My second rheummy visit was a bust!!

[Guest guest]

The first visit with the rheummy went like this: she said I think there is nothing wrong with you. We will run some blood work. Come back in 1-2 months and we will inject your hips and give you the results. At the end of the appnt I was given a letter saying she was leaving the clinic. So once again I had no doc. The really irritating part is that I waited over 6 months to even see her. She was the coldest most uncaring doctor I have ever seen. I left feeling like a piece of meat that had been inspected to see if it was fit to eat! I was soo pissed.

So yesterday after a 2 month wait I get to see the Nurse Practioner to go over my lab work, get my hips injected and hopefully get something more than Lodine. She goes over ALL my labs and says I am fine...nothing unusual except that my Hepititis screening was positive. I tell her I have been vaccinated with the Hep B series vaccine now two times in my life and that I worked in healthcare for almost 10 yrs. They were looking at an old test from when I worked for this medical center. They were testing to make sure my titer was high enough and that I did not need another series of shots.

So I got injections, a script for Ultram but they refused to write a script for Darvocet. As I was told fibromyalgia is not a rheumatologic problem...its a chronic pain problem and we refer to pain management or your family doc for pain meds. She said at this point I have gone from diagnosed back to undiagnosed, because they feel the RA DX is wrong. She thinks I have joint hyper-mobility. the nodules on certain joints she would not comment on. She did order a set of knee Xrays....but I really wished she would have Xrayed my hands too. she did MORE blood work for the HEP B to see if I have some sort of other viral disease.

And the kicker....since they say they do not know what is going on. they REFUSED to sign my long term disability paperwork. So now I have NO income!!! I was suppose to get my check yesterday, but they stopped it because they were waiting on the paperwork from the doc. Then she tells me she sees stable diagnosed RA patients....so I am being "punted"back to the doc. The clinic is now down to one doc. So because of that it will be a LONG time before I can get in to see the other doc. Translation, my next appnt is in May 2007!!!

Oh and my papework. They do not fill out work ability paperwork. you have to go to occupational health for that. So she did write me a referral and I am waiting to see how long it takes to get an appnt for eval and to hopefully get my paperwork filled out.

I called back my LTD case manager. She is working on finding someone for me to see. She did go ahead and release my payment for this month...but now its month at a time. Which means I will not find out if I am getting paid until the last minute.

I plan to call my crappy insurance CIGNA and see if they can let me see an out-of-network doc so I can get rheumy care and hopefully at least my paperwork filled out before I am in the dark and homeless!

Toni