Currently I get treated at the Mayo pain clinic and I love it up there. My doctor is great and always fixes me and the apointments are not too far out from when I call usually and if they are my doctor says to call him and he tries to get me in sooner if I am real bad shape and all. But the problem is that Mayo is a 15 hour round trip per visit. In the winter and everything that can get really annoying. My fiance usually takes me up there and we go up and back again ina day. But it can also be expensive if we rent a car or a hotel room, etc.

I have an entrapped nerve ending in my abdominal wall. It acts up with more and more occasion these days. It seems to get triggered by injury like falls or muscle spasm or bad infections like pneumonia. It is treated by an injection into the nerve ending with an anasthetic and a steriod. That takes the pain all away until it comes back again. When it comes back it usually starts out mild and gets more severe with every week.

Now I have tried to find a pain clinic near to where I live. The one I first went to refused to treat me anymore because I wasn't progressing as fast as they liked.

Then the next two places refused to see me. Because after the nerve issue and everything I developed Fibromyalgia that is also on my records and I guess some pain clinics don't like patients with fibro. And then I went to the Rehabilitative institute in Chicago. I had to go twice. The first time I was there forever and the exam was odd and I thought it wasn't that accurate and then I had to see their psychologist and the pain doctor tried to convince that while in the past it had been the nerve ending this time it was in my head and I had to enter their intense program if I wanted to improve. I finally convinced her to give me the shot and she made me come back the next wek for it.

Now chicago is three hours away, so that was annoying. And it was not that great of an injection and I did not like that doctor. I will never go there again.

So how do I know if a place will work for me before I spend all the time and money going there? I always ask on the phone if they can do the procedure and they all say yes. I need to find a good place in chicago if possible. My between Mayo visit maintenance because I don't like being on the pain meds any longer than I have to be.