The Pain Center

This week, in my continuing quest for answers, I found myself at the Pain Management Center at Stanford. There I met an extraordinarily condescending pain specialist who seemed to lack both empathy and an ability to compromise. After shooting down all my current (effective) drug therapies and pointedly asking why I felt the need to visit her clinic, she sent me away with a prescription for a multi-disciplinary conference and an order to not change any of my treatments until further notice.

Should I choose to proceed, this involves three more evaluations, three more MRIs, a two stagnant months. While the idea of many doctors collaborating on my case is appealing, the amount of doctor time required of me is daunting. Part of my current plan is to cut out as much medical stuff as I can and try to live. Going to Stanford seven times in the next two months does not jive with that plan.

Additionally, one of my intake forms was a three pager that released them from any liability should I become addicted to prescription medications. Yes.

However, the problem here, in my mind, is not the form, or the amount of evals, or the tests, or the time, or even the fact that she sent me away without even ONE idea of something I could try. The problem here is that I already have a physiatrist, and a physical therapist, and a therapist, and a bajillion other people who already know my case and my body and who all report to essentially the same guy. Everything The Pain Center wants me to have I already posses. Therefore the two months I would spend waiting for them to come up with a drug regimen would not only be long and painful - it would be redundant. And I do not do well with redundancy.

I am sick and tired of going to the doctor. It has been my whole life for more than two years. I am not going to blindly accept that this whole new roster could help me, because I just want to be done. In this case, less is more. I will not be returning.

photo credit: http://hkham.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/hm36drugs-are-bad-posters.jpg