Question on rating your pain

Oh White Beard now you are putting yourself out there on the child birth thing lol. Brave soul indeed. That can really be a competitive subject to say the least....Susie

Susie,

I wonder why it's anestheseologist who turn into pain doctors. Why don't they stay
with the profession that they trained for? It is ALWAYS anesthesiologists as far
as I know. My doctor is one.

I just can't imagine going to a pain doctor and having him/her really talk to me.

I have questions, of course. I feel lost, of course. I need guidance, of course.
My life is not in good shape. My doctor doesn't speak about it.

I wonder if it would help? I DO like my doctor. I guess I already said that last
time I went in he was singing, "One toke over the line." I'm really good at
remembering lyrics so we do have some fun. He sings for everyone - not just
me. I'm probably the only one who sings back. You can hear through the walls so
that's how I know.

I think I'll make a thread on that and see if anyone responds.

Pamela

You and White Beard sure gave me a laugh.

One of the biggest reasons that I left my PM and went back to my PCP for pain management is that he had waaaaaay too many patients and waaaaay too little time. When he was doing procedures on me he was great! He was a really nice guy, and would take the time to explain and talk through everything. As soon as we ran out of procedures to do & non opioid medications to try, he became a completely different person. It was like he no longer cared at all. He would walk in about two hours late, and then have his hand on the door knob the entire time. He didn't explain anything, he didn't let you ask any questions, or even give you adequate time to tell him what was going on! I remember 3 separate times I had brought my pain journal with me (this was when I first started it) and NEVER once did he see it, because before I could open my mouth to tell him about it or show him, he was gone! When he had me sign my opioid contract, he said he'd be back in 5 minutes to talk things over with me. An hour and a half later, I went and found a nurse, because I thought he had forgotten. Supposedly he was off doing procedures on people. It was like, as soon as I stopped paying him the big bucks, he didn't want anything to do with me; I just became a burden. I have heard very similar stories from his former patients and other doctors alike.

I am now blessed with my PCP and he is just fabulous! I hadn't been with him for long before my injury, and had seen him maybe once or twice before I started having all these problems, but he offered his help from the get-go. I denied it for a year or two, but then finally came around when I was not happy with my PM & he once again offered to take charge of my case. He has a lot of experience with pain management and so he he knows what he is doing & is not afraid to take risks and is truly concerned about his patients. He feels that it is his duty to find me the relief that I need & will not rest until he has exhausted every possible option. What's even better is that he takes all the time in the world with you. He is so easy to talk to & never makes you feel rushed, even though he is very busy. Last week, I had something of a breakdown during my appointment and we talked for well over a hour, all the while he was being paged to take phone calls and other patients were waiting. He was, and is, very concerned about me & agreed to find time to make himself available to me if I ever need to talk. I wish that everyone could have such a caring, wonderful doctor as he is! They aren't easy to find, but they sure are out there!

Skeye

Post Edited (skeye) : 5/3/2009 11:05:48 PM (GMT-6)

I have learned so much from this post. Thanks to everyone for contributing.

I think just about any pain scale that doesn't have the frowny-smiley faces on it can be helpful. I always had a problem with that one because anytime I would pick the frowny face, the doc would launch into a host of questions about depression. So I tried to beat the system by picking 2 faces -- one for my mood & one for my pain. It worked about 50% of the time. Some people would comment that I must be very self-aware to be able to separate my mood from my level of pain. Others would call me a cheater or a liar, saying that I only got to pick one & that people experience pain b/c they are unhappy with their lives. Ohhhh, how I wanted to slam them against the wall & tell them to stop being so sad. hee, hee

I was so happy when my current PM gave me the Mankowski scale. Besides that, he gives us little coloring pages to show where our pain hurts the worst, next worst, and a little bit, and he spends a lot of time with every patient. From what I read here, I am really blessed to not have someone who just rushes around logging in frowny faces, filling scripts & moving on to the next patient.

Pamela,
Some PM's are neurologists. Some are osteopaths or physiologists. Also, I have run across a few newer ones who are psychiatrists. Personally, I like having a PM who is an anesthesiologist. I'd feel pretty nervous having a shrink stabbing me in the back with needles. I think anesthesiologists are a natural fit since they are trained both in a variety of medications & in injections. Though that's not to say that certain neurologists or physiologists or what have you couldn't do a better job than certain anesthesiologists. Best of all is if you can find a doc who is Board Certified in Pain Management. They need an extra fellowship beyond their anesthesiology fellowship, as well as extra coursework in order to qualify. From my experience, it makes a real difference when they have that extra certification (not to say that other people can't manage meds, just that if you're going to get a specialist it may as well be someone who has as much training & experience as possible).

Hi Brent yes i agree with everyone else but every body's pain threshold is different and some have a high tolerance for pain i think to some degree we all have a higher pain tolerance because we built up one being in pain so much. Here in Canada we to use the scale form 1 to 10 (10 being the worst pain of your life 1 being able to completely function) anything in between could be 6 to 7 which is what i classified myself as but when i have a bowel obstruction or a rupture or even a really bad flare-up i am standing on that pain-scale at a 10-PLUS if you know what i mean i'm sure you do,your doctor should explain to you which is 1 and which is 10. Best of luck to you Brent i hope that helped you some everybody is different. Your Buddy Jenn