A ROCKY ROAD IN SEARCH OF PAIN RELIEF

She was the kind of patient most doctors dread - medical charts as thick as
the Yellow Pages and a seemingly insatiable need for pain killers.

"Fourteen other doctors dumped her. My challenge was not to be the 15th,"
said Dr. Mitchell Weisberg, a physician at Prevention Specialists in
Buffalo Grove and an internist on staff at Condell Medical Center in
Libertyville.

When she came to his office seven years ago, the 42-year-old mother was
virtually addicted to narcotic pain killers.

The prednisone she took to treat her Crohn's disease - a chronic
inflammation of the digestive tract - had caused osteoporosis, which
wreaked havoc on her bones.

An endless parade of tiny fractures in her back and spine kept her in
constant anguish.

She was on Vicodin to control the pain, but she constantly complained that
doctors wouldn't give her enough.

Weisberg was no different.

"It's like a red flag for doctors," he said. "We think anyone asking for
narcotics for pain relief is just trying to get high."

She kept asking for more, and he kept refusing.

"She was irritable, difficult to manage," Weisberg said. "There were a
couple of times when her records were copied and ready for her to take them
out the door."

After plenty of arguments, Weisberg finally accepted the fact that his
patient was going to need more narcotics than he was used to prescribing.

"American physicians are horrible at treating pain," he said. "Once I
decided my goal was to make her comfortable, that's when we had a real
breakthrough. I had to realize this woman wasn't just using me to get drugs."

She was hospitalized about 20 times in the space of seven years -
everything from migraines to a near-fatal staph infection.

Still, Weisberg stuck with her.

He got her help for her depression and osteoporosis.

He used some unorthodox methods to reduce the swelling in her legs from the
prednisone.

"She's been a practice within herself," he said. "Her charts take up a
whole shelf in my office."

While she's been one of Weisberg's most frustrating patients, she's also
been one of the most fulfilling ones.

At the age of 49, she's on her lowest level of prednisone ever and hasn't
had a bone fracture in two years. She's able to play with her son and walk
on the treadmill.

And she's moving away from her reliance on pain killers, Weisberg said.

"It was pretty rocky," he said, "but we've broken through a lot of barriers."

If you're a physician, the Daily Herald would like to hear about your
toughest case. Call Lorilyn Rackl at (847) 427-4734, or e-mail her at
lrackl@dailyherald.com.