When she asks how you're doing, start your sentence with "well, this (month, week, etc) has been..."

My pain management changed for the better when I started doing that instead of telling how I was that minute. I am always honest, but give a summary of the time since my last visit instead of a snapshot of my time in the office, which was almost never helpful.

Will that help?

Sorry to hear about your fall and hope you're healing alright. I only mentioned to my Dr. that the pain meds only last so many hours and said I have too much pain waking up from sleeping with whatever sleep I get because the pain meds wear off after 4 hours so she increased my ER meds but mainly except for one time I've been on only Extended relief meds. It took a few visits to her to get somewhat tolerable relief especially the car rides are so bad with bumps and vibrations now it's not as bad and I don't feel sleepy or anything with long acting meds but maybe at first. But yes you're right it's a delicate situation bringing up any name of a pain med with your Dr. Good luck and hope she works with you. Charry

Do you keep a pain diary at all? I found that to be the best tool for myself as well as the doc in tracking the effectiveness and timeliness of the meds I was taking. I could show how long it took before the meds began to work, how long they worked for, and how long I had to suffer before the next dose was due and then kicked in.

Sorry to hear about your fall. I hope that nothing is seriously wrong and the additional aches and pain go away quickly.

"C"