[Miss.J]

Hi Everybody!
I need some help from y'all. My boyfriend has been in severe back pain for over a year now. He has a herniated disc in his lower back at the L5 I believe. He hurt it last year working at his private shop (so no workmans comp claim there) At first he thought the pain was from a kidney stone, so he continued working. When it became to much to bear he went to the doctor in Janurary of 2012. He did three months of physical therapy with no result. After that, he did the injections into his back to block the pain. The first appointment was a disaster. To figure out where to put the blockers, he was injected 16 times in one sitting and asked to rate his pain scale each time. He was one of 19 patients in a three hour window, and the doctor was not available to answer any of his questions before or after the procedure. My boyfriend is a very well educated hands on person and the doctor treated him like he was too dumb to bother explaining how the treatment was supposed to help him. After this, a nurse at the hospital saw how upset and frustrated we were and suggested sonoran pain management. We had no idea what pain management was so decided to give it a go. The doctor seemed upbeat and positive at first. He promptly wrote a perscription for percoset and then scheduled an appointment for steriod injections. We didn't see any result from any of the injections, beside weight gain. After three injections my boyfriend asked the doctor what the next step was. The doctor got aggressive and basically said that the injections and a daily dose of narcotics were the only choices before he had spinal fusion surgery. We stopped going immedietly after that encounter. My boyfriend doesn't even take the percosets that were perscribed because they make him too foggy to function. That was in October of 2012. Since then, we haven't been back to a doctor, but the pain is getting far worse, and we don't know where to turn. Everything looks like a scam, and frankly we don't even have any money to scam away. He is on medicare and isn't able to work much, and I work in a restaurant. His pain is radiating down his leg, and causing some numbness. He can barely walk. Does anybody know of any doctors local to AZ that we might be able to talk to. Or any good surgeons in the US that might be able to work with our insurances? I wish that going abroad was an option, I have been googling my little fingers off researching all kinds of treatments and surgerys. Now I'm just looking for any help or advice from people who have gone through this. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
-Joy