When I went two years ago, they gave me a couple gabapentin which for my NP is less effective than OTC ibuprofen.

Hey canagirl - How'd you get on?
Hope your ER visit was helpful and they were able to give you some pain relief (and hopefully some info to set you in the right direction to get longer term treatment).
I'm also in a country with a public health system so if you had a less than positive experience feel free to vent - I can empathize.
Take care.

Please let us know how you are doing. Hopefully they gave you something, at least short term to give you a break...and some names of pain mgmt doctors, etc to go see.

Yes thats very true, they most likely will discharge you very quickly, because if your condition is idiopathic, they cant do anything. Your best bet is to call your rheumatologist, or pcp, to schedule appt and tell them about your pain.

When i suddenly loss my smell and it dint go away the next, day, i had to go to the ER, because it could be a stroke, but when i ended up there, i was there 5.5hours and they never found anything that cause my loss of sensations,tingling and smell loss, they eventually discharged me with no answers, and reccommend i see my pcp(who doesnt believe me) to get a referral. MRS.D is right, er gets alot of those drug junkies, that go to er just to get pain meds.

Well not great, u guy were right. Offer of an Ativan and told to see me dr. :(

Canagirl I might have missed this but do you have a primary care physician or a neurologist?

I have a really good primary and two horrible neuros

My primary care doc and my distaste for medical bills is what kept me out of the ER. I have a direct care PCP also known as a concierge doctor. Instead of using my insurance I pay a monthly membership to be in his practice. The benefits are many but I have his cell # and I can text him anytime. He also comes out to my house if needed. It's pretty cool and we've become friends. When I make office visits he will spend an hour with me if needed. It's a totally different model than the traditional physician practice. He's not trying to see 20 patients in a day. I recommend this style of PCP if it fits into the budget.

Oh look - more horrible Neuros. I wonder if any of them know the regard in which they are held :mad:

The first neuro was horrible. He had me walk a bit, did some strength testing, reflexes etc. said nothing showed up in his clinical exam so there is nothing wrong. whatever is happening will go away. NO testing, no bloodwork, no emg, mri NOTHING. I went back 6 months later when this had not gone away. By this point, I had mri, emg, some bloodwork. Of course nothing comes up. This time he didn't even do a clinical. Just looked at the results of the testing my primary had done and prescribed Cymbalta even though "there's nothing wrong". he referred me to a second neuro for another opinion. She agrees nothing wrong, but after fighting with her she agreed to send me for a skin biopsy but wouldn't recommend it as needed so my insurance won't cover it. I have to pay $2000us for the test.