Pain Clinic, waste of time

Thank you, yes acupuncture of course, and that was quite insightful about the two different methods of practice.

Yes that makes a lot of sense, and as you say, not taking the holistic view is a major issue to the way medicine is looked at in our system.

It's interesting as we've been listening to 'What's up doc', a BBC podcast by Dr's Chris and Xand Van Tulleken. They sometimes have guests that talk about things like this, and had a psychologist on one week saying how mind and body can effect the other with gut issues as you describe. With 10 minute, one-issue-at-a-time appointments, it's kind of impossible for Doctors to find out if there are a few issues that are actually linked, so they aren't looking to see if there is a root cause and treat that instead. 

Acupuncture. There are two different types, one is traditional and was practised for centuries but was banned during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960's, many practitiioners came to Britain and started teaching, so there should be plenty of traditional practitioners around.

The second type of acupuncture that was allowed after the Cultural Revolution treats the symptoms of an illness rather than trying to balance the whole body, it is this second type that the NHS sometimes provide. I had this before and it didn't work for me, except when I had a treatment after a poor nights sleep where I ended up with a frozen muscle and the relief was almost instant.

I do want to try traditional accupuncture, I'm told it's better for long term conditions and ones that produce a variety of symptoms and problems like fybromyalgia. For example, you hurt, so you tend to have poor posture and end up with your shoulders around your ears, then you get headaches and digestive problems. In Western medicine and non traditonal accupuncture all of these symptoms will be treated as seperate issues and you may well end up on several different drugs or treatments, none of which are really addressing the problem, in a holistic treatment it will be recognised that pain causes the body to tense and the digestion to malfunction and headaches to occur, if the main underlying problem is treated then the others will sort themselves out.

I had heard about how good turmeric is. As you say, what makes it difficult is how to find out what is considered actually good and what is just a craze. At one point they were going to legalise medicinal canabis as they recognised it's effects on pain management, but that seems to have gone away again as 'too tricky' politically, which must be very frustrating. 

I guess aswell some things will work better on some people than others, so you have to try some things like reflexology or the one where they stick those needles in you (I can't for the life of me remember what it's called now), and just see if you get any benefit from it, seeing as nothing else is available, and all private and costly I imagine!

You have highlighted how difficult it is to make appointments.

The GP’s surgery website in my area states that there art two ways to make an appointment. Telephone at 8.30am and speak to a receptionist or go online at 6.30pm Monday to Friday when new appointments are released. The reality is that the phone line is constantly engaged when I ring from 8.30am onwards. I redial and sometimes I get put in a queue that eventually puts me through to a receptionist who tells me the doctor will ring me. On other occasions after waiting on the telephone queue for 20 minutes, the call is cut off and when I redial a voice recording tells me to phone tomorrow. 

There is a scramble at 6.30pm to book an online appointment. Only a few appointment slots are released and eventually a message tells me that no online appointments are available.

I hope you get the care you need for your shoulder. A friend of mine had a frozen shoulder and it made me realise what a painful condition it is.

I use a lot of alternative treatments, massage, reflexology which is brilliant for the fybro, osteopathy, herbal rememdies, the made thing is that some of the herbs and other treatments doctors know about and rate and will tell you they know of them but can't recommend or prescribe them, even though they maybe the best option for the patient.

In many ways pain medication is unchanged from years ago, it seem a choice of aspirin, paracetamol NSIADs like ibuprofen and opioids like cocodamol all the way up to fentanyl. The only one of those I can take is paracetamol and the only way I can have enough to really control the pain is via a drip, which for obvious reasons isn't eally an option outside of hospital. There's a very tight lipped, fingers in ears la la la approach to things like CBD, let alone medicinal cannabis, they're DRUGS and something bad might happen, although they're quite happy to dish out opiates that they know are addictive. The minor injuries unit know about Turmeric/ curcumin and reckon its brilliant stuff, but again it cannot be prescribed or recommended, it's a ridiculous situation only made worse by our health trust being totally incompetant and useless and the lack of political will to sort it out.

Good morning,

Think I had a similar experience.

August 2025 I over stretched when putting away biscuits in the cupboard. Thought it was a soft tissue injury or rotar cuff injury (similar); 

December 2025 I caved in to book a nhs physiotherapy appointment (gp surgery); went to make the appointment, the receptionist said that it's a long wait as the physiotherapist was off (vacation); asked me which part of the body needed physio on.

On 5th December I had a phone call to say that the clinic runs on Wednesdays.

Booked myself on 7th January. 4 reminder messages (1 text and 3 NHS app messages);

Attended the appointment, listened to me and said frozen shoulder. Explained to me what it is. If I get it on the left side I have to have a blood test to rule out diabetes. Also go back if gets worse.

Making appointments is difficult.

Two mistakes on my medical records. 

I'd declined the steroid injection (I wasn't told the side effects or any other stuff);

Finding paracetamol  and deep heat gel helps. Will take ages to heal. 

I was expecting to go to the GP surgery to make an appointment, which was simpler as find it difficult to do phone calls. 

Another problem is that you can't book appointments online as people weren't turning up for appointments without cancelling.

Absolutely ridiculous. 

Sounds like the nurse at the pain clinic was a bit of a pain in the *rse. 
I hate it when medical care (and highlight on the word care), providers are rude and passive aggressive. It's partly why I will do everything to avoid seeing medical people now myself, as I've had so many experiences of them being rude or just plain horrible, even when I've had a sick baby. I'm so sorry that 7 months wait was worth nothing -I mean if the consultant is off, why not just be given the option to wait a bit longer, rather than being discharged and back to square one. 

They should surely have to offer you some pain relief that you can take, I know you've said before you have a lot you can't.  I would actually make a complaint about the rudeness, they may be busy and understaffed, but how you treat people in that line of work can have a profound effect on their lives. 

As you said, you can see why people start trying alternative medicine, when no one else will listen!

Perhaps the consultant would have had more freedom to offer innovative treatment ideas but the nurse is likely to be limited in what she could suggest. I think the way the NHS is struggling at the moment means that many patients aren’t being offered the care they need to live as healthy a life as possible.

I have been waiting nearly eight years for a surgical procedure that ‘may’ happen this year. Services are disjointed here and although the waiting list for adult autism assessments is many years long, the follow up care here is quite good for people with low support needs.

That’s tough. Maybe next time, if there is one, tell them you want to be in less/no pain. If they are anything like some health services here, they will tell you, “we can’t guarantee anything but we can offer X, Y or Z treatments, all of which have proven efficacy, which do you want?” 

Everyone else but the pain clinic are really nice, next time I see my GP I will tell them about this, although there's nothing else they can do, they just help support me with my alternative and less than legal alternatives.

I'm angry rather than dispairing, I think they've decided I'm to difficult and to ignore me.

Sorry didn’t see this.

I was taking a long time to continue my first reply as I am a bit distracted at the moment. 

I don’t know where you could go or what you could do to get relief from the pain. The only thing I can suggest is to return to your GP and tell them what you have said here. There is kindness on this forum and I am hoping at least one of your family members is sympathetic and kind. I get that you are at the end of your tether but don’t give up hope or let that experience put you off. 

No nothing, even the fybromyalgia group she told me about no longer meets on the island only in Llandudno, or a faceache group.

I don't think I had unrealistic expectations of what they could possibly do to help me nor do I think it fair for them to put the emphasis on the patient to tell them what they need, I don't know what treatments they have available to them, so how would I know what to ask for? It seems as if you don't ask then nothing will be offered, it's like a double ignorance problem where the patient is always in the wrong

It’s unfortunate that you had a clinician who was unsympathetic, especially when it is a given that people in chronic pain are less able to cope with life in general.

I have noticed these past few years that doctors, physiotherapists, psychotherapists and some nurses say, “What are your expectations/what do you hope to gain by coming here/what would you like the outcome to be?” I imagine they have been trained in this approach so that patients can state that they want to be pain free/sleep better/walk 10K/return to work/cut the grass etc., yet the way some professionals phrase the question can come across as uncaring and the addition of “this time” sounds as if the nurse couldn’t be bothered. 

I hope that you got the answers/help that you needed. 

Sorry got signed out.

But they dont' recomend injections at all now and dont' do them, they prescribe lifestyle changes instead along with the pain killers I can't take. I do all the things they suggest like taking exercise daily and getting out and about and not sitting around doing nothing.

It's all well and good them deciding not to do certain treatments anymore but I think they should have something to offer in it's place, they've always encouraged lifestyle changes, last time they said I could teach them things rather than the other way around. 

 I feel left high and dry with nowhere to go with the levels of pain I endure on a daily basis, let alone when I have a bad day and when I go to stand, my shin bones feel like they're going to pop my kneecaps off. They don't do anything for fybromyalgia, she suggested I go to a comunity group that helps with lifestyle choices for fybro, nothing for osteo arthritis, just grin and bear it.

If they have so little to offer is it any wonder that people try so many, often unregulated alternative treatments? Don't they understand that when you're in pain every day, thats uncontrolled, that people get desperate and that leaves them open to charletans and snake oil salesmen?

Sorry I'm ranting again, but I'm fed up, I've spent years dealing with pain, with little or no help, trying everything I can to stay out of a wheelchair, now when I'm at the end of my resourses, there's nothing, no help, not even kindness.