As an unfortunate consumer of virtually every of opiate analgesic available for the last 8 years, I am compelled to share my side of the story! I am a patient, not a student. I am a Mexican American man, have many colorful tattoos, wear two earrings, bracelets etc. and play electric guitar in a rock band! What you can't tell from the outside is I was a nuclear engineer in the Navy, have degrees in IT and Electronic Engineering with a masters in business! I have been out of work for nearly 8 years and had a L5-S1 fusion, L-4-5-S1 revision (not required-misdiagnosed), an electronic stimulator implanted and later removed (recalled due to lithium ion battery exploding in peoples rear ends!) and my right SI joint fused! I have had ablations, injections, blocks-more needles stuck in my back than I care to think about! I am still in tremendous pain and now what I feel is the correct diagnosis is bursitis of the right hip, very possibly an infected bursa due to 8 years of continuous pain in same area. I came to my SI joint surgeon on extremely high doses of narcotics. I could see it was changing my relationships with the medical community, no one wanted to touch me. I brought myself down to a reasonable level of narcotics and approached my surgeon (I'm sure giving him a little more room to control pain post op).
After 3 months post op and him issuing me 4mg hydromorphone 4x daily he told me to go to rehab! I told him it wasn't necessary, I quit using the medication upon walking out the door. I have 2 weeks worth of medication to return to him and am miserably in pain. Now that I'm off all medication, I certainly don't want to go back on any. His next scheduled appointment is 4 months away! I am presently seeking help from other surgeons, not for pain medication, to fix the real problem, muy rapido! I need help now, not in 4-5 months! Please don't make assumptions and please don't have a God complex-I have just as much education as you, perhaps more!
Other issues I exhibited:
Have been to ER for pain management 50+ times over 8 year period
Have used different ERs due to embarrassment
Had morphine level of 500 at one time
Have had what I believe to be 3 unnecessary surgeries!
I need help with pain, not medication!
After 3 months post op and him issuing me 4mg hydromorphone 4x daily he told me to go to rehab! I told him it wasn't necessary, I quit using the medication upon walking out the door. I have 2 weeks worth of medication to return to him and am miserably in pain. Now that I'm off all medication, I certainly don't want to go back on any. His next scheduled appointment is 4 months away! I am presently seeking help from other surgeons, not for pain medication, to fix the real problem, muy rapido! I need help now, not in 4-5 months! Please don't make assumptions and please don't have a God complex-I have just as much education as you, perhaps more!
Other issues I exhibited:
Have been to ER for pain management 50+ times over 8 year period
Have used different ERs due to embarrassment
Had morphine level of 500 at one time
Have had what I believe to be 3 unnecessary surgeries!
I need help with pain, not medication!
