Chronic spine pain

hi i am a full time carer for my wife who is mentally ill with biopolar disorder , asthma , copd , dystonia , sleep apena ,diabetic ,manic depression . i my self have got diabetic , osteoarthritis in spine and hips, bronchiectasis , reactive depression , stress , i have had spine problems for over 20 years and i was advised to stop my morphine and tramadol that i was taking for over 20 years , dr surgery did try other nerve pain meds that did not help , i have had a few scans done blood tests etc not alot wrong my dr says why do i want different pain killers other than paracetamol i say due to it does not help with my pain , i went to physio they cant help … i have called to 111 service at times due to my symptoms due to chronic pain can indicate other things going on eg: heart attack . i have been to my dr about the pain and she says there is not alot wrong with you all though had lots of tests done …
today i get a letter from ambulance head quarters concerning the times i am ending up the hospital all though you call dr surgery or 111 for advice first , it says basically they are concerns over my health !!

Dean, when did you receive this letter?

I expect it is just a generic letter they are sending out to everyone who has used ambulance services on more than one occasion recently; in a bid to reduce the pressure on ambulance services because of the pandemic.

Under normal circumstances I would suggest asking for a pain clinic referral as they are more expert than GPs at managing pain. However, I don’t know whether such a referral is possible under the current regime. It might be worth asking though to get on the waiting list. Also, perhaps the pain clinic is doing Skype appointments or similar.

Melly1

hi thanks for your reply i received the letter on 04/04/2020 i was under msk for 3 years with advice on how to manage my pain but it didnt help , i was up the hospital everyday for 3 weeks about 2 years ago go to groin upper and lower stomach pain and i was Choking and being sick bring up alot of flem , they done a urinary ct scan in the end and saw nothing was wrong then i get a letter from hospital saying about a cyst all though only 1 cm they are not concerned , i had a phone call from adult social care frequent caller engagement team who came round for a appointment no support was put in place , last year i had somewhat of the same issue Choking bringing up a lot of flem at one point i stopped breathing , i have passed out before now the only thing they have found is that due to having bronchiectasis after Pneumonia over 10 years ago i am making different bugs in my spit i have been on 8 lots of antibotics since xmas 2019 i have informed surgery finished antibotics again but usally they ask for another sample of spit but with the ways things are are the moment paitents cannot go to dr surgery with cold like symptoms, due to my symptoms like i said it can look like something else i have had a brain scan , ct scan , mir scan ultrasound scan , blood tests , toilet checks , heart checks .etc over the past 2 weeks i have been up the hospital due to tailbone pain lower back my legs went numb and again coughing up alot of flem taken to hospital checks done and dr says nothing we can do in a emergency unit it is your back , i have had sharp pain across my chest they say not heart its your back .now with the issue of covid 19 like alot of people who are lone carers feel cut of from the world we had to phone up 111 yesterday due to my wife was running out of diabetic meds they could not deliver all though we are in another 12 week isolation i had to go out and pick it up from a chemist and yet 111 and dr knew we had under line health conditions … we also contacted 111 due to my symptoms only 3 times in the past month 99% of the time 111 will send out a ambulance out to check you over the last time i had a ambulance out was due to my bottom lip turned blue and advice from dr surgery was to have ambulance as they could not do a assessment over the phone when ambulance arrived they advised us that they are being called out due to dr surgerys dont want to see there own patients due to issues with covid 19 so after checks done we explained to ambulance we was in 12 week isolation again and following goverment guidelines there answer was to go and get your own food there are lots of people with more problems than you all though underline conditions , so i have contacted the revelant people in the letter and awaiting a call back next week , the problem with me is i have had problems with professionals since 1997 , so why is it my fault calling ambulance , at the bottom of the letter is states however if you do experience and emergency health problem and you feel you need a amulance it is important that you call 999 . if you have ahealth problem that you know it is not an emergency but are unsure what to do contact gp or dial 111 nhs service … as they will be able to provide you with helpful advice and information … so what have we been doing we are calling gp or 111 and then ambulance is sent out . i cannot wait to speak to these people next week as my stress levels will rise !!