RE: A very helpfull site for cronic back pain and doctors treating patients adequately.

[Guest guest]

:

You post was interesting and thank you for the link to back pain information

website. I only disagree a little with what you wrote. Too often, doctors

are quick to the draw once they have discovered the illness to send you to a

psychologist instead of controlling the pain and many times the disease

itself. The one disease that comes to mind is fibromyalgia. It is a real

disease yet there are too many doctors out there that treat it as a mental

defect instead of a physical body disease. They throw anti-depressants at

you and send you to a shrink. They refuse to treat the patient's symptoms

because too many believe that the symptoms and all the pain are " just in the

patients' heads. " It irks me to no end when a doctor treats a patient this

way. There are doctors who treat other diseases the same way,

life-threatening ones. They think their job is over. The patient has a

disease so just send them to a shrink and all will be right with the world.

I know this has been brought up before and I will say again that I do

believe if a patient feels he or she needs psychological help then by all

means... get that help. If you feel that the stress or depression from your

disease is leading you to places that are not safe for you to go, find a

good psychologist or psychiatrist and get help. However, in the interim,

don't let the doctor just check you off his list as cured. I would bet that

99.9% of the people on this list suffer from daily chronic pain that cannot

be treated with a session of talk with a psychiatrist alone or maybe just

with an anti-depresssant and a psychiatrist visit. We need medication to 1)

control the disease is this is even possible because in some cases there is

no control or cure. 2) to control our feelings of resentment, isolation

from family and friendss, and anger at our bodies because we cannot do the

things we used to do without a second thought. 3) manage pain be it in the

form of medications to control nerve pain for diseases that affect the

nerves in the nerves in the body, medications to stop or at least control

arthritic swelling of joints, medications to help relieve pressure on

vertebra when there are disc diseases, disorders, or injury, medication to

control pain itself when it comes to all the rest where pain consumes

joints, connective-muscle tissue, etc...

I just want everyone to know, especially the new people who have joined the

list since my last reply to a post similar to this one, that we do not have

to live each day in pain. We are entitled to be as pain-free as possible.

Personally, I expect a doctor to treat my pain, my disease, my ability to

control my emotions, and treat me with respect. I also want my doctor to

expect me to do my part by taking my medications as directed, eating

healthier foods, living a healthier lifestyle, and when he/she says not to

overdo it, then don't overdo it.

In the doctor department, I have been most fortunate that I have a doctor

who is really a wonderful man. He listens to what I have to say. He

actually asks me each time I visit how I think my pain control is going. He

asks how I am feeling in general. He wants to know if there is anything I

could do in the past that I can't seem to manage now. If so, we sit down

together and find a solution to any problem that has arisen since our

previous appointment. A prime example is when I started having trouble

keeping my housework done and not exerted myself to the point of exhaustion

which can and does at times lead to causing my immune system to make me more

vulnerable to colds, viruses, pneumonia, and other debilitating conditions

that can lead to a hospital stay. There is a wonderful agency that I use,

my doctor recommended it and signed off for me to receive services through

them, were a lady comes out to my home each day during the week and helps me

with chores such as sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, a little laundry, getting

the dust bunnies out of the ceiling, run errands such as going to the

grocery store or to pay a bill that I need paying, help me with washing my

hair and braiding it up though the braiding is not an issue anymore. I had

my hair cut very short because my arms were hurting too bad to keep it

braided up and it got full of knots when it was let down. My hair was down

my back all the way to my buttocks and now it is a few inches above my

shoulders. She helps me fill out forms for the girls when they have field

trips or other teacher/parent communications or forms to be filled out. She

helps by reading my mail for me on days when my eyes are just too strained

to use even with the CCTV reader and the ability to just scan them into my

computer. The scanning is worthless because I can't always fill in the

documents needed by the school for whatever reason.

My doctor also wrote a prescription for me to get a whirlpool spa at home

for physical therapy and hydrotherapy. Insurance did not and would not

approve it but I was able to purchase it myself after having to make a hard

decision. At least this way, even though my insurance doesn't and will not

pay for the spa, at least I can deduct it from my taxes next year as durable

medical equipment just as I do my guide dog's expenses.

Speaking of my guide dog, my doctor even wrote a letter to the school, on my

behalf, asking if they would provide home training for my last dog due to my

health and need to be close to my doctors while they were still trying to

find a working medicine regimen.

This doctor is ancient and well past retirement age but he is what a doctor

should be. He is an example of what each and every medical doctor that

graduates from medical school and passes his medical board test should be.

I don't know what I will do when he is no longer able to practice or passes

away from old age. I dread having to change doctors because I don't know of

another doctor in this area or any surrounding area that has the personal

relationship that this man has with all his patients. He truly cares about

his patients and treats them, and me, like we are people and not numbers.

He doesn't allow overbooking of his schedule as most doctors do. You go in

and within a few minutes you are seen. He doesn't mind calls at home if

there is a problem or a question you need to ask. I am quite sure if we

were back in his hayday, ie early years, he would probably be a doctor that

would come to your home if you were unable to get to him. We are people,

not numbers. That is such a rarity. My mother's doctor is great but, his

staff is the pits. They overbook, are hateful toward the clients/patients,

do not give messages when they are specifically instructed to give the

doctors messages. It takes them well over a day to three days to get one

prescription called in. My doctor, who happens to be a few doors down from

a pharmacy, actually has one of his nurses or his secretary walk the

prescription to the pharmacy when it is a medication that can't be called

in. MOF, this was done for me yesterday. I use the Duragesic patch which

requires a separate prescription for each fill. His nurse walked my

prescription down to the pharmacy and it was delivered to my home by the

pharmacy's delivery man. My doctor and the pharmacy I use are both tied for

first place at being decent to patients and customers.

I didn't mean to get so far off subject. I got carried away again. I guess

I just want to see that you guys get the best medical treatment possible, be

treated with respect, and be treated as a patient and not a number, and most

of all - not be passed off to a psychiatrist only because the doctor wants

money but doesn't want to earn it by actually treating the whole patient and

not just the emotional/mental capacity. It is bad enough that our records

are send overseas for transcription, we have to fight to the point of losing

our dignity and almost everything we own to get disability that we not only

deserve but disability that we have paid in during the years we were able to

work, and are treated like scum of the Earth when we dare to ask for help in

getting the documentation to file for a disability claim to start with.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Sam

The trouble with making plans for the future, even when you can see the

future, is that fate has a way of intervening and upsetting the best laid

plans of mice and men.

- Burns 1785

[Guest guest]

Sam wrote:

<< " It is a real disease yet there are too many doctors out there that

treat it as a mental defect instead of a physical body disease. They

throw anti-depressants at you and send you to a shrink. >>

Hello I joined this group yesterday and have been overwhelmed by all of

the support from everyone on here. It is so nice to know that I can talk

to others.

I completely agree with the statement that you said about doctors

assuming that the problem is more mental than chronic pain. Last May I

had to go to my local hospital to the surgeon to discuss which way

forward I go and I walked in and was in a huge amount of pain and felt

very tearful - He took one look at me and told me I was depressed and

needed to get that sorted before I could go any further - it really

rattled my cage that he couldn't see that it was the pain that causing

me to be upset?!! I then had to wait ten months before I could take the

next step and then it was only after I chased and chased. The English

Hospital system is really pants and the way I see it is the longer they

take to resolve the problem then the more likely I will become very

depressed. I know that depression goes hand in hand anyway but most of

us take a few days out and then can deal with things again - I find that

it comes and goes with flair ups...

My attitude now is to be tough, positive and why should I have to suffer

with this pain if they can help. I just don't seem to be able to speed

anything up. I have my next appointment on 20th April and will be strong

then!!!!

I have no relief from my pain meds and am interested in this morphine

pump that seems to be available in US not sure whether we would have

anything like that over in the UK but is definitely something I will be

exploring.

Best Wishes

Amy

THANKS TO EVERYONE IN THIS GROUP I FELT SO MUCH BETTER YESTERDAY WHEN I

RECEIVED NUMEROUS EMAILS. I WAS VERY DOWN IN THE MORNING BUT THE EMAILS

HELPED AS THEY WERE ALL VERY REASSURING, COMFORTING AND MOST OF ALL IT

IS NICE TO KNOW THERE IS SUPPORT AND PEOPLE THAT REALLY UNDERSTAND MY

PAIN : - )

LOVE YOU ALL XXX

[Guest guest]

Amy:

That is my point exactly. If you are in chronic pain, certainly you are

going to be tearful and upset. But that does not mean that you need a

shrink to " sort out " your crying spells. I want to shake those doctors and

say " Hey dumbass, I am crying because I am in physical pain and if you would

get off your duff and get me started on something to control the pain I am

in, I will not be crying in your office anymore! "

I fell apart the day the rheumatologist confirmed my lupus and djd and what

stage I was in. He suggested their psychiatrist and I told him it would be

a cold day ...... I was upset because the rest of my life had changed in a

split second. My life expectancy had changed in a split second. I think I

had the right and was entitled to get upset.

It gets me to thinking about the movie about Patch . One of the

doctors at our local hospital was in the biographical movie about Patch

because he had actually worked with Patch years before. The end of

the movie, which according to Dr. Landau who was the local doctor in the

movie who knew Patch, said that the speech he gave to the board that day was

very close to what actually happened. Patch was accused of treating

patients without a medical license because he and some friends had opened up

a clinic in their home. The crust of speech was basically this: He wanted

to know when the term " Doctor " became so magnanamus and reverent that it

allowed those in the profession to look down their nose and the average

person. He said that in the beginning, a doctor was nothing more than a

learned friend who helped the sick. This learned friend was not any better

than the patient he/she was treating. They were equals. He said that if

holding a baby through a colic spell or placing a cold washcloth on the

forehead of a person with a fever or if talking to a person who just needed

reassurance was practicing medicine then yes, he was guilty and he was proud

to be guilty. He was totaly disgusted by the current establishment.

While Patch did try to make a difference, it is sad that it hasn't caught

on. The sensitivity training that people have begged to have added as a

core requirement for medical students has not happened. The AMA will not

support it. It leaves us with doctors who are too busy getting the money

and not treating the patients.

There was a joke I heard on television sometime back that I really thought

was funny. It goes like this:

Question: Do you know the difference between a doctor and God?

Answer: God doesn't think he is a doctor.

In addition to many doctors having this better-than-thou atititude, we also

have to deal with congressmen who forget they do not hold medical licenses

to practice medicine yet they are making decisions about how " we " should be

medically treated. The last time I checked, a medical degree was not a

requirement to become a DEA agent. If this is so, then why does the DEA

have more say about our pain management than our own doctors do?

There are car insurance companies out there, State Farm being one of them

unless they changed their practice after an episode of Dateline and 20/20

that showed them in a bad light, who hire non-medical personnel to approve

or deny treatment for their customers who had been in wrecks and the ability

to approve or deny treatment for the person or persons the State Farm

insured drivers had hit in wrecks. They also had a middleman company that

was hired strictly for the sole purpose of preventing them from having to

pay out claims. The middleman company dragged out the complaints so long

that people had to just give up. They could not afford lawyers to go after

the insurance companies and make them pay out as they were supposed to do as

outlined in their own policies.

Travellers Insurance, the homeowner's division, screwed us about two years

ago. We had our roof messed up during Hurricane Floyd but nothing major but

we needed shingles. We had tree limbs down and the last three Bradford

Pear trees had come out of the ground and fell from the high water content

in the ground. I filed a claim for damages which they did cover. We paid

them faithfully. A couple of years later, we had an electrical storm that

blew out my 55 inch television, my daughter's television, and our bedroom

television along with a few other appliances. They paid but it was such a

low amount I wasn't able to replace any one item without adding money to it.

This is with a policy that had full replacement cost on the house and we

paid dearly for the policy. Then, a couple of years later, during an ice

storm, our gas pack system's heat box cracked which ended up putting raw

propane and soot in our house. It cost a small fortune to get the house

cleaned and the gas pack replaced. They refused to cover the gas pack so

that $4000 we had to borrow from the bank to replace. We had a cleaning

crew come in who specialized in fire and soot damage. Our insurance company

did cover all but our deductable. Well, when it came time for us to renew

our policy, which was post 9/11, they refused to renew! I called and wanted

to know why. The man said it was because we had filed three claims in

something like 6 years. I asked him why in the hell did he think we paid

them that outrageous premium every year. He refused to give me anything but

the company line.... We can't renew you because you used your insurance.

Well, hell fire, what the heck were we paying them for - to look good on a

piece of paper? Sure, we just loved giving away money every year for no

reason. It was like the man thought we had money growing on trees. It took

me over a month to find another insurance company that would take us. I was

told, it was because all the insurance companies got slammed during 9/11. I

told them they were full of it. I asked what happened to all the money that

those businesses and residents had been paying them for all those years. I

didn't get an answer so I asked again. No answer. I answered for him. I

told the man at one of the insurance companies who would not insure our home

either that all their clients' hard earned cash went into the pockets of the

CEOs and the managers and supervisors instead of in a trust fund where it

would earn interest and earn enough to have covered everything with money

left over. This ticked the guy off and he hung up on me.

Health insurance is just as bad. They love taking your money but at the

first sign of trouble, lord forbid you have a heart attack, develope cancer,

or some similar life-threatening disease and they put a rider on your policy

where they refuse to pay out on any of the disease or accident-related

reason for needed health care and then jack up the price of the insurance so

high that you have to either bite the bullet, if you will, and then you end

up having to rely on family and friends to help you pay for it until there

is no way to pay it at all and the insurance company walks off with a tidy

sum of your hard earned cash and they haven't had to pay out a dime.

This entire system here is in the sewerr with the biggest sewer of them all

sitting right underneath Bush's butt in the oval office or else on his ranch

in Texas as he has taken more vacations than any sitting presidents before

him. He spouts how the Iraqi people need money to survive yet he refuses to

take care of citizens here. Other countries are doing a fine job of keeping

their economy intact and still allowing every citizen healthcare. We can do

it if we fight for our rights because there sure isn't anyone in the current

administration or congress who is going to do it for us.

forgive me for getting carried away. Amy, you hang in there. You will be

in my thoughts.

Sam

The trouble with making plans for the future, even when you can see the

future, is that fate has a way of intervening and upsetting the best laid

plans of mice and men.

- Burns 1785

Amy wrote:

I walked in and was in a huge amount of pain and felt

very tearful - He took one look at me and told me I was depressed and

needed to get that sorted before I could go any further

[Guest guest]

Hi Amy:

I'm glad you are in the group and I know you will find it a good place to get

support and info. I also agree with the premise that doctors are too quick to

label things as mental when the actual problem is a physical one. If someone is

having to cope with extreme pain every single day, then they are more than

entitled to feel either upset or angry or both. I do feel that patients are

going to have to start getting more tough and proactive in trying to get the

treatment they deserve. During my parents' day, people just accepted whatever

the doctor said as gospel even if it left them still in pain or no better off

than they were to start with. To question a doctor's decision was considered a

huge error and my parents used to drive me bonkers because of that kind of

attitude. I believe both of them died before they needed to, because they were

so unassertive when it came to their medical care.

The way I look at it is: I pay for the health insurance that goes to pay the

salaries of my doctors. Therefore, I have hired those doctors to give me the

best possible medical care. Does the doctor have a right to insist that I never

question anything but just blindly accept whatever he decrees? Who knows my

body best - him or me? Who knows exactly how I am feeling? If your doctor can

make the leap that you are depressed because you shed a single tear in his

presence, then he should hang out a new shingle labeling himself as a

soothsayer, not a doctor. Do not let the doctor get away with this - it is your

right to say that any upset you are feeling is due to the pain you are being

forced to endure. I'm sorry to hear that the English health system isn't good,

because I am a healthcare advocate hoping that the U.S. system can be changed to

something more user-friendly than it is now. Too many Americans have no health

insurance because they have lost their jobs and most folks had insurance through

their employer. Depression is a self-limiting emotion for the most part but

doctors are treating it as a long-term health problem and are giving out

anti-depressants in huge numbers. Many times, these anti-depressants will cover

up the symptoms of organic illnesses which then go untreated. I know this from

first-hand experience because my pituitary disease went undiagnosed as doctor

after doctor prescribed various anti-depressants which made me sicker rather

than better. These psychotropic meds are powerful and they directly affect the

mind and the mood. Therefore, to cavalierly pass them out as the first-line

approach to someone's health problem is poor medicine in my opinion.

I wish you much luck in your upcoming visit to the physician. I don't know what

pain meds you are presently taking, but there are many types available that can

be tried if the ones you now take aren't doing what they should be doing.

Besides the pump, there is the Duragesic patch which I understand is even better

and a lot less invasive to administer. Best of luck!

Virginia, USA

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[Guest guest]

Hi Kathy

I struggle to be strong when I go and see the surgeon as I feel drained

of all my enegry probably because I am trying to bear the pain.

I currently take a high dose of morphine, diazepam, codeine,

amirtryptalyne, naproxen and still struggling with pain. I like the

sound of the morphine pump you seem to have available over in the US but

haven't see anything about it in the UK. Will certainly be looking into

more options.

The company were I work didn't offer any health insurance and because I

had always thought I was fit and healthy had never actually worried

about it too much. But then it was too late and my back had already

become a problem and cuase no company will take me on now as I will cost

them a lot of money.

You take care

[Guest guest]

Sam, If I had a drink in my hand, I would toast your tribute to our beloved

President. He is truly a trip and a half. We don't even know 1% of what he is

doing behind our backs either. That's what is so scary. I really enjoyed what

you had to say. Take care, Donna

wrote: <snipped>

This entire system here is in the sewer with the biggest sewer of them all

sitting right underneath Bush's butt in the oval office or else on his ranch

in Texas as he has taken more vacations than any sitting presidents before

him. He spouts how the Iraqi people need money to survive yet he refuses to

take care of citizens here. Other countries are doing a fine job of keeping

their economy intact and still allowing every citizen healthcare. We can do

it if we fight for our rights because there sure isn't anyone in the current

administration or congress who is going to do it for us.

[Guest guest]

Sam, If I had a drink in my hand, I would toast your tribute to our beloved

President. He is truly a trip and a half. We don't even know 1% of what he is

doing behind our backs either. That's what is so scary. I really enjoyed what

you had to say. Take care, Donna

wrote: <snipped>

This entire system here is in the sewer with the biggest sewer of them all

sitting right underneath Bush's butt in the oval office or else on his ranch

in Texas as he has taken more vacations than any sitting presidents before

him. He spouts how the Iraqi people need money to survive yet he refuses to

take care of citizens here. Other countries are doing a fine job of keeping

their economy intact and still allowing every citizen healthcare. We can do

it if we fight for our rights because there sure isn't anyone in the current

administration or congress who is going to do it for us.

[Guest guest]

Sam, If I had a drink in my hand, I would toast your tribute to our beloved

President. He is truly a trip and a half. We don't even know 1% of what he is

doing behind our backs either. That's what is so scary. I really enjoyed what

you had to say. Take care, Donna

wrote: <snipped>

This entire system here is in the sewer with the biggest sewer of them all

sitting right underneath Bush's butt in the oval office or else on his ranch

in Texas as he has taken more vacations than any sitting presidents before

him. He spouts how the Iraqi people need money to survive yet he refuses to

take care of citizens here. Other countries are doing a fine job of keeping

their economy intact and still allowing every citizen healthcare. We can do

it if we fight for our rights because there sure isn't anyone in the current

administration or congress who is going to do it for us.