6 hour pain clinic appt???

[dandy8]

I finally have an appt. to a Pain clinic at the University of Washington Medical Ctr. (3 hours from my home)
They told me my first appt. would be 5.5-6 hours long.

I have been suffering with severe pain for several months now. I've been taking opiods for pain for a year and now take 60mg MS Contin every 12 hours and use up to 6 pills a day of Morphine Sulphate sublingual tabs. Which the later, is GREAT! They work instantly!
Of course I take the usual stuff too...Elmiron, amitryptiline etc......

Does anyone have ideas as to what I should expect from that long appt??

Thank you

[lotsofgirls]

Hi Dandy,
I am in a pain clinic assessment right now, and I am hopeful that they will be able to get my pain levels down (not gone) to a reasonable level. The assessment was done by 4 professional disciplines: pain specialist, physio therapist, occupational therapist and psychologist (the discussion is around how the pain is impacting my life, and if I have any clues to things that aggravate it, what my strategies are for dealing with it, and are there any other strategies that will help).

I get the team's report on Tues with a treatment plan. I'll let you know how it goes. Sorry to hear you are in such severe pain. I know how that is, and it sucks!!

Cath

[ICNJess]

I don't understand why your appt. is so long. My first appointmnet was an hour and a half at the most. I had a physical exam, filled out paperwork talking about my pain, and we talked about treatment options. The only thing I can think of is that you might be talking to a few different doctors at that appt?

Good luck, I hope it helps you some.

Hugs and love,
Jess

[auntiedeb]

I don't understand why your appointment is so long either. when I went to the pain clinic in Norwood, it ws only an hour and the anthesiologist wasn't on that day so I didn't talk to her. I never went back there, they wanted to a nerve block and I said no way. Found another uro who knows about ic and belives that ic patients have pain.

[ICNDonna]

It sounds like they might be planning to do a complete work-up so they can get you on a pain management plan sooner. Sometimes when people go to a pain clinic, they need to make follow-up appointments with the various specialties, such as counselor, physical therapist. They may be planning to do it all in that one day.

One thing you can do is to telephone them and ask what the agenda for the day will be.

Sending warm healing thoughts,
Donna