pain meds

longtermsurvivor said:

The potential conflict between patient and doctor
with regard to pain control is partly caused by the doctor's own biases regarding pain. Some are quite empathetic toward the issue, and some are simply not. There is a tendency on the part of healthcare providers to underprescribe for pain, in the mistaken assumption that we may be drug-seeking.

You have a valid reason to be experiencing a significant degree of pain. And you need help with this. To that end there are several options available to you. These in part depend on what your relationship to your current doctor is, and that's something you will have to judge.

If you have an otherwise good relationship with him, and don't want to burn a bridge with him you should first start by describing the amount of pain and incapacity you are having in detail, and make specificc requests. Both my medical and nuclear oncologist ask me what pain pill I wanted prescribed, were very liberal in the number they alloted me, and made it plain if that was inadequate they could increase dose and/or change meds. They ask me each visit if I need refills.

If it is your sense that your doctor is simply not going to play ball with you on this, you might requests referral to a pain specialist. A pain specialist would look at ORN complications, then look at you taking tylenol, and conclude your pain management was inadequate.

As a last resort you could simply start over and see another treatment physician. That might work, but it might not as well. Patients who self refer to a similar specialist for pain control alone are generally viewed as drug seekers, so this may produce neutral or negative results.

If it were me, I'd try to work this out with my current doctor first, unless he'd given me other reasons to want to change.

Best wishes,

pat