[DomnNC]

I understand about the frustration of getting pain meds. I've had 2 cervical fusions and one lumbar fusion with all sorts of hardware. I have permanent nerve damage due to waiting too long to have anything done about these things.

The DEA is cracking down hard on Dr's who prescribe a lot of pain meds. My PCP sent me to a pain Dr to determine what the extent of damage I had. The pain Dr made a recommendation as to the type, amount and dosage of pain meds. He put this in writing to my PCP and said he would prefer that my PCP write the prescription each month or every 3 months so that one Dr was prescribing all my meds and would know everything I'm taking. I don't know if any of ya'll having issues with getting pain meds have been to a pain specialist or not. If not, go to one and have them make the recommendation back to your PCP and have it put in your file, that way the PCP's butt is covered in the event the DEA pays a visit to their office or makes an inquiry.

You can go to the American Pain Foundations website and go to the PainSafe tab, there is a section for Dr's on pain treatment with opiods, print out some of it and take it to your Dr and have an open honest discussion with them about it. Here's the link:

http://www.painfoundation.org/