I rang the GP practice this morning to review my progress with pregabalin. When I got a call-back from the triage doctor and explained what was happening she immediately said I need to come in, which was a little surprising for a med review. Anyway I got booked in for this afternoon with Dr Watson, whom I don’t think I’ve seen since my symptoms were originally investigated and she referred me to neurology. Despite running about 1h 20m late by the time I went in, she was not in any sort of rush to get through my appointment. Unfortunately she initially thought my problems were in the lumbar region, having not come across anything like it in the upper back before, and so gave me a printout about a condition that was irrelevant.
She went over my meds again, and we talked about what the registrar at Queen Square had said. Unfortunately QS have not sent the clinic letter through yet, so she didn’t have the advice from there. She once again said about the stringent rules that the pain team have for referrals, but that she will look in to that next time we meet. Given that I seem to be having some benefit from pregabalin, I am to continue with that, and she has suggested I could try an extra 50mg at night. She advised doing this at the weekend to see if I have any side effects, and if I’m ok with it, and seeing any further benefit, then to continue at that level. I am to get a phone appointment in 2 weeks to review the meds again, and she asked that I make a routine appointment to see her or Dr Godwin whenever they next have availability for a face-to-face review. Hopefully by then they will have had the letter from QS, and I will have had a reasonable time on pregabalin to determine whether to try for a pain clinic referral.
Needless to say, when I went to reception to book a routine appointment, they didn’t have any, so I have to call back at the weekend to see if anything has been added.