You are all amazing... LONG!

[Guest guest]

I am so overwhelmed by the responses right now. Yes, tears are here

but I've been crying for so long that it's no big suprise, lol.

Thank you all so much.

To answer some of your questions... (Warning: LONG!)

I'm not on pain medication because of a Doctor's choice, not mine.

It's kind of a long story, but I'll try to make it short & sweet. I

travel to Chicago for work occasionally. On my last trip, I caught a

virus and the clinic I went to in Chicago was a little sketchy. The

doc there gave me some meds to calm my stomach, etc... When I got

back to my hotel, I started thinking about where I had been, meds I

had taken (was on several at the time), and wondered if that affected

anything. So I started researching on the internet that night - the

effects of hydrocodone & other stuff. Well wouldn't you know that

withdrawl from hydro has symptoms like the flu.

So I started freaking out a little thinking I was addicted. It has

been all over the news lately and on Oprah. When I returned from

Chicago, I called my doctor (Ortho) and asked if it was possible I

was addicted. She laughed at me because I was never prescribed enough

or taking enough to be addicted. That made me feel better. So - the

next time I needed pain meds, I called for a script like I normally

do, and they refused to give me anything. They told me to see my

Primary.

My primary refuses to be involved because she hadn't treated me to

begin with. When I explained what happened with my Ortho, she said

she wouldn't give me anything because " she didn't know what I was

doing with them. " I was horrified, and frankly embarassed. I felt

very much like they were treating me as a drug pusher or addict.

My primary set me up with a Pain Mngmt consult- took three mos to get

an appt. He wouldn't give me anything except gabapentin (hated it).

This doc was great, but didn't specialize in what I needed. He

referred me to someone else - which is who I saw yesterday morning,

that took two months. It's the pain guy I saw yesterday that is

recommending surgery, and is sending me to someone else for another

opinion. That appt. is on May 26th.

I am trying to avoid surgery b/c when I had it in 99, it only worked

for a year or so before I started having the pain again. They are

saying scar tissue is contributing to what I'm feeling now, but this

pain guy will not even do cortizone injections b/c he says it won't

help.

I'm just finding it impossible to find a doctor who will LISTEN to

me. I can't believe how I'm being bounced around, treated like an

addict, not listend to, and not treated. It's not even about the

meds, it's about finding someone to understand what I'm going

through. I'll tell you though, I have days where I'm ready to buy

stuff off the internet to get some kind of relief. (I wouldn't! But I

am tempted.)

I've never heard of the Patients Rights that was mentioned in a note

to me. Could someone provide more information on that? I did think it

was very odd that my primary couldn't even treat me for pain. I've

ended up in the emergency room as a last resort, and do not want to

do that again...