I have a doctor who wont give me any pain meds except motrin.  I have RA in every joint, I get to his office with my mom driving me due to my pain, most days I need her to get out of bed and to help me go to the bathroom, also to open all my food jars, etc.  I dont know what to do I cant work and have health care through my local district which is free and this doc is not nice.  I dont know where to turn.  I did xrays, blood work and am on methotrexate and 30 mgs of prednisone and still in pain all the time.  does any one have any ideas.  maybe I should go to those pain centers. What should I bring? I heard I need a mri but where should the mri focus on seeing I have it everywhere> Please help kmflorida

I too currently have and have had many doctors in the past who do not believe in prescribing pain med for chronic pain diseases. 

What you will need will depend entirely upon the doctor you go to see and the practices, rules and regulations of his office.  When you make the appt, you will probably be instructed then as to what you will need to bring with you or ask so you don't have to waste your time and money.  Without medical records as back up, you may or may not receive any pain medication the first visit.  The doctor may require that you do xrays and bloodwork over again for his records. An MRI will only be required should the pain manager ask for it. 

I have recently had to go through county health care in order to get help managing my RA.  Getting to a pain management specialist through that system is going to be slow going as you will need a referral from your GP or rheumatologist.  I was lucky enough to be able to get out the county system and onto my partner's insurance.  I have been to a new GP a new Rheumie twice, an ortho and I am 3 weeks out of hip replacement surgery.  And I am still getting calls that I am still on the waiting list to see an orthopedic from the county and the wait for a pain specialist is about 6 months. 

Now that could all be different where you live.  I live in Houston, TX and the county health care system is overrun.

Sounds like you need to get onto a med that is going to suppress your active RA.  The pain meds will take the edge off but they will not stop the progression of your RA. 

But right now you sound completely frantic.  You said you do not like your current doctor.  Is he a general physician or a rheumatologist?  GP's in public health are way too busy to care, from my experience.  The specialists are a bit nicer but they too are very busy. 

Until you can get in to see a good doctor, my best advice is to breath and calm down.  We all go through this and you are not alone.  The good news is that it does not stay like this forever.  When you start receiving a med that will suppress your disease, the pain, anguish and depress will also subside. 

If you can get yourself into an indoor heated community pool in order to surround your body with heat and have the pressure taken off your joint please get there as often as possible.  The exercise of just walking in a pool will help replenish oxygen and bloodflow to your muscles and joints strenghting them.  Your strength is all you have to rely on right now.  You can take Aleve to reduce swelling and but you are already on a pretty high dose of prednisone.  Sleep with a heating pad (one that turns itself off hopefully like mine does).  Stretch and move around a much as you can during the day.  Sit in the sun.  Do anything and everything you can think of to aleviate your pain and distress until you can get to a good doctor.  If it feels good do it, even if that means wrapping yourserlf in warm towels. 

I suffered for almost 3 years completely unmedicated because of money and my health issues.  I know exactly what it is like to feel that you are not going to make it from day to day.  But you will.  We all do.