I think I should do some spring cleaning of my Fibro Toolkit©. Well, I'm being forced to reorganize it.
While waiting to see ALL the doctors who will be taking over my health care and Fibro/pain management, I'm running out of my prescriptions. Now I don't use each prescription pain medication every single day. Most of my scripts are for break through pain, you know when a flare sends me way above my baseline of pain and fatigue (which is usually a 5 so pain and fatigue have to hit 8 or 9 before I need to take anything). The problem, the doctors here in Louisiana all believe that no one, anywhere, prescribes any kind of pain medication ... example norco, or, Fentanyl or Lidocaine patches for the treatment of Fibromyalgia. I can do without the norco, it wreaks havoc on my stomach and makes me woozy, but the Lidocaine helps with the awful leg cramps and the Fentanyl helps when pain hits 9 or 10.
Now mind you, I'm not asking for refills of the norco, I can't handle the side effects, but my doctors back home prescribed the patches with no problem as long as I followed the requirements of the controlled substance contract and came in for the pee and blood test every 10 to 12 weeks. Of course since I've moved over 1,000 miles away, it is almost impossible to keep those appointments. Thus, the need for new health care and pain management providers.
I'm trying to ensure continuity of care before a major flare up hits. I've already been in the hospital for the worst IBS flare and blood pressure high enough to explode my head because of lack of a local health care and pain management team so I don't think I'm going to be able to keep a FM flare at bay too much longer.
I'm trying to be a responsible person with Fibromyalgia and keep by Fibromyalgia Toolkit well stocked with all pain management tools that have proven effective for my care but this war on pain medications is making it nearly impossible to retain one of the many valuable tools.
Comments