Question
I have 4 cervical disc herniations, one of which is flattening my spinal cord and causing pain and numbness in both of my hands. I also have pain in between my shoulder blades.  

I have seen a pain specialist and a neurologist. I saw the pain specialist first who treated me with Ultram for a few months and then told me there was nothing more he could do for me (he never did an MRI and didn't know the extent of my injury).

The neurologist did an MRI and found the herniations. He  told me that I am not a candidate for surgery and treated me with Ultram, PT, and Vicoden for 3 &1/2 years. This doctor has recently closed his practice with out warning.

I have always been concerned about becoming dependent on pain medicine, so I use it sparingly and only when I feel I've tried everything else. But, now that I am not being treated for my pain, I can't function. I have pain that is a level 8 on the pain scale every day.

I have read about chronic pain treatments and found out that it would be safer and more effective if I was prescribed a long acting medication and opposed to a short acting narcotic. Is this true?

One problem I'm having is finding a specialist to treat me. My primary care doctor does not treat pain. I have called around and cannot find a neurologist who is seeing new patients. I have called the pain clinics in my area and have been told up front that they do not prescribe pain medicine. I'm not really sure what to do now.

What kind of specialist would be best to treat my condition? If I do find a specialist, would it be appropriate to bring up the information that I found on my own?  

Thank you in advance.  

Answer
Toni,
First of all, the main problem that you are having is that everyone you are going to see is 4th rate at best.  What I mean by this the following:
If you put a rubber band around your finger what you would find shortly is that the end of the finger would change color typically red.  Then soon enough that finger may start to experience altered function (not working the way it normally would or should).  Then you may start to feel pain in that finger and enough to the point of going to see a doctor.  This doctor does all kinds of diagnostics on the function of the finger and offers various drugs to block the pain receptors from transmitting pain.  Then they may even give you exercises to do to strengthen your finger, or a special diet to help fortify the cells of the finger, they might even prescribe a special ointment to rub on the finger, and discuss some finger stretches that you could do.  Now, this all sounds like a lot of good things that should be able to help your finger to function correctly, would you agree?  Now this of course is a slight exaggeration but please look at the moral of the story:
The problem is that they can't see the problem, so they do not even know what the problem is.  they do know what the effect of the problem is:  The finger has turned a different color, the finger has lost its proper function, the finger is in pain.  So they will do everything that they can with their fancy gadgetry to try and change the effects of the problem without ever even knowing what the cause is.
Do you expect that any of these doctors with all of their knowledge and expertise and all of their tests and their treatments will be able to restore proper function in that finger and not have that finger experience pain when they concentrate on the effects of the problem rather than the cause?
Your problem is that you are going to doctors that cannot see the rubber band.
You need to go to a doctor that can locate, measure, and correct the cause of your abnormal health condition regardless of the name it was given by the people who look at the effects.
Does this make any sense to you?
You need to go and see an Upper Cervical Specific Doctor that can correct the cause and allow your body to heal itself.  After all, it is your body that put the problem there, and so it makes sense that your body can take it away.
If you would like a referral from me to a doctor that can help you, send me your town and state and I will try to locate one for you.
Yours in Best Health,
Dr Rob Arnone, DC
St Louis, MO
PS  I apologize for taking so long to get back with you as we recently had twins and I am trying to help out at home as well as with all of my patients and answer questions online.