Re: Should I Change Doctors?

ron, as docs, both of them know that there is no ceiling on opiate
treatment. Patient 'A's 300mg. dose can easily require 1200 mg. for
Patient B. Your problem is the limited experience you have with the
temp. doc. They may not turn out to be quite so fearless when it comes
to treating a regular patient. As a temp. there was no long term
responsibility making it a lot easier to do the 'right thing'. Tough
decision. Good luck with that.

I think the more important issue is finding a different treatment for
the headaches. Morphine is one of the least effective methods for most.
You need to find a "Doctor" that will help you find that 'more
effective treatment'. Ya?

johnie


Ron wrote:
Pardon me if this question is rather long but today I got into a
showdown with my doctor, although it what wasn't what I had intended to
do. I have terrible tension headaches *plus* the constant chronic pain
that has gone with the fibro for the last five or six years now. I've
been taking hydromorphone, Dilaudid, which seems to be the only thing
that helps even a little bit as all of the other pain meds either don't
do a thing or like morphine, makes me feel worse.

But both the headaches and the other pain have been getting worse over
the last couple of weeks, yet my doctor has limited me to 300 pills a
month; approx 10 pills a day, although she would prefer I took only 8
pills a day. She says she feels she can't in good conscience give me
any more unless a pain clinic says otherwise. I can understand her
position but with the pain getting worse, I honestly don't care about
her good conscience any more. And so we're at a stalemate. Each month,
getting my Rx refilled is like pulling teeth since I run out before the
30 days. Sometimes not too much before then but lately that has changed
as
the pain gets worse. I had hoped to see a local hypnotherapist before
things got realy bad but the health insurance wouldn't pay her $400 per
session fee; I can appeal, but even if they eventually approve it, that
can take another month or two of pain and waiting.

When my doctor went on maternity leave, her "replacement," another
doctor who worked in her office, was pretty liberal when it came time
to get my prescription refilled. It was nice for a change not to have
to hassle every time. Of course, I wanted to be loyal to my regular
doctor as-- up to this point-- she has been very, very, good to me. But
twice over the last couple of months since my doctor has been back I've
hasd to go several days in excruciating pain while waiting until I
could get my pillls refilled and it seems I'm gonna be doing it again
this week since the best I could talk her into was getting my Rx this
Monday instead of Thursday, but my pills will be gone by Saturday. OTC
stuff does not help.

Some of the neurologists think it's rebound headaches, but I couldn't
take going weeks detoxed with a massive headache until they get the
idea that the headaches aren't rebound,
and the pain pills are the only things that let me barely function on a
day-to-day basis. I don't like being on the meds, but I hate the
alternatives more.

So after a thinking long and hard about it, I told my doctor that I
think I should go back to the one she had as a temporary replacement. I
have no reason to believe otherwise, but I am hoping that if I changed
doctors the "new" one will be more reasonable and raise the number of
pills I get each month until something can be effectively done to rid
myself of the headaches. Besides hypnosis which has worked for me in
the past, I'm seriously thinking
of getting Botox injections to see if that would help even though those
aren't FDA approved for headaches.

Does anyone think I'm being unwise in changing doctors and going back
to this other doctor? Is it unreasonable to think that a different
doctor would give me enough pain
meds to get through a month without the constant hassles I've been
having with my regular-- and now I guess "past"-- doctor?

Ron

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Latest News From My Doctor (Who Wants to Cut Down My Pain Meds)
    ... doctor wanted to cut down my morphine, when I feel it's barely enough ... taking 4 15 mg pills ever 12 hours. ... They cant prove where my pain come ... I hope my doc does NOT reduce my pain meds. ...
    (alt.support.chronic-pain)
  • Re: i hate doctors la la la
    ... to imagine severe pain on top of it, I think it was just out of bounds to ... Like I told the doctor, (and my mom, who's expressed concern but it's ... because of the years I was using for headaches. ... Those flu like symptoms you're feeling ...
    (alt.support.chronic-pain)
  • Re: Should I Change Doctors?
    ... You didn't mention any testing, drugs used before, that's why I was asking. ... Be careful with doctor shopping. ... My pain dr is very strict when it comes ... headaches, I wonder if the muscle relaxers would help. ...
    (alt.med.fibromyalgia)
  • Re: Killer Headaches - (continued from OT of 10/07/10)
    ... I hope like hell you get some measure of relief from these damn headaches. ... mentioned how long either the doctor said it would last or you had ... almost pain free from some sort of injection/block they had many ... personally performed over 400 cervical disc replacements. ...
    (alt.support.chronic-pain)
  • i hate doctors la la la
    ... knees, bone spurs in both knees, chronic headaches (the LEAST of my ... pain atm), fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, high bp. ... (the "pain" doctor) ... try to pick up the script before ...
    (alt.support.chronic-pain)