Hi Craig,

I'm new to this forum, but thought I would put my two cents worth in. I am a 5 time cancer survivor with chronic pain to my left chest wall, side, and back which comes from scar tissue wrapping around my nerve bundles. At first they thought the best way to go would be to surgically remove the scar tissue every time the pain got too bad to deal with, but this quickly became a very bad answer. The more surgeries I received the more the scar tissue grew! Seems like they could have figured that one out.

Anyway, long story short, I eventually entered the world of pain management. The best advice I can offer you is the same as many others; have your list of meds for your other conditions because they will not treat you without knowing what you are currently ingesting and your list of questions because believe me when you walk in for the first time your mind will go blank.

Seems like the first time for me they did basic testing. Blood work, urinalysis, ekg, that sort of thing and they may also (depending on the type of pain management specialist you go to, offer to enroll you in clinical trials which is even more testing. The clinicals can be great but somewhat grueling. Just be really honest and upfront with your docs about what you will and will not consider.

Please try and solve your pain problems with other solutions rather than going with opiates first. They are a quick fix solution that doesn't always work. I spent 10 days detoxify off Fentanyl this past September and it was hell. There are some pain doctors who automatically take that route. I'm not familiar with your pain but there are other meds that you can try first that won't have the side effects of narcotics. Right now I'm taking Lyrica and Celebrex along with Suboxone which has some narcotic but not in the same sense as compared to Morphine.

I wish you all the very best and hope you get the right treatment for you.