Pain doctor appointment today...I have to find a new one, idiots

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
This is practically a joke. I am convinced these people are simply out to take Medicare/Medicaid for every dime they can take. I would love to know if they are doing this to people who have regular insurance companies like BCBS or CIGNA. I am betting not because those places really scrutinize the procedures done on their clients. I dont think they would approve something that wasnt necessary.

For years and years my family doctor was the one who took care of my pain management. It worked well because we knew each other very well and we trusted each other completely. However my doctor was getting towards retirement and only doing the hospital work and the other doctors in his practice werent comfortable continuing my pain control because of the DEA crackdowns so they referred me out to these new pain management clinics that are popping up like weeds.

Well in the beginning it was pretty good. I liked the doctor that I saw. He was a very nice gentlemen who was older and we got along great. He understood that I had a good handle on what was going on with my body and that I wanted to keep my pain medications to a minimum for as long as possible. He worked well with me. This went on for over 18 months. Suddenly in the last 8 months or so this clinic has gone through some changes and they have changed their focus. Now instead of simply being a pain management clinic it is Pain Management and Lazer clinic.

As I have said before I have been fighting since June over that stupid epidural block which I never agreed to have but they set up anyway. I had told them I wanted to look into the epidural block because I wanted to see what it entailed and I am glad I did because it has steroids in it and I cant take steroids. They should have known that because I tell every single doctor I go to that I cannot take steroids but these people obviously cannot read...or they dont care. Also, this is the same medication that is giving everyone meningitis. Then my doctor pulled my medication down to almost nothing without even telling me, like a coward in the night, and I never even knew it until I was out in the parking lot. Once I was in the parking lot and noticed that the medication was not right I went back into the office and asked about it and they say we cant talk about medication until the next appointment. Once you leave the exam room you cannot see the doctor again no matter what.

So for my October appointment I called and asked to see my original doctor...Dr Tim. This is the older man. The promised me he would be there. I go in and he isnt there. The only one there is the ass that got mad at me the month before and lowered all my medications. I walked out and refused to see him and asked to be transferred to another one of their offices hoping that I could have better results if I could see someone else and explain my situation and they could view my entire record and see that I had been a very appropriate patient who had never requested an increase, never missed an appointment, never flunked a urine test...nothing. the only thing I refuse to do is procedures.

Well that didnt work. This witch of a PA came in and told me that they wouldnt increase my medications to what they were the month before because the evil PA would have never decreased my medications because he was mad at me. Oh yes he did. Look at the chart. I had been on the same medications for at least 10 months. This PA told me that I had to do procedures because there was no other way I was going to get "better". Excuse me? I am never going to get better. I have 2 different forms of degenerative arthritis plus fibromyalgia. The only thing that could possibly help me get somewhat better is to have both knees replaced as well as have my hips replaced and have some surgery on my lower back. It is not going to make me better to have cortisone injected into my joints. All that will do is make my joints weaker and softer. Their other patients may not know this stuff but I do.

I was so ticked off when they handed me the scripts for the same scripts as last month. I am going to call new pain management centers this week and find a new one to get in with. I am sure I have to fire the old one and get a referral from my GP. I dont care, I will do that.

Once I get out of there, I am going to go to a lawyer and see if I can sue them. There is no way on earth they can tell me that doing procedures will make me better and trying to get me to do an epidural block which contains a steroid when its in my notes that I cant take a steroid has got to be malpractice. Especially when they caused me so much grief after that because of that mere fact.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
(((((hugs)))))

I am so sorry they hoover so badly. This is beyond ridiculous. This place is scary to me. I still cannot figure out why they must see you every month. Around here the ONLY places that demand a monthly visit are the pill mills. The other docs see you every month for the first few months to be sure that the medications are right and that the non-medication things that they can do are also helping. After 2-6 mos they are comfortable that they have you on an appropriate treatment plan and they see you every 3-4 mos. Of COURSE they see you more often if needed, but they do not make you have an office visit to get your medications. You call or email them and they get the rx's ready and you can pick them up or they mail them. I had mine mailed regular mail for several years. Then I had problems 2 different months in less than 6 mos and we changed to picking them up every month, even though it is a 90 min drive 1 way.

If you want proof that you have not asked for more medications or doctor shopped or just proof that you handled the rx's properly each month, check out your states bureau of narcotics. You should be able to find a number online and they can pull up your rx history for controlled substances and I think they can even give you a printout of the rx history. After my second problem the nurse came very close to accusing me of fillng them and then wanting more. I was FURIOUS and figured that I could PROVE that I didn't fill those rx's because the state keeps track oft hem. My state had just switched the way pain medications are reported so the pharmacist now has a very short time to register the rx in the system. At one point they wanted it to be 5 min, but I think it is closer to 20-30 min. Either way, they have to put this into the system before they give you the medication where they used to have 24 hrs. So I called and got my rx history going back over a year and I verified that my rx wasn't filled by me or anyone else. The dr's office can see this info right at the office, but I had to go through BUN to get it. I took it to the dr appointment and asked why I was suddenly being thought of as a patient who is bhaving inappropriately when I had never had a bad drug test or any other problems? Turned out he had zero idea what the nurse was tellng me and he couldn't see ANY signs of medication abuse and he was rather unhappy with the nurse. I was just glad I had also printed out her online responses (they have a secure website for you to ask for refills, appts, info, etc...) so that it wasn't me telling them what she said, it was her own words.

Things at your dr office are very very wrong. PLEASE find a new doctor to help with this. I wish I lived closer so maybe I could help you get to a good pain doctor if it was farther away than you can easily drive. I would do that for you, and even go in as your advocate if you wanted that and I could.

PLEASE insist that someone go into the exam room with you or you have a voice recorder with you to record the appointment. If you let them see the recorder they will get upset, but most phones will record voices and you could just have it ready and sit it on the table or your lap or whatever.

by the way, have you ever looked at some of the info online about those steroid shots? I will say that I LOVE the occipital nerve blocks that I get for migraines. But the epidural steroid was one of the worst experiences I have had. I only did it because the ins co would not approve my neck surgery unless I did it. So many people have huge problems with the shots, though some are like my mom and did get some help from them.

Regardless, get a copy of your narcotics rx history and take it when you see a new doctor so you have cold, hard proof that you behaved appropriately with your medications. I am very wary of what the current duck dr has put in your chart. in my opinion that is info you should try to obtain, but they will charge a large fee to release it to you. It is a 'copying' fee and is usually per page. Here it ranges from 50 cents to $2 per page! The doctor MUST send the records to other healthcare providers if you sign the forms, and they cannot charge for that. At least in OK and OH they cannot.

I am sorry this is so difficult. Don't these people have shady pasts that you found out about?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Yes they do. Here they dont actually keep paper copies of charts. Its all on the computer or so they say but this woman came into the office with a print out yesterday then said she had to go look at the laptop. hmmm. Here we are required to use one pharmacy to fill all our scripts according to our contract and even if that wasnt the case, I would have anyway. I love my little pharmacy. The only time I have used someone else is during this summers H pylori episode when they couldnt get some of the medications I needed into the little pharmacy I use fast enough for me to get it and I would have had to wait over a long weekend for the delivery because they are closed on the weekends so they transferred my script to Walgreens. It was all antibiotics, no pain medications. I did take in a copy of the last years worth of scripts I had filled but it was more to show how the appointments were all over the place but I still couldnt fill my medications until the end of the month. 30 days is 30 days. Even if they bring me in at the 3 week mark, that doesnt mean I can go fill my medications a week early. It just means my appointments are going to start getting out of whack with when my medications are due.
 
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