Canadian Residents

I am mostly looking to connect with other Canadian Residents, who are dealing with the same Health Care problems that I am.  Residents of Ontario are mostly welcome to contact, but anyone in Canada who may have suggestions or websites for info, or anything, even just to chat about experiences, would be fine. 

I have read a lot online about the national dilemma for pain medication, and I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has had success with getting prescribed, and how they went about discussing this with their doctor.  I am finding that it is difficult to discuss pain medication without sounding like you're drug seeking, and doctors here seem to be so hung up on the addiction factor, they will not take the risk of prescribing anything that might be effective.  As I have basically ruined my stomach from trying to take anti-inflammatories, I cannot tolerate anything that is even slightly hard on the stomach.  To date, my doctor will only prescribe Tylenol 3's, which are not very effective anyway, but hard on the stomach also.  Even when I take them with lots of food. 

I have an appointment with a Fibromyalgia Specialist in Toronto in April.  I have no idea how much hope to have about this appointment that he may be willing to prescribe something better..or not...so I try not to get my hopes up...but I also don't know how to approach my doctor to get anything different either.  My GP is fairly new (within the year) and not familiar with my history, so she has to take my word for things at this point.  I am aware of not wanting to "rock the boat" with our mutual trust levels that is taking time to establish.

I am 53 years old, but feel like a child who is asking her mommy for something she knows the answer will probably be "no" to.  It's ridiculous.  I know what I need, and I wouldn't ask for it if I didn't, but that doesn't seem to matter.  You still have to "play the game" of letting the dr think they are in control and that you are just there to follow their orders.  Unfortunately, here in Ontario, if we have a family dr, we are very lucky, and do not have the option of "shopping" for another one.  I do like this dr, however, and do think that in time, she may listen more seriously to a pain med request, but we are too new to each other for me to be able to do that at this point.  I hear of other people getting all kinds of pain medications, and I don't know how they're doing that.  Maybe I just haven't taken the right approach yet.  Who knows!  I get exhausted just thinking about it sometimes.  Actually, most of the time! LOL 

I am glad to find this site and do hope to hear from people soon. 

Salutations to all and Best Wishes for better health!