Scared of doctor--Please help!!

[tkdrew]

Hi! Hope everyone is having a pain free day. I'm going to try to keep this as short as I can. I have a gynecologist that treats my IC. For about 3 years now, I have been on Lortab 7.5 3 times a day. It doesn't touch the pain anymore. I am so scared to talk to my doctor about it. A couple of years ago, he had me on 1mg of Ativan and when I told him it wasn't working, he stopped it completely and said "If it isn't working, no point in taking it" If he was to act like that with my pain meds, i couldn't handle it. I know they are helping much, but its the closest I can get to being semi-normal. I hate this. It just seems to be whatever mood he's in, and that scares me. I just want to be like most 30 year olds. I don't take them to get high. My 6 year old is my best friend, I take them to try and give him the mommy he deserves and the wife my wonderful hubby deserves. What do I do? Do I risk talking to him? If he says no, there will be withdrawls and the loss of what little living I do now. Please help me decide what to do? Now, if my meds are due on Saturday, when he phones them in, he tells the pharmacy not to fill before then. He is the only doctor I see. Why does he make me feel like this? Maybe I need a new doc, but if I tick him off, he will stop the meds, and I'll have nothing until I can find a new doc and there isn't many at all that treats IC in this area. What would you do? Am I crazy? This is the same doc that told me his other IC patients are on a lot stronger meds than I am (that was a couple of years ago) I haven't done anything wrong. Do I deserve this? I'm so sorry for rambling. I'm scared. God Bless You for reading this. Any help is appreciated.
Love ya all

[ICNDonna]

One thing you might do before your appointment is to keep a diary showing times of the day, when you take pain meds, and pain levels. Sometimes just seeing it in writing is helpful to a doctor.

Good luck!
Donna

[Briza]

Hi
Many of us have been in similar situations before. I also receive IC treatment for my IC from my gyn, tho he told me from day 1 that Tylenol 3 would be the strongest pain med he would ever prescribe for me, and thank goodness it seems to work for me very well, where Lortab doesn't work at all, even tho lortab is considered a stronger pain med. When I was in need of stronger pain meds than my gyn was willing or able to provide, he referred me to a pain specialist. Please talk to your gyn on how far he is willing to go with your pain management, and if you are not getting relief w/ what he is prescribing you then you can always ask for a referral to a pain specialist.
But what ICNDonna has recommended is very good...I kept a pain, med, voiding journal and it helped me w/ getting pain treatment from my gyn, and later my pain specialist. Best wishes!Bri:)

[amaranthe]

The above suggestions are great! One other thing I have done when I was in your situation was to talk to the Dr and tell him that though the meds help, they arent helping as much as they used to help. Then I asked if it were possible that my body was just getting used to the meds, (which I knew was the case, but you know how ya gotta let THEM decide stuff! :loco:) Anyway, then I asked if that might be the case, and if so would it be possible to make a lateral move with my meds, and switch to something different but that had the same strength and if he thought that would help. By stressing the "lateral move" thing, I think it helped because he could see I wasnt wanting more meds or even something stronger (which he hated doing), and instead was just wanting to switch it to something equal for a while and then possibly switch back again when this med had the same effect. He was more than glad to do that for me, and that's what we have been doing for a while, just switching back and forth between meds when I become tolerant. (We also do this with my other meds, like sleeping pills, etc.) It has helped me stay at a low dose for a long time and minimized the need for me to go to something stronger. Dont know if this would work for you or not, but it is definately worth a try! (If the new med didnt work either, then you and he would both know for sure that you need something stronger.)

Another thing that sometimes helps is to add in a muscle relaxor, antidepressant, or neuropathic med. These often help with the pain cycle too and in the case of muscle relaxors, when I take on of these with my reg pain meds, it helps to boost the action of the pain med and seems to prolong the effects of it. If you arent on any of those yet, adding one might also be something to consider. If you are already taking these, then you might also benefit from making a lateral move with the muscle relaxor, since you can get tolerant to the effects of those too.

Whatever you end up doing, please dont be afraid to talk to your Doc about this. It is so imporatant to let them know when things arent working well. I think the pain diary idea is also a great one and will be helpful in starting the dialogue with your Dr.

Good luck! Hope all goes well and you get the relief you need!

Sincerely,
Amaranthe

[Breezy1218]

Keeping a record of your pain levels and when you take your meds is a great idea...it's something he can't argue with. Also, I think how you word your question to him makes a difference...don't say "it isn't working," say "it isn't working AS WELL any more." That's going to be a given for ANYone on long term pain management. Ask if it would be more effective in his opinion to either shorten the duration between doses (from 3 to 4 times per day, for example) or to slightly increase the dose instead (from 7.5 to 10 mgs). If you have suggestions but don't go in and say "I want to do it this way," that can help...it leaves the decision up to him, and then he doesn't feel like you're telling him what to do (docs can be funny about that!).

It's nothing against you that he will have your pharmacy wait until X day to fill your scripts (when you're due)...I think that's pretty common. If you're taking what you should, you won't be out until that day, and also for insurance reasons they won't fill even a day early a lot of times (my pain clinic is like that, I might have to make my refill appt a day or two early based on my work schedule, but they will write the scripts for THE day I'm actually due to be out). It's not personal, just policy with meds like this.

Good luck!