Pain doctor appointment and Errands in the city - just husband and I

[susiestar]

I had to see the pain doctor today. I had a whole list of things to cover. I was amazed at how unrushed the doctor was. He volunteered to change my rx's to 30 days only instead of giving refills if it was possible. He even offered, which I appreciated. Some of the pharmacy employees don't seem to realize that if a doctor rx's 10 pills with 2 refills he means 30 plls total, not just 20. It has been a real problem for me in the past. I was ready to give them ONE more chance before I changed pharmacies because they are really nice and it is so convenient. I thought it was pretty nice of the doctor.

He is also ordering a new sleep study because not being able to sleep for more than 4 hrs at one time is not a good thing! Plus he ordered a new TENS unit. It is probably like the alpha stimulator that the quack had Steely try, except you use electrode pads that use an adjustable electric current to help relax muscle spasms. I had problems with mine from the beginning so I wasn't surprised that it went kaput.

Most wonderful from my point of view is that I can get more shots in my head fairly soon! The doctor does occipital nerve blocks to help the tension headaches and to keep the tension headache to migraine headache to tension headache koi to a minimum. I thought it was every 6 mos max but he says some people do every 3 mos. He has some patients who get them every month or so, which means that I can keep thise a lot more under control!

 

[buddy]

Glad you found a doctor you deserve! So great he listened to your issues and is really trying to help you overall. I hope you can get the shots soon to help. Take care! hugs, buddy

 

[InsaneCdn]

Susie...

WoW!

Pain and fatigue are the two most mis-understood problems a person can have... if YOU have it, its obvious... to everybody else, you're just exaggerating...

If you can reduce your baseline pain, it will help the fatigue as well... and getting help for the sleep problem also helps reduce the pain.

If they can get this all to work for you, you'll end up with less of a "difficult child" body... Here's hoping!

 

[hearts and roses]

Wonderful news! I'm glad you found a dr who is more involved and proactive in helping to ease your pain and exhaustion-that is HUGE! I don't really understand the rx thing, why wouldn't you get a script for the full 30 days instead of 10 days at a time; that seems stupid and expensive to me. My dr writes a script for two tablets a day, knowing I only take One tablet a day so the script lasts 60 days...thus, my copay is less. Some doctors are jerks, glad yours has some sense.

 

[DammitJanet]

Why on earth would you only get 10 days of pills anyway? That is stupid? And they cant refill a narcotic anyway! At least not here, I would need 3 separate paper scripts.

I have never heard of that nerve block but if you are up for getting shots there, go for it...lol. I did have a dermatologist give me cortisone shots in my scalp to help when my hair was falling out so badly and it really helped. Didnt hurt badly at all. Kinda like little tiny pin pricks. Absolutely nothing I couldnt handle or would say ouch to.

I do have to say that I think my whatever we want to call the new methylphenidate pills are helping me with my fatigue. I guess I am just gonna call them methylin. I think thats what he Rxed. I swear they are all the same! I just take two...one first thing when I wake up and then another about 2 hours later.

 

[susiestar]

I am SO SORRY! The rx thing was an example, NOT an amt he actually rx's. It is my PHARMACY that drives me nuts. The doctor is quite generous with medications and puts the right # of pills for a month and for medications like muscle relaxers, lyrica, etc.... he was giving 2 refills because he sees you every 3 mos or so. It is the PHARMACY who looks at a prescription with 2 refills, and only gives one refill or gives no refill. then I either end up going a month with-o medications of that type or fighting over and over and over and over with the pharmacy until I get someone who will pull the actual paper rx. Most of the staff, except for the top pharmacist, seems to think that if it is in the computer it is gospel. Yet they are the ones who put the refills into the computer and don't get that a prescription gets filled once time and then re-filled however many times are on the refills.

I just changed to this pharmacy a few months back. the one we had used for years kept stealing my opiates to the tune of 30-40 some months, and accusing me of trying to scam more than I was supposed to have from them. The pain dr requires that you use the same pharmacy for all of your medications. If you change you have to let them know, and do some paperwork. the doctor just offered to write a new rx every 30 days so that I didn't have to change pharmacies, which was very nice, in my opinion. Esp as other than this we really LIKE the pharmacy - they are really nice, far more accurate than other pharmacies we have used (I now count EVERY prescription as I did with the last pharmacy after they kept shorting me and I learned they shorted almost every other rx by 3-10 pills!), very convenient to get to, and when you are sick and waiting for a prescription they bump you to the head of the line (unusual around here) and none of their customers mind because we have ALL gotten bumped up at one time or another.

Sorry my example was bad. I was trying to show how the doctor meant to rx a certain # of medications per written rx and the pharmacy was giving far less because they ignored/skipped/messed up the number of refills.

I am sorry I gave the wrong impression. I was more tired than i realized last night and didn't say things clearly.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Susie...
The psychiatrist and even pcp here, on EVERY script except the obvious (like BCPs, which are pre-packaged), state... X per month, X refills, "for a total of XXX tablets". Seems like... some pharmacies were doing like yours, and docs got tired of it, so they now always put the total number of pills on the script (Concerta, 18mg, 32 tablets per month, 2 refills, total of 96 tablets). Then, if they don't give me a total of 96 over three months... its "right there on the script".

 

[DammitJanet]

Mine doesnt take it that far Insane. lord you couldnt read the script if he did...well one doctor, my psychiatrist...lol. My pain doctor's scripts are printed out on a computer and my gp faxes them in so I have no idea how they look!

Pain doctor took me off the 15 mg immediate release morphine the other day and put me on 10 mg lorcets. Said these wouldnt make me as sleepy. 90 a month...lol. I swear, Im a walking drug store. But I sure needed them last night. I woke up at about 3 am screaming in pain with my knees. I dont know what I did or how I had them bent but I woke up and was just crying and screaming so bad that Billy came running in. I didnt even realize I was that loud because I was half asleep. I was trying to get up and I could hardly turn over to get my feet off the bed to find my medications and get them to my mouth.

 

[susiestar]

It really doesn't matter what is written on the rx if the person who puts it into the computer does it wrong. Most of my docs put the total # of units, but the pharmacy still wasn't putting it into the computer then they were claiming they were too busy to look it up or only the head pharmacist could and a bunch of other stuff that just isn't true. I spoke to the head guy and he is doing an audit of my rx's and choosing other patients because I am not the only one complaining of this and he will see how what is written is a lot different than what is put into the computer.

Either way, it won't be a problem for me because the doctor will just send the rx's each month, either by fax or else will print them for me to pick up at the office. Now that I have figured out the tricks to the ins co mileage reimbursement plan, we will be paid almost $40 for each time we have to go get my rx's from the doctor. More for seeing J's doctor, which is nice. It gets pretty expensive when you have to drive 150+ miles round trip for almost anything medical!

 

[Liahona]

Susie, I'm so glad the doctor is working with you and things are looking up.

Janet, I'm sorry you were in such intense pain. I hope your medications work tonight.

 

[DammitJanet]

Ridiculous. I seriously doubt there is a mileage charge on mine. I couldnt even get extra food stamps when I saved all my receipts from gas to go to the docs and every copay and the doctor approved vitamins and supplements and lotions. Oh Im sorry, I got an extra dollar. I was getting 15 bucks and it went up to 16 bucks. Not even worth my time to go into the office and deal with them. I was going to if they were going to give me the LIEAPP check each year to help with energy costs but they didnt even do that. I had done an online trial test to see how much they thought I would get putting in my income and expenses and I was honest on it and it said I would get about 60 bucks. That was worth it. Ha. 16 isnt. I think my DSS is crooked against me and if they could find a way to deny me medicaid they would but they cant and they know it.