Denise,
If your Dr. is an M.D. as opposed to a pain specialist, you need to find both a pain clinic and a Pain specialist. Pain that is not something you can see is often difficult to get people to believe. Some think its just drug seeking behavior, while others just don't know how to deal with it.

When I first started getting intractable migraines, I would show up at emergency rooms, the local urgency care facilities looking for relief. They would put me in a bright room in a noisey area and make me wait for an hour. When a Dr. finally came in, they didn't want to use any pain medications. Having been through migraine after migraine, I knew what worked and what didn't. None of the Dr.s would listen and I'd wind up be injected with botox related drugs, anything but pain medication. I'd get up and leave, furious that no one would listen or believe me.

During one hospital stay during which I almost lost my hand because they kept injecting a drug I knew didn't work and wound up being overly sensitive to, they sent a pain specialist up to do a nerve block known to have a high rate of facial paralysis etc. The pain specialist came up and told me right off that he woudn't have it done to him and recommended I not do it. He became my Dr., and since then my life has changed. i go to this Dr. at a chronic pain clinic, and regardless of the fact that my pain cannot be seen or explained through MRIs and CTscans, he treats me with strong pain medications and has even brought a perscription to the house for me when things were so bad I couldn't get out of bed and couldn't be left alone.

Pain clinics are strict. Usually you have to have check ins with blood or urine tests every three to six months to make sure you have not fallen into a drug habit, but they believe their patients, involve them in their treatment and believe in pain that cannot be seen or won't show up on tests.

I strongly urge you to find a pain clinic near you. Make an appointment with or without your Dr.s referal. You need relief and a Dr. who is used to various pain conditions. You can start with the phone book, internet or asking around to find one. Don't give up. If you don't, you will only wind up angry and depressed and painful. YOu don't have to live in pain and shouldn't have to.

Sam