Peter,

First I should clarify that before I had any fusions I was on all kinds of medications and that was all with a different pain management group that was NOT a SPINE group. Anyway, name the med and I have pretty much tried it; mostly anti-convulsant and anti-depressants at that time. Glad I finally found a GOOD spine group.

Anyway, the appointment the other day mainly had to do with my shoulder and coccyx troubles. I need to get an xray of my right shoulder tomorrow. And I could kick myself for telling him that I didn't need the coccyx shot. Sooo...in about two or three weeks I see him again and I am just going to have him shoot up the coccyx and the shoulder IF he will do both. I guess it just depends on what the xray shows. And, yes I know, this is mainly an ortho thing with the shoulder. But he says not to use an ortho for the shot for two reasons; one they normally don't use enough numbing medication (found that to be true) and two, they don't normally use flouroscopy either. So, he volunteered to take care of this for me thank goodness!

He DOES want me to try the 12mcg Fentanyl patch to avoid or bypass some GI issues. But he is also leaving that up to me. He knows I am a chicken about it since I have issues with so many medications. But he said to just try it for 24 hours. If I feel overly sedated, strange...whatever...just to take it off and clean the area. But I want to try it when my husband is going to be home all day for the whole weekend. And he did say it is an "old lady" dose LOL! So, we shall see.