No Shit, Sherlock

     I had an appointment with my doctor today to discuss pain management. Since this is the one and only treatment option he's willing to provide, this should be easy.

     Who am I kidding though? Pain management is never an easy conversation with doctors. 

     He wanted me to get more spine X-rays. I pointed out that I had spine X-rays done on April 1. Apparently they were only lower spine.

     That seemed short-sighted. And apparently we're doubling down on being short-sighted because he sent me for X-rays of my middle spine. Not my entire spine. Just the middle.

     Results? L4, L5, L6 are also affected by the DDD. They're bone-on-bone. No padding in between.

     Yes, it's painful.

     So the conversation was me asking him to increase my pain meds. Currently they take the top level of the pain down a notch - usually but not always. And I'd like him to increase the dosage so I can get a bit more relief. 

     His response? "Well, you'll always have some pain."

     1. No shit.

     2. If you accept that your patient is in pain and will always be in pain and you haven't looked at what can be done to help them, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. 

     Oh and then I got a lecture about the dangers of opioids. About how they work but only for a brief period of time, and then you're addicted and you can't ever stop taking them.

     I told him that's interesting since after an accident I'd been in back in 2008, I did take them for a while. And then I didn't take them for a long time until he prescribed them to me.

     But I guess it could be worse. After all, he could've also told me to lose weight (again) as treatment for my DDD. Nevermind that I did that last year and it unsurprisingly did not help my back pain.