O.T. Why is it questions

[AK]

Over 35 years, I have been rear ended 3 times.

I have what doctors say is "intractable pain."

One doctor said I had a "failed back".

He did what he could to treat my pain and my pain level was manageable.

And he always saw me on time. :-)

Since that doctor, I have been to E.R. about 5 times for that pain.

One E.R. doctor told me to make an appt. with my PCP.

He did absolutely nothing for my pain.

So about a 2 hr trip and wait time to the E.R., and a $100 co-pay.

I did some research. I got hold of a professor(M.D.) at Baylor School of Medicine.

I explained my experience to the E.R to the professor(M.D.)

While responding to me, I could feel the anger in his voice.

He told me this. "Failure to treat."

I thanked the professor at the Baylor College of Medicine.

I filed a complaint with the Texas Board of Medical Examiners.

I provided documentation to prove that the E.R. doctor failed to treat me.

I did the same with the hospital.

The Texas Board of Medical Examiners and the hospital did absolutely nothing.

2 years ago, I went to a brain surgeon for my neck pain.

He promised me that spinal fusion surgery would reduce my neck pain.

It did not.

Why is it that about 80% of doctors under treat pain?

Why is it that no insurance company will pay for massage therapy?

I wonder how many massages a person could get for the amount of money spent on MRIs, Cat Scans, muscle relaxants scripts, etc.

I spent 3 weeks doing Physical Therapy.

They spent 10 minutes using a "heat roll" to ease my pain.

The other 50 minutes were spent doing exercises.

I did those exercises at home.

The exercises failed to help me strengthen my core muscles or relieve my pain.

I asked for 20 minutes of the heat roll and 40 minutes of the exercises.

They refused.

I cancelled my future appointments.

Andy

[hubops]

CBD ? Chiropractor ? Acupuncture ? A new pillow-guy pillow from The Pillow Guy ?

John T.

[Jim Joyce]

My guess is that it's because there's no way to properly objectively measure what each of us perceives as pain. If they're being asked to take a shot at it, it's probably better to under treat than over treat.

[AK]

Thanks for your quick response.

No luck with acupuncture or chiropractor.

I am seeing what both red and green kratom in powder form can do.

CBD for me is like a candle with both ends burning. :-)

I will look into researching into what research has been done on pillow designs.

Andy

[Mark Lloyd]

I seem to remember a Star Trek episode where they had an instrument called a "dolorimeter" that could measure pain. That would be useful.

[Dan Espen]

AK [e-mail] writes: ,,,

...

Pain doctors is a specialty, regular doctors normally won't treat pain. Pain doctors are monitored closely by the authorities.

Because massage is NOT an accepted treatment for pain. Acupuncture is, you can usually get acupuncture.

Knock yourself out but I don't think massage will help.

Depending on your pain level that's what I would expect. Strength training might have protected you BEFORE you got injured.

3 weeks is not nearly long enough. Think months or years.

Of course, they can only give you approved treatments if you want insurance to cover it.

Try to stay as active as you can. My experience is that there is little medical science can do to treat pain. Pills will help with the pain but they are not a solution.

[Cindy Hamilton]

It would be nice. But just as with eye exams, the brain has a lot to say about what goes on. (I once asked my opthalmologist if they couldn't just measure the eye and write a prescription.)

And the location of the pain matters. It's easier to tolerate a sprained ankle than a toothache.

[AK]

Knock yourself out but I don't think massage will help.

Actually message does help a whole lot.

Pain is a very complex subject.

Andy

[Ed Pawlowski]

My eye doctor said the actually could but don't. A or B? I think it is a trick question and sometimes are the same.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Insurance probably does not want to pay for a "happy ending"

[rbowman]

Why? Many of the products are THC free and even the 'full spectrum' oil has very little. I'm not advocating for it. I tried gummies that tasted like a roach and did nothing. Full spectrum oil at least had an effect -- it cleaned me out like a gallon of GoLytely.

I give relatively inexpensive herbal remedies like ginseng the benefit of the doubt but CBD is too pricey for something with no apparent effect.

[trader_4]

A big part of it is that treating pain involves prescribing pain killers and with the epidemic of abuse, the feds and states are after doctors that prescribe too much. How they can figure any of that out, IDK. Like a GP has a lot of patients, small percent that really need them. Other doctors treat people with serious problems that require a lot of pain meds, so with all the doctors how can they figure out what is really going on? I think most doctors are gun shy now and don't want to risk attracting attention, which is unfortunate for those that need the pills. For AK, I would be trying to find a good doctor that specializes in pain management.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I had a bad toothache last March. It was definitely worse than pain lower down.

[invalid unparseable]

Licensed physical therapists have gotten both wife and I able to avoid neck surgery. It took some pain killers and prednisone to get over the humps. I would avoid doctors that just treat the pain. They are just licensed drug dealers.

Any spine surgery with fusion results to more stress on un-fused parts of the spine often leading to more surgery.

[AK]

You have a dirty mind.

Andy

[AK]

I had the spinal fusion 2 years ago. It was only the lowest 2 vertebra.

I have had no problems since.

I will put this out.

I would advise anyone who is contemplating steroid injections for pain to give it a lot of thought.

My PT told me that steroid injections DESTROY cells.

I stopped the steroid injections after about 8 injections when I found that it causes osteoarthritis later in life.

Guess what I have?

Andy

[Ed Pawlowski]

Why yes, I do. Thank you for noticing.