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pain management stuff
Jun. 1st, 2015 05:56 pmWelp. Pain management clinic (excuse me, pain intervention center) appointment was today. It was ...whelming.
On the plus side, a) I got a lot of compliments on the prettiness of my "mark the location of pain" figure (which I had color-coded, headaches vs nerve pain vs definitely-due-to-heterotopic-bone pain vs unspecified-cause joint pain), b) they listened to me and stuff (though they did call me an inspiration), and c) I do have some ideas for where to go.
On the minus side, with one exception the ideas consist of "take more vicodin" (and stop being worried about acetaminophen toxicity because as far as that is concerned I could take 9 pills per day and still be at safe levels of acetaminophen ... not that they told me to jump to 9 though) and "take less ibuprofen if possible" (not stop it altogether necessarily but take less of it), and, uh, yeah. They didn’t want to start me on opioids, even like fentanyl patches which I was on for short term use once before, which I understand the reluctance but dammit I just wanted better drugs D:
The exception is that they gave me an referral to talk to an external pain center doctor about the possibility of using, uh, *checks notes* suboxone? which googling suggests is a combo of buprenorphine and naloxone, used primarily for treating opioid addiction but (they said) can be a sustainable long-term pain treatment option. But apparently you have to have a special license to prescribe it, hence the referral.
...except even if I get an appointment any time soon (my stepmom, driving me back, was all "so it sounds like it may take a few weeks" and I just kind of "..."ed and then muttered "weeks? you’re adorably optimistic") and even if they okay the use of suboxone for someone not in treatment for addiction, it will probably be a pain in the ass to get on a regular basis (tbh part of the reason I'm not taking as much vicodin as prescribed is because of what a pita it is now to get more, and fuck the whole war on drugs already) and ( tw: suicidal ideation )
On the plus side, a) I got a lot of compliments on the prettiness of my "mark the location of pain" figure (which I had color-coded, headaches vs nerve pain vs definitely-due-to-heterotopic-bone pain vs unspecified-cause joint pain), b) they listened to me and stuff (though they did call me an inspiration), and c) I do have some ideas for where to go.
On the minus side, with one exception the ideas consist of "take more vicodin" (and stop being worried about acetaminophen toxicity because as far as that is concerned I could take 9 pills per day and still be at safe levels of acetaminophen ... not that they told me to jump to 9 though) and "take less ibuprofen if possible" (not stop it altogether necessarily but take less of it), and, uh, yeah. They didn’t want to start me on opioids, even like fentanyl patches which I was on for short term use once before, which I understand the reluctance but dammit I just wanted better drugs D:
The exception is that they gave me an referral to talk to an external pain center doctor about the possibility of using, uh, *checks notes* suboxone? which googling suggests is a combo of buprenorphine and naloxone, used primarily for treating opioid addiction but (they said) can be a sustainable long-term pain treatment option. But apparently you have to have a special license to prescribe it, hence the referral.
...except even if I get an appointment any time soon (my stepmom, driving me back, was all "so it sounds like it may take a few weeks" and I just kind of "..."ed and then muttered "weeks? you’re adorably optimistic") and even if they okay the use of suboxone for someone not in treatment for addiction, it will probably be a pain in the ass to get on a regular basis (tbh part of the reason I'm not taking as much vicodin as prescribed is because of what a pita it is now to get more, and fuck the whole war on drugs already) and ( tw: suicidal ideation )