Interview 29 - Chronic pain

Age at interview: 43

Brief Outline:

Back pain since, 1990. Surgery -  Discectomy 1990, Discectomy 1991, Spinal stabilisation 1997, Bone fusion 2003. Treatment - Epidural steroid injections. TENS. Pain management - Going on Expert Patient Programme. Current medication - morphine, codeine, tramadol. Past Medication - fentanyl.

Background:

Nurse; married; 2 children.

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He was frustrated that the pain clinic seemed to follow a set protocol for backs and didn't listen to him.

They had a Pain Management Clinic at the local hospital but those were the ones that gave me the injections in the back which didn't help, they didn't seem to, well they did for a few days but that was it, they didn't seem to do anything. And they didn't seem to listen to what I was saying and that got frustrating. 

There seemed to be a protocol for back pain and we'll do this, this and this in this order and if it doesn't work we'll try something else but they never actually listened to what I was saying about the pain that I was having or the treatments they were giving. And so in the end I just stopped going because they weren't doing any good and it was more of an inconvenience in the end of having to go up there. 

 

What would you have liked them to have done?

 

I suppose if they had listened to me a bit more about what I was saying and the fact that I, you know, I've had these sort of TENS machines, tried before, I didn't get on with them. And some of the tablets they wanted to put me on I said I didn't want to take because they just made me so sleepy. “Oh well try them anyway”. And they gave them to me but I didn't bother taking them because I knew what they were like. But it was what they had to try on their list of, you know, their list of orders for treatment of back pain. 

 

And so that's why I got upset and cross because they wouldn't listen, you know, you'd said you'd tried something before and it, and it didn't help “Well try it again.” “Well the tablets make me really sleepy”, “Well try them again”. And you know that they do, so I just gave up going in the end and sort of just sorted things out between myself and my GP now. And she looks up the information and she gives me information that comes through so we tend to do it that way now.

He stopped attending a pain management clinic because he felt the health professionals were not listening to him.

They had a Pain Management Clinic at the local hospital but those were the ones that gave me the injections in the back which didn't help, they didn't seem to, well they did for a few days but that was it, they didn't seem to do anything. And they didn't seem to listen to what I was saying and that got frustrating. 

 

There seemed to be a protocol for back pain and we'll do this, this and this in this order and if it doesn't work we'll try something else but they never actually listened to what I was saying about the pain that I was having or the treatments they were giving. And so in the end I just stopped going because they weren't doing any good and it was more of an inconvenience in the end of having to go up there. 

 

What would you have liked them to have done?

 

I suppose if they had listened to me a bit more about what I was saying and the fact that I, you know, I've had these sort of TENS machines, tried before, I didn't get on with them. And some of the tablets they wanted to put me on I said I didn't want to take because they just made me so sleepy. “Oh well try them anyway”. And they gave them to me but I didn't bother taking them because I knew what they were like. But it was what they had to try on their list of, you know, their list of orders for treatment of back pain. 

 

And so that's why I got upset and cross because they wouldn't listen, you know, you'd said you'd tried something before and it, and it didn't help “Well try it again.” “Well the tablets make me really sleepy”, “Well try them again”. And you know that they do, so I just gave up going in the end and sort of just sorted things out between myself and my GP now. And she looks up the information and she gives me information that comes through so we tend to do it that way now.