I have been going through a lot of pain issues recently related to my fibromyalgia and back pain.  Turns out my pain management doctor is a complete piece of s...work and hasn't been doing what he has been instructed to do by my surgeon...Not only that he lied to me on multiple occasions and cancelled appointments the day of my office visit and let me show up to be seen and him be 'out of office.'  This last time I went in to see a partner of his cause he had cancelled the week before and they rescheduled me with him.  The Dr. was awesome but told me that he didn't feel comfortable doing the spinal ablation cause he didn't know what the other doctor had done or not done.  Yeah I made a complete ass out of myself and fired the whole group!  I was upset that they didn't seem to care what hurt and how much pain I was in and felt they could just pick up or drop me...I was only a $$$ to them.

I went to see a new pain management group 10 days later and found out that all I had gone through wasn't necessary...ie I was told at the old office they couldn't inject me more then every 6 months...lie!  I was told I had to have multiple injections before medicare would pay for an ablation...lie!  I'm in agony at that point!  From May 7, 2019 till August 6, 2019 they cancelled 3 appointments and didn't do much.  This new doctor asked me how many needles they use to inject...I only recall one on each side that I barely felt...the new doctor used 6...3 each side and I had the first pain relief from the facet nerves and sacroiliac joint pint I had had in 3 years!  It didn't last long cause it was just Marcaine but it worked!  I will be having an ablation on the 20th September he tells me!

That brings me to the pain scale...  I read an article today on The Mighty by Jenny Cyndalu about how everyone asks you to rate your pain.  I think they need you to rate the pain that brought you in one way and all the other another and I tell them that I live in chronic pain and my 5-6 might be more like a 10+ to others.  Of course they think I am a crock just wanting meds but hey...I am an old ER RN and I know what goes round comes round  I learned with that spinal injection the other day that my back pain was probably a 10 on the 10 scale and once they had wiped that out I still hurt just not in my back...my shoulders and legs ached, all at once it felt like I was wearing a hair shirt and something was scratching down my arms too.   That was a nagging pain that always used to be there when I only had fibromyalgia to deal with and once fell and had all the back problems THAT pain pushed the other to the back of my brain.  

Pain Management scale used by the medical field.

Click on the link above and read what me and a bunch of others responded to her article.  She is right on the spot.  BTW check out The Mighty...there are a lot of good things to read and if you are like me you learn you aren't the only one with that problem out there!