u/Affectionate-Pop-197

So last August my palliative care provider abandoned me and I was left on a relatively high amount of opioid pain medication with nobody to prescribe it. I seriously considered buprenorphine just because I figured that I was doomed to go through bad withdrawal otherwise. But when someone from my PCP’s office called to address the messages I’d sent through the patient portal about what had happened with the palliative care provider and needing someone to take over my pain meds, I accepted the in person appointment that I was offered. And when I met with her, I was shocked when she told me that she would be willing to take over my pain management needs, because she didn’t think pain management would take me on such a high dose of pain meds.

But all this time, as she has been treating me better than palliative care did or pain management, I had been wondering what made her decide to take over my pain medication needs and all my other challenging meds.

I finally asked her straight out last Friday when I had another appointment with her. She told me it was because she cared about me and she also told me that it made her feel good about herself to help me so much, as she had been unable to help her mother who had suffered from similar problems as I have been dealing with since my EDS made itself known. I thought that was so sweet and I now know for certain that she does truly care about me, which makes me feel a lot more confident that she’s not going to abandon me as I have been abandoned in the past by other providers.

I just wanted to share this because a lot of people have wondered what made my PCP so willing to take over managing my pain medication.

I’m just so overwhelmed with the things I’ve been dealing with since last December and I guess it’s all being caused by my GERD (acid reflux) which I had a procedure for 6 years ago. I was able to stop the medication I had been taking for years and couldn’t stop taking because I would choke on my reflux at night. But now I’m dealing with recurrent aspiration pneumonitis and my asthma has gone from mild to severe as I said in the subject line. I’m currently on a month long steroid taper which is very helpful for all my breathing symptoms (coughing, wheezing, mucus plugs). But I hate the anxiety and insomnia that steroids cause me. I started the taper 3 days ago and I finally slept 6 and a half hours last night.

I am just wondering if there’s anyone using the Breo Ellipta inhaler? I just started that last week and it was helping to some degree, but nothing like this steroid taper.

Hope everyone has a good day.