Trying to get an MRI, doctors think I'm abusing pain meds.

[HealingMom]

This is actually on behalf of my less-than-internet-savvy mom.

She's been on pain meds for about five years for a herniated disk in her upper back, and recently (two or three months ago), she was in a car accident where she was t-boned. Now her right hip and lower back are constantly causing her agony, but her doctors refuse to give her an MRI. They've had her see a therapist (mental, not physical) and have asked her to try exercising, but she's in way too much pain to do so. She hasn't asked for an increased dosage in pain meds, but is trying to seek a more permanent solution for her pain, which requires finding the cause. She's seen several doctors about getting an MRI done to hopefully find out what's wrong with her lower back and hip, but they seem unwilling to offer her any more suggestions. What can she do? How can we figure out what's wrong with her? What are the next steps to getting her better?

[Bananas5]

Morning HealingMom and welcome

Sorry to hear about you Mum and what she has been through.

It is more likely she would have an xray to see if there is any damage to her hip than an MRI.

Doctors will only do an MRI if they feel something can be gleaned from it. They're not done routinely.

If she says her pain is no worse than before the accident...ie not needing increas in pain meds then that should be good.

Exercises can be hard at first so she only does very little then builds up.

As to her seeing someone from MH I can't answer that. You will know her better than me!

x

[Foxgal17]

Where are you located. Does she have insurance for an MRI? Unfortunately, this is a new medical technique, also known as indifference or NOT GIVING A DAMN on the part of the doctors. They are limited on prescribing opiods, because of opioid crisis in US, and other meds simply don't help. She may benefit from physical therapy. I have spinal stenosis. I have survived a 5 year medical roller coaster ride by changing docs when necessary and dealing with the pain. What a shame we have to live this way in such a high tech world. Good luck and God bless from MA, USA.

[cyberbarn]

I know it is really hard to be told that you can't have an MRI, but they aren't necessarily the most useful thing when it comes to pain. When they first started using them they found what they thought was the anomaly that was causing lower back pain and operated on people but their pain didn't go away. So then they scanned people without pain and found that their backs looked the same. That was when they realised that sometimes the pain isn't being caused by a physical problem.

It sounds like the best thing for your mother to do is ask for a referral to a pain clinic where they can address this type of pain. Sometimes the brain can keep telling us that we are in pain when a injury has already healed and this type of pain needs a different treatment.

I hope she fines something that works for her soon.

[Hidden]

Did your mom every receive an Epidural for her lower back pain? This is important because if she did, this may be the reason (although extremely unethical and neglegent) why she's being refused an MRI? Happened to me too. Finally two years later I did get one and surprise, I do have what I thought and that is Adhesive Arachnoiditis. It's excruciating Intractable Pain.