Pain specialist

[DAML8]

Has anyone here seen/been under a pain specialist? I have been accepted and i am currently on the (very long) waiting list. What sort of relief can they offer? Im currently on oramorph but would like to come off that if i can find something that is more effective.

[MrsBray]

Hi there,

I am under under the care of a Pain Management Consultant as part of a multi disciplinary team (Consultant, Physio, Nurse Specialist).

This is a general Pain Management clinic, not an Endo specialist clinic.

There are some Endo specialist centres that have a Pain Management Consultant as part of their service, but I think they are hard to come by.

Some Pain Management services will put you through a 10 (or so) week group program before they will offer you any sort of physical or medication based treatment.

These sessions will be typically group sessions once a week where you will discuss your pain and learn techniques to deal with it.

I was lucky that I was referred and accepted by a pain service that didn’t do the group sessions, instead I went straight to treatment.

Treatment will depend if where your pain is.

For example, you won’t be able to have a nerve block too low as it will shut your sexual function off.

I’ve had 2 lumbar steroid injections.

The first was good and gave me some relief.

The second did nothing.

I have also have 2 sympathetic lumber nerve blocks.

Both were good and gave me relief, but it’s temporary, and the service is so over subscribed that I can’t have them quick enough to help with the pain long term.

I had already been through a lot of medication prescribed by my GP, so by the time I got to the Pain Clinic the aim for me was procedure based and not medication based, so unfortunately I can’t get any help around the medication you might be offered.

I am no expert, and my experience is limited.

But I hope that help a little bit.

Good luck x

[DAML8 in reply to MrsBray]

Yes that does help, thank you very much 🙂