Re: Hawaii's GREAT when you're healthy, if you're not, well...

On Jun 13, 9:00 pm, Hawaiian Wayne <birdie...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 13, 12:35 pm, "cllmd" <c...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Lotsa lotsa snippings...

"Legend" <livin...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

You're welcome, Lavon,
But what you lose in insurance coverage, it seems, a lot is made up
for in your doctor's attitude. Do you know what more than half of us
here would do, for a doctor who'd treat us like that? I don't think
any of mine think of me as a human being. Well, good luck-and hope you
get itt right with your insurance.

-Legend- Hide quoted text -

Yeah, Legend, i do know....cuz i didn't have him until late in the game.
The only reason Paul took me on early 1998 is because chris & he used to go
to the same church and they became friends. I'd met him and his family and
knew who they were. Paul is not a pain specialist...he's a family doc. He
only saw me as a favor to chris. I was stuck in HMO hell at the time, and
Paul was not taking new patients. I continue to be grateful, first for his
taking me on, being the dragon problem patient that i am.....also for his
team approach regarding my head. He knows that the regular doctor bag of
trix were run thru long before he came into the picture. He also knows and
respects chris. he knows that chris is a complete research/resource hound.

I don't believe that Paul would give another patient what he has scripted
for me. I was still seeing the headpain guy Vicious Lord R. at UCSF when he
took me, and he had been under R. as a resident. I know his partners are
completely against how he has treated me, and have made it known they will
not do the same. I've helped Paul save face with them several times. I was
on a lot of Demerol injections before Paul got me, and they were an extreme
dose. The other doctors in his office used to glare at me when i came in
for pain shots. I've not had one since Feb. '05. There have been a lot of
other issues, and i've done my dangdest to do well by him.

> "Hawaiian Wayne" <birdie...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

I'm about to start
shaking my finger at some people and businesses. I USUALLY get my way
with these things as I've always managed to have a great pain doc like
Lavon. Even my "new" one isn't really new, since he's been my
'regualr' doc for TWO years already! LOL! Legend, it saddens me to
think your pain doctor doesn't really think of you as a person. I've
NEVER had a pain doctor like that. I've had SURGEONS like that, and
doctors that I've been referred to but extremely disliked. But you
deserve so much better than what you have right now. There MUST be
someone else you can go to...or do you live in a very rural area like
I do?

It is rare for us to get the kind of treatment we get, Wayne. Legend is
completely right...what would others give to get the kind of doctor you and
i have? I know, because i now have one....as do you. Paul knew me as a
person before he saw me as a patient.

This may sound dumb, but i once asked Vicious Lord R. who he would have me
see if he got hit by a bus. What doctor would continue my treatment at the
level and in the spirit he had? The question threw R, and he laughed
uncomfortably, saying he'd never been asked that before. I've not asked
Paul, cuz his older brother is his partner. But it IS something we should
ask, if we have found the medical professional of our dreams. (V.L.R. was
not my dream, but he was giving me a pain med my HMO would not allow at the
time.) Things happen. Doctors get sick. Doctors get dead. But our
scripting needs continue....

I am blessed. I didn't have Paul all the way along. Truthfully, if i'd had
Paul from day one, i might not be in the same condition i am
today....especially tolerance-wise. When i was in the HMO, my pain was not
handled wisely. No tears, everyone has gone thru that and we all are where
we are today. I've had doctors fire me....one was especially painful.

Thing is, what i have is what everyone should have, if they want it. I have
a doctor who cares, doesn't give up, and is willing to share the reins (with
supervision.) He lets me try things, but i respond and try things he wants
me to try, too.

The one draw-back is that Paul is gone a LOT. He goes to conferences, lotsa
vacations.... He covers me scripts-wise if he's gonna be gone. I see him
every month and actually get my scripts (used to be triplicates) via an
appt... It keeps me accountable and keeps him informed.

Of course, if the insurance blocks what the doctor is trying to do.....

<sigh>

just hit my mental brick wall.....

deep peace, y'all!
Lavon

Aloha Lavon and all!

Pardon my copy and pasting of your post here: Lavon said/asked:

"It is rare for us to get the kind of treatment we get, Wayne. Legend
is
completely right...what would others give to get the kind of doctor
you and
i have? I know, because i now have one....as do you. Paul knew me as
a
person before he saw me as a patient.

This may sound dumb, but i once asked Vicious Lord R. who he would
have me
see if he got hit by a bus. What doctor would continue my treatment
at the
level and in the spirit he had? The question threw R, and he laughed
uncomfortably, saying he'd never been asked that before."

Only because I fired my primary care doc two years after I fell into
chronic pain and threatened her with a vicious letter reporting her
poor treatment of me for pain (it was like she enjoyed undermedicating
me!) to every authority figure I could find of hers did she refer me
to the one and ONLY doctor that would possibly treat me right..that is
the ONLY thing she ever did that helped me on this long CP journey,
otherwise, as a regular doctor, she was a wizard!

I don't know why some of us get the "luck of the draw" and others
don't. It doesn't make me feel any better knowing that I'm breezing
through life while others are fighting with their pain due to
undermedication every second of every minute of every hour of every
day of every month ... etc...

I also asked my prvious pain doctor the same question (just in case
and because I DID have trouble getting something refilled completely
while he surprised me with an unannounced absenteeism. He said flat
out to me that i was his ONLY PRODUCTIVE CHRONIC PAIN PATIENT WHO WAS
TAKING AS MUCH PAIN MEDICATION AND STILL WORKING and that when HE
finally retired EARLY due to his fathers aging and ill health went to
find a replacement for HIMSELF...he couldn't find anyone willing to
TAKE me! That's why my Psychiatrist took on the responsibility to
just keep writing my monthly meds, because he was "best friends" with
my pain doc and wanted to do him a "favor". That's ALL I was, was a
FAVOR. Otherwise back in mid 2005, I'd have gone through some of the
worst withdrawals from morphine anyone would want to wish on their
worst enemy(ies) only!

Of course my search for a replacement went on and on for an additional
14 months until my regular doctor that was treating everything else
BUT my CP decided he knew me well enough (plus, he had two other
doctors scan my medical records for ANY red flags...there were NONE!)
after a little over 2 years that I was "stable enough" and my old pain
doc and I had done all the hard "grunt" work and found my "magic
bullet" for meds that would work on or for my pain.

Yes, he already has told me that he realizes that sometime in the
future I'll need a bump up here and there because he knows the "nature
of the beast" (chronic pain). THAT made me feel better to know that he
is at least thinking about the future. If anything happened to HIM,
I'd just go back to my shrink...however, my NEW pain doc is very young
(40 at the most, but looks 30!!!) so I think by the time he retires,
I'll have long passed on to that special place in heaven that God has
for all of us that have had to suffer so badly on Earth (to make up
for the bad times we've had to endure). Well, one can wish and hope,
can one?

Sometimes that's all we have.

I know it is a hassle to shop for a doctor...however, I just KNOW that
if I were in this shape in Minnesota (where I lived before moving here
18+ years ago), there were SO many doctors I could have gone to see if
there wasn't a decent pain management doctor. Like OG says, it's a
shame we all can't just tell each other through this forum the names
of our wonderful doctors without fear of them being deluged by
seekers, fakes, quacks, junkies, bums, turds, and whatever else you
wish to call them...wouldn't our Docs just LOVE us for doing that?!!?
BWAHAHAHAHA!

NOT!

The longer I live, the more I appreciate my medical treatment. Even
though I was messed up big time with 3 failed spine surgeries. Who
knows? Maybe its something that *I* did that made all my surgeries
fail. I'll never know. I'm just glad there is someone on my little
island in the middle of nowhere that has the (no pun intended)
BACKBONE to treat a chronic painer the way he needs to be treated.
It's tried and true and he knows that and won't try to fix something
that really isn't broken. He isn't THAT kind of doctor. Thank
goodness!

OK, babble is over. - LOL!

Aloha Just For Now,
Hawaiian Wayne

Wayne, Lavon,

I'm sorry for not responding sooner...yes, the pain doc i have scares
me now...I think he's just waiting fror me to recover from a botched
epidural infection, and whatever this urinary infection is, to try
something new on me. My regular doc changes his mind so often, and is
so hard to get in touch with, I don't know what to do...my pain meds
are quite inadequate, oh, I don't like to get into this! Maybe I was
spoiled by my first pain management doctor, who got me started on long-
lasting meds, who did a great job...then died, not yet 30, and quite
suddenly.

I guess I'm just a bit lazy...my former shrink's replacement even said
I could call her husband, who is a pain specialist. She didn't go
into much detail, but she did say that he doesn't give epidural
injections, he does give 'medication'...I didn't want to get too
specific-so, I guess I could call him. I actually had an appointment
wit another pain doc, but he gives p*ss tests, which I avoid, mainly
on principle-I gave weekly during parole, I did my time. I could
probably get tylenol 4 from my regular doc,he gave it to me for years-
but, with what I need now, I'd be scared of the amount of tylenol-I've
already had liver trouble!

I went on longer than I planned to-so, have a pain-free as possible
night.


-Legend

.

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