Posts Tagged ‘Demerol’

A Pain Doc Who Gets It!

January 21, 2012

As some of ya’ll know & some don’t, I’ve been visiting the ER more than usual. In a period of about 6 weeks, I was in the ER *Five Times* due to pain flares of my fibromyalgia. Each visit they gave me demerol, but occasionally torodol. I have since gotten an emergency appointment with my fibro/pain management doctor. He told that torodol is an anti-inflammatory & wouldn’t work on fibro cuz it is not an inflammatory condition; I knew that, but it will help cfs inflammation. He also told me that demerol is an anesthetic, not a pain reliever that can treat the pain. This I did not know. He also told me that demerol could also be detrimental to my health and that if I do find myself in the ER, I should get morphine. Finally, he said that regular use of Tylenol 3’s is also detrimental to my health. He stated that ER docs should know all that. He did quite a few things for me. He administered local anesthesia to my lower back to help temporarily block the nerve receptors from registering pain for a few hours until I was able to obtain the rest of the medication. He gave me a prescription for the Fentanyl patch 25mcg/h. One patch lasts about 72 hours. This medication works with the pain centre in the brain. He also gave me percocet, but no more that 3/day. This is for breakthrough pain from the fentanyl patch. A change was also made from lyrica to gabapentin. They are apparently sibling medications, but the gabapentin is covered by my plan, lyrica isn’t.

 

OMG! A pain doctor who actually gets it and treats it!

Today’s ER trip, Dec 10 2011

December 11, 2011

We got to the Emergency Room near 6pm this evening. It wasn’t busy, yet; it’s Saturday night so ya it will get busy. After registration, I was sent straight out to the ambulatory waiting area in the back of the ER. I was back there for about 10-15 minutes before I was brought back to an assessment cubicle.. From there, I waited another 15-20 minutes to see doc..

OMG! Was I surprised! He was awesome.. He asked me about the pain, where? how bad? for how long? He asked about my current treatments, and clarified medical info.. He asked me what worked.. Torodal he asked, not really, Demeral he asked, ya that helped. So I ended up getting 1) a torodal shot, 2) a demeral shot with gravol, 3) a script to take home for 500mg of demeral, twice a day..
Wow! I mean like Wow! I’ve never gotten that much co-operation from an Emerg doc before, nor have I gotten that much pain management from any Emerg doc.. Several hours between the ER trip & when I got home to now & I stiil don’t believe it… 

Some Emergency doctors suck, and others totally suck… This guy absolutely did *not* suck, he was good! – –