Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
Reality is vastly overrated. Seriously, Michele, I'm sorry this is so hard. I can certainly understand your wanting to run away and if I knew how you could do it I'd tell you. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out any way to do that.
As for what the pain doctor has to say, I'd be skeptical but I'd probably be leaning toward giving it a try. Considering how miserable you are and how little help more conventional medical approaches have been, it would be hard not to.
However, if you have a Family Practice doctor or a General Practice doctor or a general Internist you trust, I'd get paperwork from the pain doctor on exactly what she says is wrong with you and sit down with that trusted doctor and see what he or she says about all this.
I don't know much about the adrenal or lymphatic systems, but if she's saying your liver is shut down in the Western medicine sense (rather than the traditional Chinese medicine sense) that's pretty serious stuff and should certainly have shown up on your blood tests.
And, yes, the botox and other cosmetic stuff would make me a little uncertain also. However, it does seem that an awful lot of doctors are offering cosmetic sidelines. I think it's because those are good money-makers since they aren't usually covered by insurance and therefore the doctors aren't forced to charge whatever the insurance company allows. Even my dentist - whom I adore - has gotten really big into the whole teeth whitening thing.
I'd say proceed but with caution and a second opinion. Once the pain doctor and the therapist decide on exactly what treatments you need, see if they'll give you some idea how many treatments and whether you can definitely expect to see results and in what time frame.
Take care.
-------------------- [Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]