Believe me I know the ER is not a place for chronic pain. It was a truly heinous flare-up though almost puking and passing out form the level of pain. And both of my doctors told me to go. That was the reason I was so mad at that ER doc. I HATE going to the ER, and realize that there were other people who needed DIRE help than just pain. Thankfully the new meds seem to be controlling the pain WAAAYYY better!! I am having a much better time being able to cope now! I also think the muscle relaxer (Valium) was a very good thing. It was weird cuz when I was having the flare-ups all the major veins were protruding/ popping up. I talked with my doc about it and believe that my muscles were tensing badly from the pain so I think between the oxy 10mgs 3-4x's a day as needed and the Valium is they way to go for now!

So thank you all, and I hope you all can or have found the same measure of relief as I seem to have now.