pain management

[Darren1]

Hello all

Has anyone ever been referred to a pain management consultant/clinic in the NHS?

What I want to know is, if pain is undiagnosed, e.g. neck pain, will they seek to find out the cause or simply pump me full of painkillers?

Thanks in advanced

[AuntieMoosie]

Sorry Darren, I have not experience of them, but I have heard that they are very helpful to people with chronic pain :)

Perhaps go along for an initial appointment and have a good chat with them about what happens :)

[yenool]

Hello all

Has anyone ever been referred to a pain management consultant/clinic in the NHS?

What I want to know is, if pain is undiagnosed, e.g. neck pain, will they seek to find out the cause or simply pump me full of painkillers?

Thanks in advanced

Yes I have been to see a pain consultant last year. I was referred because I had been experiencing low back & left hip pain for a while but the MRI scan I had done did not show any severe abnormalities that would explain the problem. I was also experiencing other pains in my muscles/joints throughout my body and my GP wasn't sure what to do.

My experience was he did a very thorough examination (strip down to your underwear!), tested reflexes and so on. He also looked at all my previous blood tests and scan results.

He then said he thought I had "myofascial pain syndrome" and he explained what that meant (pain originating from the muscle/connective tissue but not inflammatory like autoimmune diseases). He gave me some advice basically about lifestyle changes and exercises I could do that might help, recommended some medications, advised me how best to use the meds I was already on and then discharged me back to the GP.

I was convinced I had an inflammatory / autoimmune disorder as those run in my family. So at the time I was disappointed (and politely told him so!) and didn't feel he was very helpful, especially as he didn't give me a diagnosis I understood, or more importantly have an instant cure for my pain. :mad:

However with the benefit of hindsight and after educating myself about myofasical pain, I think the diagnosis is correct and the advice he gave me was essentially good. I've come to learn that with chronic pain conditions (>3 months), there does NOT have to be a 'serious' underlying pathology that causes the pain. I put the word serious in quotes because anything that causes pain constantly is serious, but in that context I mean serious as in progressive or life shortening/threatening.

Generally pain clinics are set up to help people manage pain in a variety of ways. This can be counselling, education, medication, etc. They are not there to just pump people full of strong pain killers - if you have chronic pain doctors like to save strong pain medications as a last resort because there are other treatments out there that are safer in the long run.

I think it could be a step in the right direction for you Darren....... hopefully the waiting list wont be too long and you can finally get some answers and pain relief.

[Darren1]

thanks SOO much for that information it was really useful.

I'm not going to rest until i've had an MRI and it sounds like the pain consultant won't refer me for this?

[yenool]

thanks SOO much for that information it was really useful.

I'm not going to rest until i've had an MRI and it sounds like the pain consultant won't refer me for this?

I thought you had a scan done already?

Pain management is normally run by a consultant, they have the power to run whatever tests the deem necessary. In my case I had the tests done prior to the referral so there would have been no point repeating the same thing only a few weeks later.

---------- Post added at 11:49 ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 ----------

Also, scans are not the be all and end all........... people with 'normal' scans can have bad pain/symptoms and those with abnormal scans can be symptom free.

[debs71]

Hmm. This is news to me that they investigate the cause. I really never knew that! Generally speaking, pain management teams are skilled in evaluating and assessing the particular pain you are having and identify a plan to treat and control that pain in the most efficient way, with drugs that are the most effective and appropriate for the type of pain you are experiencing.

People often think that all pain relief or 'analgesia' as it is medically called is the same, but it isn't. Some treat particular things better than others.

Lots of luck to you, Darren1 :hugs: