emphasize how you really have to look at other possibilities (keep an open mind as my pcp once said, ha he should talk) You can have more than one problem. (adhesions plus something else) If you put all the blame on the adhesions you could miss something that if taken care of, could reduce your pain. In the end, in my case it could turn out to be the adhesions. Or I could still have adhesion pain, but much less because another problem has been taken care of. Well, thanks for listening.
-- Chris S.