Pain clinic (claim)

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Girlracer14

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Aug 16, 2022
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06/1995
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Hi everyone I've had fibro for over 30yrs and I have complex other heath issues, what I am wondering is I recently visited a pain clinic for help as I am desperate, I have serious problems with my back byt all he was focusing on was my well managed fibro and said that I could cure myself from fibro with my mind ??? I have never heard anything like this before and I am left wondering if he is right?or is he yet another Dr that doesn't understand the condition? I would appreciate anyone's feelings on this as I have been left feeling like it's all in my head .many thanks 😊
 
You asked for feelings, so here are mine.
Anyone who tells you that you can "cure" fibromyalgia with your mind is a quack and you need a different doctor.

I am not saying that it absolutely couldn't possibly be done. People have done and do fantastic things with their minds, and we only know less than 5% of what the mind does or how it operates.

But to say that to a fibro patient is like a doctor saying that so-and-so recovered from an injury like yours and then summited Mt. Everest so you can too. Maybe one person in several million can do that, but no one should expect you to do it or withhold treatment because one person somewhere did that.

Yes, he is another doctor who doesn't have any understanding of the condition.
 
Well THANK YOU VERY MUCH .It's much appreciated I wish just for one hour these Dr's could feel what we do! For every min of every day it's not at all helpful for them to say well you could cure yourself and he also said you probably don't even fibro anymore . I wish I could print off some current information for him to educate himself . He really upset me it's like he's blaming my back/leg pain on fibro even though he can clearly see on the mri i need surgery and if I could walk they would put me on the list to operate on my back straight away. Very frustrating. Thank you for your help.
 
pain clinic for help as I am desperate, I have serious problems with my back byt all he was focusing on was my well managed fibro and said that I could cure myself from fibro with my mind ??? I have never heard anything like this before and I am left wondering if he is right?or is he yet another Dr that doesn't understand the condition? I would appreciate anyone's feelings on this as I have been left feeling like it's all in my head .many thanks 😊
Hi Girlracer - some pain clinics focus more on pain management, others more on biochemical aspects as in pills.... there's both kinds of docs and clinics as well as mixtures, and both aspects to any illness - mind and body.
People that come from the psychological point of view sometimes exaggerate the importance of the mind and believe a lot of illness is psychosomatic, which is especially easy to advocate if docs can't find anything. What is true is that too much stress and trauma in our lives may have contributed and may still be contributing towards our fibro, some studies say 20%, others up to 60% have had this in their lives. But there is no medical evidence for it to be a real cause.
But focusing on this can never sensibly be about a cure. It's about management and improving quality of life. Theoretically once that's been said it might still well be possible to learn good mental attitudes from that person, probably more so than from someone who throws tons of pills at us. Especially if they start listening more and budging from this stark point of view. In practice they may be people who have no practical knowledge, know nothing themselves about strong pain and symptoms and cannot empathize well either.
So my test for this is to ask how they came to their opinion, what their proof, what the evidence is, and to see if they are relating to what I have been saying and what ideas they have. I've had a lot who couldn't relate, weren't listening or whose suggestions I found made pain management worse rather than better.
Best I think are people who either take us seriously and give us helpful support and tools for our specific problems and/or have the mindset of radical acceptance as in ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), with various techniques like accepting pain, but changing our feelings towards it so that we suffer less and can endure it better, and still be happy etc.

In your case you're saying your fibro is well-managed but you have back problems, and he wasn't listening to that offering you tools, he was praps offering perspective of hope of cure which is futile especially as regards your back problems. Better than this perspective would have been to offer a variety of tools you can't resist. One problem people in clinics have is they can't really get to know their clients, cos it's too short term. So they can only catalyze / provoke thoughts.
Praps all this can lead you to look for better coping strategies and "prove him wrong". :cool:
 
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Yes thank you I completely agree and understand they don't get time to get to know you but I am very strong minded and I know I don't feel sorry for myself nor give up without a fight I just felt he was seeing fibromyalgia on my file and thinking its all in her head or she has poor coping skills he is so very wrong .thank you for your feedback.
 
100% he does not "get it"
I have fibro, but I also have arthritis in my back that is causing me major problems. Just recently had a 2nd RF ablation to kill the nerves to the facet joints to help relieve the pain (and it does help - for a while)

Hope you can find a better doctor to help you with your back problems
 
Thank you that's nice to hear the treatment has helped you a little, I'm only seeing this particular Dr because he has to do the guided injections to my back hopefully soon and hopefully it will help the leg pain but of course it's only a temporary treatment, I don't know you just feel like they see fibro on your notes and immediately think oh she doesn't cope with pain she's weak😟 he did say however that in 2008 when I first injured my back I should of had treatment or surgery back then its been left for far to long. Its so nice to have all the comments on here ,you know when you know your right but it's just nice to have it confirmed from the only people that now what living with a constant pain condition is like .many thanks all
 
yeah, i understand...
for me the back problems came first. I didn't get my fibro dx until just a month ago. so i guess i was "lucky" in that respect?

I had to do the temp injections first, too.. to make sure they had the source of the problem pinpointed - with the temp ones you will know pretty much right away if it is going to help - hopefully it does and you get some relief.
 
Thank you I hope you get put on the right meds to help with the fibro, I've had it for many years and know what I can do and what I can't, it's a massive learning curve but when you get your head around managing it you will be OK. Best of luck with it and the back🤞thanks again 🙂
 
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