what can I expect from a pain management doctor

Kissa

Each PM has their own method of management. Some lean more towards injections and non evasive techniques (therapy), some lean more towards meds, some do not med at all and some do a combination of meds and non evasive with injections. So it is difficult to say what exactly your PM will do.

Generally you are going to get a packet mailed to you that is probably several pages long, it asks questions about what hurts, for how long it has hurt and all the treatments you have tried including medications. They may ask you what medications have worked for you in the past and what medications wont. One thing to always keep in mind is that the goal here is to never have 100% relief, if you have severe pain it won't happen without making you non functional at all levels. Shoot for 50% but if you get more you are doing well. You will sign a contract stating you can not get meds from any other doctor (pain meds) and you must keep all appointments, understand that if you loose meds or they are stolen they will not be replaced, you aggree to the techniques they prescribe, you agree to report any new meds that you might of gotten from an ER situation immediately, you will be advised you must advise all your doctors that you are seeing a PM when you discuss pain. There are many other things in the contract itself, read it closely.

Your first appointment will be a mini physical and various questions will be asked, your dr will probably go over your form. From that point you will discuss a plan of action and it could take several routes. They may ask for more medical records or xray reports before doing anything.

If they are an injection dr. they will start scheduling injections for where the pain is a problem. A mild medication or anti-imflamatory might be prescribed.
If they lean more on the pill end of the spectrum they will ask what works and at what intervals and discuss what to prescribe you and you will leave with script in hand and make a new appt in 2 or 4 weeks.
If they are somewhat in the middle they might suggest a pain management class, psychological services, therapy and mild to moderate pain meds depending on your situation.

Follow ups are generally on a monthly basis if you are given medications, most doctors prescribe for 28 days instead of 30 to get you under the "legal limit". Expect that your appointsments to be very short ones, maybe 5 minutes going forward. You will go in, talk about the meds you took, are they working etc. If you had injections you will review those and possibly schedule more. Some doctors will let you come every so many months for an eval but you can pick up your medication monthly.

So as you can see it will vary from doctor to doctor and situation to situation.
Good luck and I hope your Pm is able to help you. Let us know how it goes and if you have any questions feel free to ask!

jacritch

Kissa,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply...very helpful. I will keep you posted. My appt. is tomorrow.

Judy

scotty12

Kissa hit the nail on the head.most likely this is exactly what you can expect.........scotty

jacritch

Hi Kissa,

Well, I went for my first appointment today and the pm doctor was wonderful. He is going to check out my exrays and mri's and then decide where to go from there. He gave me a thorough examination and He thinks I may have problem in my facet joints becasue that is where the pain is. He said something about freezing the facet and I don't know much about that but I will do some research to see what it entails. I really liked him.

Judy

Kissa

I am very happy for you! It sounds as though your initial visit went well, that's pretty important. It is also good that he is going to be looking at your xrays. Mine had all the reports the day of my visit so I didn't have to wait, but he could also operate a bit differently than most.

Honestly I'm not familiar with the freezing of the facet but I'm sure someone else here does and can enlighten you on what it is and if it's worked for them. This board is a wonderful place full of knowledge ranging from the various medications and proceedures to emotional understanding and support.

Keep us up to date on what happens, I hope that you can get some of the relief that you deserve.

Barb

vamp36

Thats also great that you like your doctor. It hard to find a good doctor that you like sometimes. It makes it much easier to work with them. I've been through many doctors and finally I'm happy with all 3 of them now. I happy that your appointment went well.