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Low Risk IDC w/ Baseline Multiple Painful Conditions
Breast Cancer | Last Active: Apr 14 4:04pm | Replies (22)Comment receiving replies
Looks like you are getting some useful responses, and should get more. But as I have 50 years of chronic pain I wanted to address that issue in the context of breast cancer treatment. It really seems like your pain is being undertreated. Have you thought about investigating a pain clinic or a doctor who is a rehabilitation specialist? The latter helped me a lot. It's unfortunately true that PCPs can under treat pain. Interestingly, in the course of cancer treatment my nephrologist insisted I get better pain control with prescription meds and my oncologist asks about my (non-cancer related) pain at every meeting. So please be straightforward with your cancer team--they may be able to help. At times the usual pain makes me feel hopeless--and that isn't good in terms of navigating cancer treatment choices. It has indeed influenced my choices, but not in an overly pessimistic way. “Mayo Clinic on Chronic Pain” is a book that helped me, too.
Replies to "Looks like you are getting some useful responses, and should get more. But as I have..."
Hi Miriam
I hope this may be of interest to you. In discussing my case, my 3 oncologists believe that my baseline non-cancer pain is undertreated, so because I now have a cancer diagnosis, they have made a referral to Palliative Care for me. I have been concerned that I will not be able to complete my cancer treatments because of the increased pain and I'm sure that the docs are as well. I am very hopeful and excited about this. I wonder if this would be possible for you as well? My next step was to follow your advice about a rehab doctor but this happened before I could contact one. My evaluation for Palliative is May 1st.
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Thank you for your thoughtful reply Miriam. I'm sorry to hear that you also live with chronic pain. Yes, my pain is undertreated. I lost my wonderful spine specialist in LA who managed my pain very well. I then saw 2 pain mgmt docs: one wanted to admit me to the hospital and wean me down because my dose was well over 90 MME's. The other one only did injections, not med management. I had no time left before running out of my pain meds and then withdrawal and even worse pain so I lied, said I was an addict, and was placed on suboxone. It doesn't help much. I do need to find a reasonable pain doctor but they're all so afraid to prescribe in this state because of the "opioid crisis". My breast surgeon wants my pain to be better managed and referred me to the doc that wanted to wean me down if you can believe that. I'm in the process of trying to be accepted into his practice. I like your idea about a physical rehab doc! I've had it with pain mgmt! I'm going to check that out. Better mgmt will enable me to come off of my hormones as well as handle the radiation. The surgery was the easy part. Only needed 2 doses of pain meds post op. I understand about feeling hopeless my friend and to me the worst part is the disability the pain causes.. the inability to do things that might bring me joy. Now with cancer on top of it I think I'm in denial as I've remained in good spirits.. strong faith and Cymbalta help lol. You don't sound like a pessimist at all and I applaud you for finding ways to live with pain for 50 years. I'll be thinking of you and thank you again!