Anyone ever been dumped by their doctor

A little background first:

I suffer chronic pain due to diabetic neuropathy, severe spinal stenosis, severe spinal arthritis, and from at least 2 herniated discs. I know I have two lumbar discs that are messed up bad, and I think I have at least one in the lower cervical/upper thorasic area since the symptoms there are exactly the same as in my lower back.

I was prescribed Cymbalta for the neuropathy which worked great. Took away 90-98% of my lower leg and feet pain.
After going through a ton of medications, therapy, and injections I was put on 15 mg morphine tablets for my back pain. Only thing found to reduce the pain enough to function. Depending on the day I took 2 to 4 of these, avg 2.5 pills a day per month.

After starting the morphine I started having memory problems and the longer I was on it the worse they became. At first I thought it was due to all the stress in my life. I was, and still am, a full time stay at home parent raising a toddler, and shortly after starting on this pain drugs I found out my Mother had terminal cancer which she passed away from 2 months after diagnosis, and I was trying to take care of her too and then had all the post death things to deal with and so on.

Any way it wasn't until about 6-8 months ago I realized there was something more going on. I had a very hard time recalling things from 5 minutes ago to months ago, and even though I tried to adapt by leaving notes in "obvious" places I would either forget to look at the note or if I did I would forget about it again a short time later. I made notes to talk to my doctor about it but would forget to take it with me or if I did take it I would forget I had it. As a result of my memory problems I missed 3 doctor's appointments in the last year.

As a result my doctor dropped me as a patient, saying my disregard for making appointments showed a lack of care about my health. I tried calling and talking to him about it, but he would not return my calls. I sent him a letter explaining what was going on, but to no avail.

So now, 3 months later, I am still without a doctor. Every doctor I call either does not accept new patients at this time or they don't want to deal with someone who suffers from chronic pain, assuming of course they even bother to give a reason, which several haven't. In short I am something of an outcast when it comes to medical care in my area. I have been trying to find one as close as possible and have contacted every GP, Internist, PA, and NP within 30 miles so far. The next closest batch are 50 miles away.

Between doctors being more businessmen than doctors and the idiots in government treating doctors who do prescribe narcotic pain medicines as potential drug dealers making them fear for their medical licenses and worry about being jailed the health care system is a lot more messed up than just people lacking insurance.


Thanks for letting me vent.

Hey Jim,

Jim,
First off, Welcome to HW! Buckeye had a good suggestion about the PM. If there aren't any pain management doctors in your area, you might try a neurologist. Usually they will help you -- at least until you can get into a pain management doctor.

best wishes,
frances

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Moderator -- Depression Forum

Hi Jim,

Welcome to Healing Well. I am so glad you found us as we have a great group of people here and we understand pain all too well. With it being a holiday the board is runnign a little slow today.

I am so sorry to hear what all you have gone thru. As one of the posters said, you really have been through the wringer. I can tell you, yes, these drs are running so scared it does not surprise me at all what your dr did. And you are right, they do not care what the circumstances are of the patient, very unforgiving.

I am assuming you have a PCP that handles your diabetes right? Have you asked the PCP to ref you to a pain mgt dr? If not, then by all means do so. Most pain mgt drs will not see a patient without a referral. Its kind of rare to find a PCP willing to treat pain patient. We have a few on here that see's the PCP, but those are few and far in between.

I hope you wil decide to hang out with us. We really do have alot of fun and look out for each other.

It was my primary care physician that dumped me. I had been seeing him for almost 10 years. For over a year he has been prescribing me my pain meds, and I never once refused to try any suggestion he made. There are only 2 endocrinologists in the area that take my insurance. 1 was not accepting new patients and the other I seen twice and fired for being a huge azz. So my PCP was working with me for my diabetes care too.

My neurologist, which was co-caring my nueropathy packed up and moved 400 miles away 4 months ago, and since the clinic in which she worked has not replaced her yet and no one took her cases I have none. My insurance will not allow me to see any specialist with out a referral by my PCP. I have been to a pain specialist, but all he wants to do is keep doing steroid injections which I have had 2 rounds of and all they did was increase my pain 2 points. It's been over a year since I had those and I am still hurting worse than before.

Come Monday the search resumes at the 50 mile mark. Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to a 2 hour round trip to see a doctor, assuming I can find one. Between the cost of gas and sitting in a car for an hour each way....oh the joy of it.

Jim1969,

Hello. I know how you feel about not being able to find a doctor in your area. I live in a town where just a mile away they have many many doctors, seems like several hundreds, and most of them, about 98% of them dont do chronic pain, and the very few pain management doctors are all either jerks or dont take my insurance, or say they are pain doctors but dont treat chronic pain (which makes no sense to me either lol). So I also had to start calling to the next big town which is almost 70 miles away and I found a wonderful doctor. I had to see him once every 28 days for the first 6 months, and now I see him every 2 months (actually I go in for my 2 month follow up this monday). Acually I decided since I couldn't find a doctor to treat my pain I wanted off of all pain meds, and the doctors by me didnt know how to do it right, so I called a doctor that specilized in tapering people and now he has me on a med that I never thought in a million years would treat my pain, but it is, and of course he was the nearest doctor that did this med. But to me, the 1 and half hour drive is well worth it to me. You may find that driving a bit further is well worth it too when you have a great doctor.

-hellokitty

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Chronic Pain Moderator

_{^{Dx-Gallstones at age 14 that caused Fibromyalgia in 1998. Chronic Pancreatitis at age 15 from Pancreatic Divisum. Fell down cement basement stairs on my bottom in 2001. Got severe migraines after the epidural from my 2nd childbirth in 2002. Was rear-ended by a lady doing 55mph in 2004 then 2 months later rolled my car down a hill and did even more damage to my back. Depression caused by having chronic pain. Asthma from allergies.}}

_{^{meds- Suboxone for pain, Cymbalta for pain and depression, Lyrica for pain and migraines, Imitrex for migraines, Ibprofen for migraines, Ventolin Albuterol inhaler for asthma. Phenergan for nausea, Seroquel for sleep.}}

^{"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."         -Mother Teresa}

Jim, if you get referred to an PM specialist-be sure who ever makes the referral checks to see what kind of pain mgt dr the person is. Some PM drs do prcedures and injections only, then the other with do that and give medication. So, yes not all give medication.

I sure hope you can come up with someone good and soon. I know you said Morphine made your life bearble, but considering what it did to your memory I would stay away from it. There are other medications out there that may help you.

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Jim, I am so sorry you are having to go through all of this. I do hope you are able to find a pain management doctor,soon. It sounds like although the morphine did help with the pain, it may not have been the best med. for you. It sounds like others need to be tried. It angers me that your doctor won't see you anymore. You didn't do it on purpose. You were having severe memory problems...It seems like he should have been more understanding and compassionate than he was. I know it must be aggravating not being able to find a replacement,and it being so hard to do...Keep on trying. You will succeed. Do NOT give up.
Anice

I totally agree with the thoughts about the morphine may not being the best choice, especially given the side effects. Like I said before I am willing to give most everything a go and have no problems trying other medications and/or treatments.

Well tomorrow is a new day...and with it being a Monday the search resumes. I do have hope that I can find a PCP this week as the next batch of doctors I will be contacting work for clinics and hospitals that are at odds with the local hospital who most of the doctors around here either directly work for or are closely tied to.

I don't expect miracles. All I want is to be somewhat functional so I can be a good husband to my wife and a good father to my 3 year old son. I push through the pain as much as possible for him, but there is too many times I have to either put a stop to doing what we are doing or not do it all together because I hurt too much.

I missed out on so much with my oldest son, who is now 19, and I feel lucky to be able to stay home and watch my little one grow, but what hurts the most is having to be on the sidelines a little too often and just watch.