Painaustralia, Cassie Brady call for better specialist pain treatment in Wagga

As published in the Daily Advertiser on 13 June 2020.
By Catie McLeod

Cassie Brady, aged 40, was hit by a B-Double truck in 2000 which severely damaged her spine, pelvis and legs and left her in permanent pain, struggling to survive without taking opioids.

In 2017, Mrs Brady moved with her family from Tumut to Wagga to be closer to medical treatment, but has found suitable help hard to come by.

"You go to the hospital, and they're like, 'Well, you know, we can only give you pain medication'. So you really can't get much help for it," she said.

Mrs Bradys's suffering has reached a point where she worries about caring for her daughter and the burden placed on her husband, who is planning to quit his job to help look after them.

"The hard thing is the pain medication that you take. I'm out to it. I can't drive ... you don't want to take the medication but to survive you have to," she said.

"When you stop taking them, then you get the side effects. The withdrawals ... I'm absolutely exhausted, I don't sleep."

People living with chronic pain in the Riverina have to travel to Wodonga or Canberra if they want to visit a dedicated pain specialist.

Wagga anaesthetist Igor Lemech said an area the size of the Murrumbidgee Local Health District would usually have two or three pain specialists and he would like to see one based in Wagga.

Dr Lemech said Wagga was visited by a specialist from Canberra once a week, and by public pain service Nepean from Sydney "three or four times a year", who also provide telehealth services.

"I would love a dedicated specialist [here] as well. I think it is a big area that we lack in Wagga that some people have to travel to receive chronic pain services," he said.

Pain Australia chief executive Carol Bennett said regional Australia had "really limited access" to best practice treatment for chronic pain.

"What we see in the regions is that generally medication is relied on too heavily," Ms Bennett said.

"We are very conscious of the fact that people have to travel to major towns, which if you've got chronic pain is difficult and quite expensive."

Mrs Brady today saw a specialist from Canberra who recommended neck surgery which has an 80 per cent chance of success, but which would cost her $25,000 in the private system.

Instead she will wait to have the procedure done in a public hospital.

"At least now I've got something to wait for," she said.

"I cry so much. All you want to do is even to do the dishes and I can't do that anymore."