So – some of these post are running concurrently but I have to write about them in their parts rather than as a whole:

So, after some prodding from some friends I found a pain clinic where all they treat is pain. It wasn’t sure at first but once I was there, I knew this is what I needed.  After speaking with the doctor about what had happened, we realized that it was likely the staph that damaged the nerves in my faces after the surgery and that it was probably permanent.  Since I was just taking OTC medication, he put me on some low dose pain medication, gave me a pee-in-the-cup drug test and an appointment for a month later. I saw him every 28-days to get my medication and had my random drug tests and things were going pretty well.  He recommended that I even have a few procedures that would inject lidocaine into the nerve bundle that goes into my face (the injection takes place in the neck) so I had a few of those, until I had one that went really really bad where he couldn’t find the nerve and spent 45 minutes poking around my neck with the needle, leaving my neck looking like a purple pin cushion.

After a couple of years at the pain clinic, I moved on to a physical therapy clinic because I was having additional issues with my shoulder and my neck and so that doctor took over management of my pain medication and then when I was finished with physical therapy my primary care doctor took over management.  I’ve had three different primary care doctors in the same clinic who have managed my medication and strangely none of them were worried about the DEA.

But now I’m at the point where I need something else; something different.  I’ve been on the same medications and doses for over 4 years and it’s worked well for the most part but now it isn’t and it’s time for a change.