Aloha Melanie!

I've been dealing with chronic pain due to 3 failed spine surgeries. It's been 11 years now and I'm still waiting for that "miracle" to appear that will fix me. I remember back in the early days of my CP, a doctor would suggest (or tell me) to exercise, or write a 'prescription' for physical therapy and I'd just sit there in astonishment and disbelief and look and her/him. Of course they kept insisting that even though all the MRI's and other scans/xrays showed the herniated disc and bulging discs that exercise was the one thing that would FIX or HEAL it!!

It took until my 3rd surgeon to look at me with disbelief and say, "how will exercise help your herniated disc to heal or fix itself?". Of course, I'd just kind of be taken aback and quickly agree with him and tell him what kinds of tortures I had to endure to convince other doctors that exercise wasn't the "way" for ME. Maybe some others without such severe damage, or no herniations...but for me, no exercise.

Of course now I find that if and when I do have a "good day" where my pain level should drop to a constant 5 when it's usually a constant 7 ormore, I'll make the huge mistake of doing something I shouldn't just so I can prove to myself that "I CAN". Then i'm bed-ridden for several days to a week and can barely walk for longer, however, it felt SO GOOD to be able to do something I used to do again.

It's foolish behaviour, I know. I just HAVE TO. LOL!

Melanie...if your doctor or doctors are NOT treating your pain adequately, and you still have acess to some others, PLEASE don't be afraid to go to at least ONE appointment with them to see if they might have a better way to treat your severe pain.

I've been very fortunate in that I live on one of the most remote islands in Hawaii and yet, I really only had to put up with and suffer due to a doctor being afraid to adequately treat my severe pain properly for the very first 18 months of this "new life" of CP. It's a long story and I'll get into it another time, but I just couldn't take the way she was treating ME and my pain. I got tired of staying up all night laying across an oversized footstool for 'traction' just ot get some relief from the pain and crying, crying and crying. Oh the crying was just too much. Anyway, I've been spoiled rotten compared to most CPer's in that my pain has almost always been properly treated so I no longer have to suffer needlessly.

Of course we all have to remember that all these doctors are really hired by US. We should be the ones to hire or fire them if we feel they are not doing the "job" that we expected them to. Don't you feel that way also?

Sure, don't be so obvious when you see other doctors that the doctor(s) you see now feel that you are "Doctor Shopping". We have all had to play by the rules of "The Game".

Don't let these or this doctor drive you so crazy because he/she won't properly take care of you. I've been in that kind of "crazy" mode and what it made me do wasn't something I ever want to attempt again. I sure don't want to see anyone that I've dealt with EVER go down that road. I think we all know what I mean.

Please...there are so many doctors and it may take you some time to find the one you like or at least the one that is the least "mean" when it comes to your pain. I've always disliked the thought of when I am in the small exam room talking with my doctor and then get nothing but a bunch of "no's", "I won't do that" or "You'll just have to deal with it"....grrrrr...and then leave feeling a lot WORSE afterwards and the doctor probably forgets about you and what suffering you have laying in wait ahead of you....sometime you have to point these things out to them also.

Doctors may be smart, but there are lots of them that aren't very WISE. Agree?]

Aloha Just For Now,
Old Geezer