29th Oct 2007
Chronic Pain and Acupuncture
I haven’t been participating in the group for quite a while. My pain has been quite bad and I have become desperate.
I have had three surgeries on my lower back, the last one being a large fusion at L4/L5. I take a fairly hefty amount of oxycontin (320 mg/day), along with about 60mg/day of percocet (10/325 pills).
My pain doctor moved, so I started seeing one of his partners. He came right out and told me that he wasn’t comfortable prescribing large amounts of narcotics, so he encouraged me (”I’ll cover your medicine for the next month is all.”) to find a new doctor. (His idea of “large amounts” is anything over 80mg/day of oxycontin - he really just doesn’t want to treat chronic pain - for those of us who have been around for awhile - 80mg is often less than of our doses, which we take three times daily. I have large philosophical differences with that guy - but that is not the object of this post)
The neurosurgeon who did fusion surgery on me in Sept 2003 is wonderful, so I went to her for help in finding a pain doctor who wasn’t hesitant to treat pain. She got me into a pain specialist the next week. At the neurosurgeon’s request, (and with his agreement after examining me), he suggested that we give acupuncture a try.