Why do they do that?

I have a policy with myself for when to call my back pain doctor. When I get to the point of needing 2-3 breakthrough pain pills to get through the day, its time to make the call for an appointment. I have been at that point for a while and got in to see him yesterday afternoon.

My points of discussion with him were two: My right SI joint is in serious need of having its nerves killed off and my varying total back pain needs to be discussed. We don't always change my pain meds at a single appointment, we often discuss them over a few appointments before making changes.

My right SI joint (which is the long seam joint down the side of your tailbone if you are wondering) has been giving me problems for months. We have had the treatment discussion before but previously we have focused on other pain areas.

Yesterday afternoon, he  had me lie on the exam table and he moved my legs around and pressed on my hip. That hurt. Then he had me lie on my side and he pressed right on the SI joint. That was like a live wire running through me. I had to catch my breath after.

I think he realized how much it hurt and said he would send the nurse in to schedule my treatment. It took a while for me to recover from the amount of pain. I know he had to make sure he knew where the pain was coming from before heated needles to kill the nerves - because you really don't want to kill the wrong nerves.... But, yowza!

October 25 is the date for the treatment... It will be three years from the last one, which was the second one on the same place. These treatments (radiofrequency) can be repeated over and over again and each time the nerves come back, it takes longer and longer and they are weaker and weaker so the pain levels are less and less.

On a side note, my pain management doctor says I can actually take up to 8 break through pain pills a day and he considers 2-3 a day a very low dose. But my rheumatologist tells me that from her point of view, 3 should be the maximum because of convulsions. Its the different perspective from the two doctors that gets damn confusing.