"Chasing up my MRI referral"

On and off for the past year and a half I have had excruciating lower back pain which really limits me in my day to day life.

Just after Christmas 2015 my back became painful once again but this time much more painful than it had previously ever been. I decided to visit my GP and ask for an MRI referral to finally get to the bottom of what was causing this pain. I attended and my GP sent a referral to our local hospitals MRI department as well as prescribing me with strong painkillers I. e. Tramadol & Morphine. And signing me off work for the past 6 weeks.

I understood at the time of the referral that I would have to wait for the referral to be seen and to be contacted regarding an appointment. After waiting 5 weeks, still in debilitating pain, I decided to call the hospital to see what was going on. When I spoke to someone from the MRI appointments team I was told that they had not received my referral. I was very confused and angry and thought that my GP had not actually sent my referral to them.

The next day I arranged an emergency appointment to see my GP again and ask whether or not he had sent it. During my appointment I was shown my notes on the GPs computer where it said that he had indeed sent a referral for me to have an MRI. He then told me that he would send it again. He also said that he receives no confirmation of whether they receive the referrals he sends, which to me sounded ridiculous!

I have now been off work for 6, coming up to 7 weeks, and am still in pain!

I want to know what is wrong with me so that I can start to get the appropriate treatment to get better and return to work. I am 25 years old and I feel like I'm 85. I don't want to take the painkillers much anymore because I am risking becoming addicted to them. I'd rather find out what is wrong with me!