OMG....if I didnt have bad luck I would have none at all!

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I have been trying to reach my pain management doctor since last Friday because I couldnt remember when my appointment was and I knew it had to be this week because of the date on my last Rx. I kept getting messages that the clinic wasnt open that day or I would be put through to a voice mailbox.

I found out today that the owner of this group of clinics has been suspended and his license has been revoked. Apparently the feds are accusing him of over prescribing. I can believe that but what is really alarming to me is that they have known about this since at least early September and no one called me to tell me there was an issue or to refer me to another clinic!

I dont know what to do because I will be completely out of medications by the end of this week and I have no idea who else there is to go to around here. Also if this practice is closed down, how is anyone else going to get my records to see what I have been on, when, and why???

*This stuff only happens to me.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
What you have been on and when... will be available from the pharmacy. They will have copies of all your scripts. That alone is the basis for a new pain specialist to give you those scripts, and THEN look at whether things need adjusting.

Why... is a different problem.
 
L

Liahona

Guest
Hope there is another pain dr close by. It is scary to be out of medications.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Yeah I thought about my pharmacist. I know I have my ortho doctor and my general doctor but who knows if that will be enough. My ortho doctor has said that there is nothing else we can do for my knees except a knee replacement and he isnt willing to do that yet for several reasons. I have only been to a rheumatologist twice, once back in about 2000 and then again in 2003 when disability sent me to the same one. My GP sent me to rheumatologist back in 2000 to make sure that the protocol we were on was appropriate and when she said it was, he just took over. Back then we didnt have one anywhere near me. It was about an hours drive to get to that doctor. I relied on my original GP for years until he started mostly doing the hospital work and was only in the office maybe one day a week...if that. I moved to one of their satellite offices and have been fairly happy there but they made it well known early on that they arent comfortable prescribing pain medications and they are the ones who sent me to the infamous pain clinic.

My ortho has never prescribed pain medications unless you have undergone surgery. I seriously doubt he would help me even though he knows I go to pain management and approves of that decision.

Oh and I probably forgot to tell everyone that the SUV I just bought in August died on the side of the road Monday. I am going to have to have it out with this dealership and I am not prepared. Somehow the manila envelope that I got with all the paperwork from the car sale has gone missing. I was keeping it in the car and now I cant find it anywhere. I do have the CarFax reports though and I am going to bluff my way into not knowing I have lost that packet. I am going for them fixing my car completely plus giving me back the money to what it should have been when I bought it. Wish me luck.
 

mom_to_3

Active Member
Sounds like a big mess to me Janet! The only suggestion I have for you is to ask your ortho doctor to recommend a pain management doctor. I have some cervical and spine issues and my problems are not corrected by further surgery. My spine doctor did refer me to the pain management doctor right in their same office. DUH! I had no idea they were even there. You never know, it certainly can't hurt to try. The only other thing I can think of is to call your local medical association or hospital E.R. and ask for names of pain management docs in your area. I hope they come up with something for you!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well I finally got through to the office and told them I didnt know when my next appointment was but that I had heard some disturbing things about the clinic being closed and according to them, the "doctor" has retired but they are under new management. Ha! Interesting way to spin it when I am sure everyone has read about this or heard about it second hand.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Sadly docs now seem to move at the drop of a hat with no notice to the patients. I got a call a week before xmas that my pain doctor quit and another doctor would be taking over and could they reschedule my appointments? I was freaked out completely by it. Luckily for me, all the docs he was in practice with are amazing so I got a new pain doctor and I like her. I am NOT that easy a patient in some ways because if you won't talk to me and explain things or listen to me, I get demanding and insistent. I try to stay nice and polite, but I do insist on an answer.

I think it is incredibly irresponsible of doctors to do this, but I don't know how to bring this to anyone's attention. I did finally find where my pain doctor went and I am writing a letter to him to tell him what this did to us. The waiting room is still full of people who are worried that at any moment they could find out they don't have a pain doctor again and it is not an appropriate way to handle the situation but it is more and more common now.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well another interesting thing. I got in to see the doctor on Thursday I believe...7:30 am. I also had a psychiatrist appointment that morning so I decided to wait until Friday to fill both sets.

Well I went to fill all my medications and my pharmacy, which I have been going to for over 5 years now, hands me back my scripts for morphine and tells me that they are out of it and they wont be getting anymore in until next month...if then.

So I go to a bunch of different pharmacies in the area: another mom and pop, CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart. No one has it. They dont think it will be coming in any time soon! WTH is going on with this medication? One pharmacy told me they increased the price to triple what it was last month. And I take the generic!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Sounds to me like the pharmacies either lost their certification to handle certain classes of narcotics, or are under investigation. You live in an area with a very high rate of RX drug abuse and the Feds are really cracking down right now.

You may find it hard to get your medications. It is also possible that as a result of the investigation of the one doctor, the pharmacies have decided not to fill RXs from that clinic, at least for the time being.

This might be a good time to look into non-drug ways to help control your pain. If your clinic is any good, they will be willing to work with you on this. If not, they are just a "pill mill".

Best of luck to you.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well I do think they are a pill mill but they also do these injections into your spine and stuff like that but Im not willing to allow a place like that to touch me. My ortho doesnt suggest it either. Basically Im stuck until I get the knee replacements and that is only good if they actually work for me. I have met quite a few people who havent had good results when they are even close to my weight. But even doing the knees isnt going to help my back.

I have considered simply going off all pain medications completely but then I would mostly be confined to my bed or at least the house and the quality of my life would be much worse. I already dont take enough medications to actually help with the pain very much but I dont want to increase.

I dont think the pharmacies are boycotting this clinics prescriptions because they filled my breakthrough pain medication. I dont know. I mean I called several of the pharmacies and I didnt tell them where I got the scripts.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Sounds like the clinic isn't treating your pain properly if you "aren't taking enough" and aren't getting relief. It sounds like you are going to have to start to take control of your treatment. Can you find another pain clinic?

What can YOU do to ease your pain. The first thing I see is that you can lose weight. You do meet the criteria for bariatric surgery. The arthritis alone qualifies you. If not surgery, then some sort of medically supervised diet. You have to lose the weight, which will be hard.

Another thing is physical therapy. Right now you are bedridden much of the time. You are losing muscle strength day by day. There are exercises that can be done sitting or in bed.

Your pain clinic should've referred you out for PT. Tell them you want to do PT and make them refer you. As it sits now, it sounds like they do nothing but write prescriptions. There is a lot more than pills out there to help manage pain.

My husband had terrible pain from his illness damaging his spine and hips. He was on heavy-duty medications, but also did PT, meditation (would be good for overall stress in your life), and acupuncture. All helped reduce his need for pain pills as well as helping his overall state of mind.

However, his weight problem was the opposite. It was a battle to keep weight ON him. He'd always been thin, but once he got sick he lost even more weight. In fact, the Army delayed his entry until he gained twenty pounds. He put on the weight, and dropped most of it in training.

What I'm trying to say is that there are things YOU can do in this situation. I know acupuncture is probably out of the question due to where you live, but the other things should be available.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
We've gotten to the point where we take a mini tape recorder and lay it out on the table and say DO YOU MIND if we record this session? You see we're old and (YOU ARE SUCH A BACK STABBING, LYING, HYPOCRITICAL SONOFA beechnut gum dispenser) we are old, and forget EXACTLY what you tell us to do. AND GOD IN HEAVEN has that changed the way HEALTH CARE has been prescribed to US. ITS LIKE SHAZAM!!!!!!!! SHAZAM....SHAZAM all of a sudden.......PEOPLE ARE ACCOUNTABLE (can I get an AMEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS) and yeah last time we were here boys and girls YOU DID SAY ----stick that enema in your ear and hop on one friggin foot and wash your mouth out with soap and put the suppository in your #$()(*%)(&$& didn't you so I went home and did JUST THAT.....and HOLY FRIJOLES....I have beans growing out of my #)($)@( hoo ha and now I'm getting $5.00 a bushel but nothing has been done about the corn on my left toe.

Yeah something like that. BUT YOU SAID.......and I have the tape........so WHATS UP doctor. BECAUS YOU S&CK at note taking and my hearing really isn't bad and I don't need alzhiekmers medication at 49. YOU JERK.

Not kidding - i'm going to morrow to see a gynecologist - because I'm anemic------and he's taken me off ALL of my medications........isn't he lOVELY?......no wait AREN"T I LOVLEY??? I'm not sure. But I'm not crazy...I now enough to know that being anemic has NOTHING to do with 3 day normal periods. ANd yet he makes the big bucks? .........But not for long thanks to the handy dandy tape recorder.

Hope you feel better anyway.


Love you
 
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