I have an early appointment with a pain management specialist today, so I haven't been able to put up my usual longer blog post. If I have time later, I may do so.
In the meantime, here are two cartoons from the past week or so that caught my eye and made me laugh. Click either image to be taken to the cartoon's Web page for a larger view.
Wish me luck!
Peter
11 comments:
Good luck with the specialist. All the best.
May all go well, and may the Lord guide the specialist's thoughts and decisions.
Good Luck!
Pain management Drs ? That's hilarious. Wish they made a difference.
I understand your cynicism, having had to deal with the breed before: but this one is really good, and is helping me cope with pain severe enough that it would cripple me without his assistance. I'm glad to have found one of the good ones.
I got a RS-4i Plus Sequential Stimulator through the VA from the pain management DR there. It's like a ten's unit or HWAVE unit but for me it actually works. They are hideously expensive though (3000ish dollars) and they don't just give it to you. You get one loaned to you and if it works for you then they let you keep it.
I have tried TENS and HWAVE before and it was so so.. also putting on each individual pad using it then moving it and using it again got old quick. Also needed someone to put it on places I could reach on back so another downside.
RSI 4i on the other hand comes to you from the company with a vest and belt with pads set in them to match where you need the treatment.. You just put the vest and belt (looks like a back brace belt) on zip up vest and tighten belt so contacts are snug against your skin and run the program. You have one cable connector that they all connect into that then goes to the RSI 4i unit. I got both vest and belt sent to me so could put both on and just switch cable to treat next area. They also sent a set of pads with it's hookup that you can independently put in place. So pretty comprehensive.. they set mine for two cycles, a muscle exercise/building setting and a pain killing cycle. Each treatment takes about 25 minutes the way they set it up for me. So 50 minutes total for upper back and lower back, half the time is the stimulation program and the other half of the 25 minute treatment is the pain treatment. All I know is that if im hurting really bad I can use it it will nuke the pain or most of the pain and it will last a few hours, when pain comes back it is at a lower level. You are supposed to run it twice a day as a maintenance and building program. I try to but life gets in the way and I forget sometimes but when I'm hurting a lot it does help significantly..
This is just my experience and I don't claim it will do that for everyone. Pain management DR said that she has had good results with it with most people but that for some it really doesn't do much or that they say it doesn't, so you mileage may vary.
Good luck with that. None of 'my' family has had any success with pain management types... and I've never heard of a RS-4i Plus Sequential Stimulator
FYI - Quite a few of the RS-4i devices on eBay. Prices in the hundreds, not thousands. (IANAD)
I hope that it went well.
"Pain Management Specialist" sounds like one of those cosy titles that our modern Governments and their Servants, all lovers of the more acceptable euphemism - see Collateral Damage - would give to the Master of the Royal Torture Chamber.
May God's Blessing be on you.
Yeah i have seen them on ebay. They are probably units va or insurance have paid for and patients or family are selling. If unit isnt programed for you or you dont have accesorries with it then not sure how effective it will be. I did get a very basic programming guide with it but think there is a lot they dont tell. It comes with pre programed funtionality for frequency, oscillation and amplitude. Mine is set for 2 totally different functions to be used sequentially.
It does sound like one of those weird jobs DEI made up doesn't it. However we have had conversations here on this blog about the differences between short term and long term pain and how they are really different. Pain Management Dr is a response to the people living with long term pain that just doesn't go away and that this fact is more recognized by both the medical field and people in general. It is definitely a grey area that is hard to address as many things that hurt long term are different person to person because of the high variability in people's bodies. The RS4i that I mentioned does help me and according to my Dr a lot of people, however I doesn't help all people. According to Dr there are some that it doesn't seem to work on. Same as almost every medication I have taken doesn't work well on me while other people seem to get a lot of value out of many of them.
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