I woke up one day and my neck was sore...no biggie, slept wrong, whatever. Within 8 hours the sore neck turned into severe shooting pain from my C6 level in my back, out my shoulder, shooting from my underarm out my right chest, bicep, forearm and hand. This was almost 6 weeks ago. Since then I have had my primary doctor check me out, says it's just a strain, gives me scripts for pain meds, see ya. After days of lying in agony waiting for the meds to work, I went back to her. (by the way, she already manages my chronic lower back pain with oxycodone, I have 2 herniated disks there) She said she didn't want to manage my pain meds anymore and refered me to a 'Pain management clinic'. She stopped all meds to me and told me they would be taking over my care and medication management. Ok, no biggie, I just want an answer to my pain, I don't care how, surgery, therapy, proceedures, medications, whatever, but manage it. My new wife is ready to leave me because she can stand to see me suffer day and night rolled up in the fetal position in agony. When I went to the pain clinic they told me they were taking me off off all drugs, which I asked why? No explaination. That was 4 weeks ago. I was set up for 'medial branch blocks' which is a proceedure inwhich they put 25 gauge needles in your spine to reach your nerves so they can inject a numbing medication to see if it offers temp relief. they proceedure is very painful, and is done with NO anesthesia. This is a TEST, not a CURE. After the first proceedure, I asked again for pain management, and they gave me 1/2 of the fentanyl patch prescription( 25mg) for 6 days worth of medication. totally worthless. I was sent to have an EMG done, in which the findings were that I had a nerve pinched at my C6 ..wow, big suprise, I have been telling people that for 10 days! I complained again, and they gave me a script reducing my patch to 12.5 (thats the lowest dose the patch comes in) also totally unhelpful. I also had new MRI's done, and it also shows a nerve impingement, from what? no one seems to want to answer that correctly. I also had an apointment with a spine surgeon. Some say it's a 'spur', another said it was a bulged disc that is pressing on the nerve root. Others say it's nothing and I'm just drug seeking. Needless to say, I'm still in constant pain. I finally after letting them do another 'Medial Branch Block' (this time was just to re-confirm the last painful proceedure) they offered me 5 days of vicodin which was again worthless and unhelpful in treating me pain. I call and tell them how I am feeling and that I need pain relief, but they just ignore me, saying I simply cannot get anything more for pain. They then last friday did ANOTHER proceedure called a 'radio frequency' which is just like the branch blocks but they use 4 or 5 25 gauge needles to once again locate the nerves in my back and this time they apply radio frequencies to somehow 'burn' they nerve to make it stop sending pain signals. VERY PAINFUL....Now they tell me it can take up to 6 weeks to have results from this proceedure, if any. once again I begged for pain relief and was given 2 days worth of Vicodin. Once again, NO help. When I say I 'call' them, I mean I call and leave a message with them and they call me back in a day or two, if at all. I'm not just a whiner, complaining 'poor me' to a web site. My wife and I are genuinely concerned about how I have been treated and that I have suffered for over 6 weeks now, simply because they won't manage my pain..hey, either throw me on a table and cut me open and fix it, or give me something that works to stop the pain until you can figure out how to fix it...is that unreasonable? Am I asking too much? Where do I go when I cannot get resolution at the pain clinic? oh well, maybe I'm just rambling since it's been 3 days now without sleep, and it took me an hour and a half to type this with my left hand...I sincerely hope all of you have a good day and that your pain is managed..I understand chronic pain and I pray God's gift of healing for all of you who suffer.....Tommy
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