I am so over being in freaking pain every day of my life because no doctor wants to prescribe me pain medication. Im not even asking for valium or vicodin. Yes the pain medication is in the opioid class but its like the babiest of baby opioids (tramadol) and wasn’t even considered a controlled substance until about 10 yrs ago. As soon as it went into the “control” category the doctor I was seeing pulled my script. That doctor is no longer here in Bloomington and Ive been through like 3 different primary care doctors at IU because the doctors here just keep leaving or moving away or whatever. Ive had spinal surgery, it has alleviated a good amount of pain but not all. I now have plates and screws in my spine in my neck. I still have degenerative disk disease throughout my entire spine, a few bulging disks in thoracic and lumbar but not bad enough to warrant more surgery. I also have fibromyalgia, which is generally treated by a rheumatologist. I asked to be referred to one, I saw them once. They basically dismissed me saying to go back to pcp because they (personally) don’t treat fibro patients because they (personally) don’t think its a real disease. That its a “mental” disease. Its all in my head and I need to take antidepressants and do yoga. Im so tired of being treated like my pain doesn’t exist and that if I just pretend to be happy and just pretend to not have pain then it will go away. Thats the most quack thing Ive ever heard of. Ive see 2 pain management docs in town and both told me the same thing. “They dont prescribe pain meds…period.” Which is also the most quack thing Ive heard. How can you be a pain management doctor and not prescribe pain meds? Thats your job. Im sorry but physical therapy doesn’t do shit for my pain. Ive tried PT multiple times. It does nothing for my pain. Ive had prednisone pills and steroid injections in the past and they did not help, and I am now pre-diabetic and don’t want to risk more steroids putting me into full blown diabetes. Im not even asking for much, even just 10 pills a month, just so that I have something to help the pain on my really bad days. I don’t know what to do at this point. If anyone has any recommendations for a doctor that actually treats fibromyalgia or a pain management doctor that would consider prescription medication, please leave their name in the comments or message me directly.
Im currently on a muscle relaxer and antidepressants daily. But on days when my pain is really bad I’m basically having to get stoned out of my mind just to get me through. I can’t function like that. It basically makes me bed bound on my bad days and it sucks.