Bonita of Bwana
Posted : 8/22/2008 6:51:58 AM
I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia looooooong before it was the "disorder de jour" , back then they were sure I had MS but thankfully a Rheumatologist (sp?) figured it out. After being hospitalized 6 times for a week or more at a time I finally found a pain management doctor who came up with a treament plan that literally gave me back my life. Where "normal" Docs were prescribing high doses of , well everything.. making me a walking Zombie for 3 years ( still remember next to nothing of theat time frame!) This doctor said We are going over the top...gee thanks... he explained that the right amount of heavy narcotics taken correctly will never debilitate , instead they corral the pain allowing you to function at your best. No sleep fests , no buzz just medicate correctly. You can imagine how spazed I was when he put me on Fentnyl which is 100xs stronger than morphine. I wear a 100mg patch switched out every 72 hours. Then use Oxycodene 10s ( about 4 a day) Something for nausea and something for musle spasms leaves me sharp and able to work the dogs, care for the kids and be a partner in our marriage. There are still days when I over do and end up in a Fibro cycle that knocks me to a curled fetal position for a day or more. Hot packs and a dark room help alieviate the spasms . Most folks with Fibro have a constant ache , like a bad case of the flu but the heavy duty cases end up in a cycle that hurst so badly it causes vomiting, which in turn creates more pain, which makes you barf more ...you get the picture. yech !! Any way about 3 years after I was diagnosed it was the disorder that every magazine, talk show yada yada went on about. It made it harder to deal with becuse every family doctor was then saying hmmmm you have a nonspecific ache... Must be Fibromyalgia.... and the "patient" would mope a bit for a week or three then get tired of it and get "well" .... drove me nuts I wanted to be one of the ones getting "over it" but every time I ignored the warning signs I would end up paying for it Big Time.
Anyway finding a great pain management Doctor makes a HUGE difference. Of course I have to carefully plan my life as my scripts are month to month. So if I am out of state at a dog show and run out of meds I am going to have a rough trip home no phoning these puppies in !! There are good and bad Pain management doctors. when the Migraines started I was seeing a different one, ( long story) he wanted to inject lidoncaine in the base of my skull , he was sure the migraines were caused by inflamation in my neck muscles. I refused and it ticked him off. I found out my original doactor was still availble and I dumped his partner faster than a bag of nasty dog poo ( they had moved and broken off the partnership the guy I was seeing lied about not having a clue what was going on with my original doctor and took all the files so we had no idea!) . He put me back on the meds that allowed me to function best . I had not talked to him about the migraines since I was just Thrilled to be back with a minimalist doctor instead of a heavy handy script writer. When I went to my regular GP on a different issue she had ordered the MRI and whala the cyst was found !!
I won't know what the treatment plan is I know it is important since my GP got me the first availble with the best ENT in town . So on Sept 2 I will go in, they already have a copy of my tests and films . They will figure out what to do. :Like I said though what a relief to have something show up on film!!
Some how it makes the headaches easier to handle ...weird huh??
Bonita of Bwana