This was my annual “free” physical checkup that Medicare is required to offer. I had already checked my lab test results and so I knew that my A1C was 5.9%—right in the middle of the “pre-diabetes” range! I was so elated with this news that it didn’t really bother me that Dr. Chan was on a rant again about my “high cholesterol” and insisting I go back on statins. I pointed out to her that my HDL (the “good” cholesterol) was now over the minimum of 50 (it was 58) and my triglycerides are continuing to decrease (now at 123, down from 329 in 2013). I agreed to continue taking time-release niacin.
However, I did ask the question I should have asked months before this. I delayed asking then because I thought it should be in an office visit (instead of a phone appointment) so that Dr. Chan could actually feel my neck and detect a muscle spasm. I wanted to ask her about Flexeril or a similar muscle relaxant. That’s when she said the infamous words that would haunt me for many months to come:
“At your age, there is nothing I can prescribe for your pain.”
What?!? Old people are not allowed to have any relief from pain?!? And thus I began my quest—on my own—for pain relief!
