@suzetteirons
I live in Georgia.. the SW corner in Albany. I am blessed to have a good pain specialist here. Sometimes he gets it wrong… trial and error. We are having one of those debates now. He thinks it is to do with muscle and I think it is a some type of neuralgia. We will see who is correct on this one. I think it is me 😁 We have been at this for 20+ years. So he knows me pretty well.

I am a patient at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.. for upper abdominal and esophagus. My driving trip is about 4 hours on a Sunday. We usually stay a week down there even if I have only 2-4 days with appointments.

You have been given excellent advice on keeping a journal. Write down what you can remember and continue daily. It will help in your diagnosis.

Medications can cause pain. .. be aware if it is a side effect. I have found that a pharmacist is better than most doctors on telling you how your medications interact with each other and when the best time of day is to take them. List your over the counter medications you take regularly. I made a table with columns of name of medication and strength, dosage and prescribing doctor. At the top of page I have my name, address and phone number. Below that In red I have typed and underlined the word Allergies and a list of them and the side effects.. hives, itching, headache, nausea… whatever it is that causes me not to tolerate it… one is depression and another is muscle aches. Next is the table of medications and over the counter medications I take regularly. I keep a copy on the hard drive of our computer and print several copies and carry one in my purse.. along with my list of surgeries… that is same form as medications, but the table contains the surgery, the date, the surgeon and hospital on surgery center. These can be easily edited on the computer when things change.. make sure you make a backup copy on a thumb drive or something else.

Before having an appointment with a doctor write down your questions on a piece of paper.. my husband (he is my bestie 😀) uses a spiral notebook to write the questions and answers in and other notes from the visit. I think it is important to have someone be with you at your appointments. Someone to take the notes and be another pair of ears and another voice. Have an outline of your journal.. symptoms.. when began.. doctors you have seen and medications you have tried that did and did not help. (that could be another table).

Pain has so many causes… and the problem can originate in a totally different place than the pain.

Wishing you the best.
ZeeGee

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