Interview 02- Chronic pain

Age at interview: 29

Age at diagnosis: 23

Brief Outline:

Multiple tests all negative. Diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, 1996. Pain management - In-patient NHS pain management programme. Current medication - tramadol, amitriptyline, sertraline. Past medication - ibuprofen, paracetamol, diazepam

Background:

Not working/voluntary work for Fibromyalgia Association; single.

For more clips from this interview click here.

She has a good relationship with her GP, works with him and is realistic about what he can and cannot do. She keeps him informed about her use of complementary approaches and he helps to monitor her progress.

I've got a very good GP now, I have got a GP who actually knows what fibromyalgia is, he's prepared just to sit and listen, he listens a lot, he'll let me try new medications, obviously because of my science background I probably know more about fibromyalgia than he does because I read so much in research papers, but he's very willing to let me be a guinea pig and to work with me, which I think is important with a doctor/patient relationship, you've got to work on this path of chronic pain together. 

 

But you've also got to be very honest with your doctor, you can't just go out and start trying a new treatment without telling him, because then he can't monitor what's going on. My doctor likes to monitor what my drugs are doing, and if I want to start a new therapy I will go and tell him, I am going to start this now, and then we'll discuss it and decide is this actually working, is it actually making any difference, so we can see if I'm wasting my money or not, but also I think you have to appreciate with your doctor what he can do and what he can't do. 

 

Like he cannot take your pain away, so there's no point in keep going to him and say “Oh I'm still in this pain”, there's nothing that he can specifically do, you have to accept his limits. Like he can refer you to a physiotherapist, he can refer you to occupational therapy, he can help you with... 

 

So if I want a specific referral, I'll go and say I need to see a physiotherapist at the moment and he'll just do the referral or I think I need a bit more of this drug, can we just try it, rather than just experimenting on your own, which actually might be dangerous, because the interactions with the different drugs, he's there to point me in the right direction so we work together and it works really well. But I don't bother him all the time with things I know he can't solve, because that is where the frustration gets in, yes it works well.