Sign-in to Ask A Doctor - 24x7
OR
Sign in with Google
What Tests Should Be Done To Find Cause Of Body Pain?
Question: I don't have a primary care doctor at the moment. I have been dealing with this type of pain for over 10 years but it has gotten to the point where I am not able to live my life without the pain taking me out of commission. I have lost weight and my hair has gotten thin. I want to have a plan on what tests I should ask for before finding a doctor.
Brief Answer:
general info
Detailed Answer:
Ok, first information from previous tests and doctor's notes will be quite helpful.
Then MRI of the area is the single best test after a history and physical.
If it is a localized pain, history of trauma and/or surgery to the area. If the pain is more generalized measures of inflammation such as lupus testing, rheumatoid arthritis testing, vitamin D levels are all potentially helpful
Other testing would depend on the specific area and type of pain.
thank you for this opportunity
general info
Detailed Answer:
Ok, first information from previous tests and doctor's notes will be quite helpful.
Then MRI of the area is the single best test after a history and physical.
If it is a localized pain, history of trauma and/or surgery to the area. If the pain is more generalized measures of inflammation such as lupus testing, rheumatoid arthritis testing, vitamin D levels are all potentially helpful
Other testing would depend on the specific area and type of pain.
thank you for this opportunity
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
I apologise, I thought this question was tied into my first question so I am speaking with 2 separate doctors. I will end this conversation and continue with the first question that was answered
Brief Answer:
Sorry about this, too
Detailed Answer:
I have alerted the site's contact people about the situation, twice and suggested they try to reroute this. The question has been up > 17 hrs.
The general outline on how to proceed on medical diagnosis is to go from where you are to where you want to be-->from what symptoms are there to how to fix things. With Pain, this is a very short path indeed. You poke at it til it hurts and then knowing where you poked, you know what caused the pain and then you treat it. Get an MRI. Then, get physical therapy. The main principle here is going to be wind-up versus habituation. Nobody is going to tell you about this, so, as a pain expert, I will.
Habituation. Hear the computer? You hadn't until I mentioned it. It's a low hum, that your nervous system tuned out. If this can occur to your pain, you'd be fixed. Repeatedly Giving yourself the pain in a therapeutic context possibly with something to put it into the background (TENS unit, aquatic physical therapy, music, possibly cymbalta) works on making the pain into a background hum.
Wind-up is the opposite. the pain feeds on itself making it MORE noticeable. While current neuroscience is concentrating on various hormones released by injured nerves and muscles and while these DO play a strong role in construction workers continually damaging themselves, mostly it's totally wrong. specifically, you aren't a construction worker and Your wind up is different. Yours is mediated by expectation of pain and the use of physical therapy with TENS, aquatic, maybe cymbalta or amitryptiline and music WITH a sympathetic coach would change everything.
So... weight loss and hair loss is not pain. Depression from pain, which then acts to wind up the pain being worse. Either a lousy anti-depressant that is pretty good on pain (cymbalta or amitryptiline) or a really GOOD antidepressant (all of them except pritiq, cymbalta and amitryptiline) and other drugs for pain (gabapentin, etc as prev mentioned).
And also checking for other medical illnesses (cancer, anemia, thyroid, etc. but depression is more common than all other possibilities combined and times 2)
Hope this has helped even if I am not the doc you wanted.
Sorry about this, too
Detailed Answer:
I have alerted the site's contact people about the situation, twice and suggested they try to reroute this. The question has been up > 17 hrs.
The general outline on how to proceed on medical diagnosis is to go from where you are to where you want to be-->from what symptoms are there to how to fix things. With Pain, this is a very short path indeed. You poke at it til it hurts and then knowing where you poked, you know what caused the pain and then you treat it. Get an MRI. Then, get physical therapy. The main principle here is going to be wind-up versus habituation. Nobody is going to tell you about this, so, as a pain expert, I will.
Habituation. Hear the computer? You hadn't until I mentioned it. It's a low hum, that your nervous system tuned out. If this can occur to your pain, you'd be fixed. Repeatedly Giving yourself the pain in a therapeutic context possibly with something to put it into the background (TENS unit, aquatic physical therapy, music, possibly cymbalta) works on making the pain into a background hum.
Wind-up is the opposite. the pain feeds on itself making it MORE noticeable. While current neuroscience is concentrating on various hormones released by injured nerves and muscles and while these DO play a strong role in construction workers continually damaging themselves, mostly it's totally wrong. specifically, you aren't a construction worker and Your wind up is different. Yours is mediated by expectation of pain and the use of physical therapy with TENS, aquatic, maybe cymbalta or amitryptiline and music WITH a sympathetic coach would change everything.
So... weight loss and hair loss is not pain. Depression from pain, which then acts to wind up the pain being worse. Either a lousy anti-depressant that is pretty good on pain (cymbalta or amitryptiline) or a really GOOD antidepressant (all of them except pritiq, cymbalta and amitryptiline) and other drugs for pain (gabapentin, etc as prev mentioned).
And also checking for other medical illnesses (cancer, anemia, thyroid, etc. but depression is more common than all other possibilities combined and times 2)
Hope this has helped even if I am not the doc you wanted.
Note: For more detailed guidance, please consult an Internal Medicine Specialist, with your latest reports. Click here..
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Ashwin Bhandari
Answered by
Get personalised answers from verified doctor in minutes across 80+ specialties
