Hi, I saw you're in the hospital. I hope you feel better soon. I hope you don't mind if I ask but are you in hospital for pain management? I have fibro and sometimes my pain is so severe (even with meds) that I toy w/ going for pain management. However, I never go because I'm worried they will think I'm just scamming for meds. Two weeks ago I had an issue w/ pharmacy & was without all my meds. I was seriously dt-ing because of it & only survived because I borrowed similar pills from my dad 😞
I think this was from my last adrenal crisis, so while pain was a significant symptom, I was more going to avoid the dying thing.
In general I personally rarely go to the hospital for chronic pain management anymore. I just don’t find it productive and it was usually a pretty dehumanizing experience. Emergency rooms are more set up for triage and stabilizing people, so they usually don’t handle chronic pain well. That said, if pain gets bad enough you can go into shock or have really high blood pressure, which are both dangerous and emergencies. Also severe acute pain is a good reason to go to the ER, especially if you don’t know what is causing the pain, or if you have an acute injury like a broken bone.
I tend to focus on outpatient pain control which works much better for me. I go to an excellent pain clinic, get lidocaine infusions, get dry needling, take non-opiate pain meds daily, live wrapped up in my electric heating pads, and have meds for breakthrough pain that I use once in a while. When I feel up to it and am cleared to exercise, I do my PT home exercises daily and go on walks as pain prevention. Life is much easier when I have the tools to deal with pain from home or through outpatient means.
It sounds like you were in a kind of unique situation because you ran out of meds. I’ve done that a few times and it was terrible! Even when I do a controlled taper off meds, like after surgery, things can get pretty unbearable. Depending on the meds you take, withdrawals can be dangerous, so this would definitely be a time to contact your prescribing doctor. And if you ever have any question about your safety, it’s definitely ER time.
*** BTW, none of this is medical advice. The decision should always be yours and your doctors. I can only say what works for me.***
