I have another doctor!

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

When I went to pick up my Oxy refill last week I was able to get a short

conference with my doctor. He had asked me to come in to see him when he

found out that the 5 mgs. of Oxy IR he'd prescribed for my breakthrough pain

wasn't working. The 40 mgs. of Oxycontin, along with my duragesic patch,

seem to be a good combination, but I'm still having six hours or so of

breakthrough pain each afternoon that the Oxy IR doesn't touch. My doctor

said that he wanted to discuss the problem with a collegue of his, a

Physiatrist, who is more familar with the medications and their dosages.

It's been decided that this Physiatrist will " share " me with my GI, and I have

an appointment to meet with the new doctor tomorrow morning. He has a

practice in Physical Medicine and Rehab in Savannah, and apparently treats

a lot of patients who are in severe, chronic pain. The two doctors discussed

my case and decided that with the two of them sharing me, they would be

able to increase my Oxycontin, duragesic and the Oxy IR to the right levels

that would give me better coverage for my pain. Apparently if it's done this

way, there would be no problems with review by DEA. Because I am the only

patient that my GI is prescribing these drugs for, he wanted to make sure

that what he was prescribing wouldn't come under any negative scrutiny by

the authorities. I understand his caution in this regard.

I'm just grateful that he has shown that he's considerate enough of my pain

issues to keep trying to find medication that will help me function. I do feel

so

lucky to have found this doctor, one that won't give up or turn his back on me.

Now....if I could just get his nurse straightened out......!

She wrote my prescription WRONG again, even with him there telling her

what it should be! I wish he would actually write the scripts, but she is the

one

who carries around the special narcotic prescription pad and writes it up,

according to the doctor's instructions, all he does is sign at the bottom once

she's written it in and filled in her log.

So I'll be seeing the new doctor tomorrow, and hoping for good results. I'll

let

you all know how that goes when I return.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

http://panassociation.org/anthology.htm#heidi

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and

should not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

[Guest guest]

Hiedi, I dont understand that. Also I am not sure I know what a

physiatrist is. This doctor of yours certainly has given you a run

a round so to speak with your medication lately, hasn't he. Kind of

sounds like the narcotics make him nervous. How long have you been

seeing this guy? Does you insurance pay for your meds? Mine does,

and has denied some of the meds, until verified. Really embarrasing

in the K-mart pharmacy line and the young lady hollers out, " Ms

Rowland there's a hold on your demerol until verified, no only about

15 minutes " You get a lot of odd glances then.

I hope the new doc works well with you and you get the relief you

need. Let me know how it goes, and what is a physiatrist?

Love

Chrissy

[Guest guest]

Heidi

Great sounds like the plan is all coming together for you . Now to

sort the nurse, is there anoterh nurse there you can get?

I know what you mean I have one in my docs office she drives me

spare controlling my meds. Like ist any of their business. I try and

bypass her as shes good for nothing .

good to see you are getting it sorted

Debs

[Guest guest]

Chrissy,

I really don't feel that this doctor's given me the run around, he's just trying

to

set me up on a pain medication that's going to work for as long as possible,

instead of having to change my meds all the time, as we had found it

necessary to increase the dosages. I told him I didn't want to have to take

8-10 10/325 mgs. of Percocet forever, because of our concerns over the high

quantities of tylenol. It's one thing if the acetaminophen is used for a short

while, but questions about the toxinity of having it in my system for years and

years was worrying me. And we'd gotten to the point that what I was taking

wasn't enough.

Venturing out into new narcotics concerned my GI, mainly because he hadn't

experience with them. He didn't object to my using them, he just wanted to

make sure that what I was using was correctly dosed and suitable. Not

having experience with oxycontin, he sought the advice of someone who had.

I respect the fact that he admitted he needed outside professional help, and

that he found it for me. A lot of other docs, from what I've read here, and

experienced with my first GI, would have just said " that's all I can do for you,

so take it or leave it " . So I do feel that he's trying hard to help me.

I've been seeing this GI for nearly a year. I found him after I fired the GI

that

had treated me for nearly 2 years. That GI refused to have me tested for

diabetes, despite the sudden severe weight loss, vision problems, frequent

urination, and excessive thirst that I continually complained about, until I

ended up in Intensive Care in guarded condition with diabetic ketoacidosis.

Our insurance company pays for any of my meds, except for our $20-30

co-pay. I haven't had any difficulties with them except for the strict

monitoring

of my duragesic patches, I lost two last year while traveling and they wouldn't

let me get new ones early, so I had to go through some difficult withdrawal. It

really made me mad, though, to find out afterwards that I if I was willing to

pay for them myself, I could have gotten them.

I met with the Physiatrist (degree is in Physical Medicine) Monday. He works

out of a large pain clinic in Savannah. It took me over an hour just to fill

out

the extensive pain history form that was given to me. When I met with the

Physiatrist, he seemed fine, a young, cheerful man who spent a great deal of

time examining me physically, and reveiwing all the different medications

(narcotics, mainly) that I've taken; how they worked, side effects, etc. He was

very warm, personable and the nurse said everyone loved working with him.

He said it was not appropriate to use two different long acting narcotics, like

the duragesic and oxycontin, as I was. He said he preferred to increase the

dosage on one or the other, to come up with the full amount, and then use

something else for breakthrough. Since I'd had successful relief from the

duragesic, and none of the troubling side effects that some people have with

it, we decided to stay with that, and increase me up to 75 mgs., with up to 45

mgs. morphine for breakthrough. Since I'd been having considerable

breakthrough with the oxycontin, and only had used it a week, he thought the

duragesic would be a better choice for now. He also put me on a muscle

relaxer, Tizanidine, that he thought would help with the back pain that I have.

Some of my back pain is not pancreas related, since I've got some scoliosis in

my neck, and an additional vertebra in my tail bone that have caused me

problems since youth. They seem to act up when my pancreas pain does,

making my overall back pain horrendous. He saw something questionable

during the exam with my back structure, so he wants me to have a spinal

scan next month.

He also prescribed me several months supply of Lidoderm patches, that he

asked me to apply to the specific pain areas, to see if they bring any relief.

I

left the pain clinic

Being that this was a pain clinic, I did have to sign the customary pain

contract, so I guess that takes my GI out of the loop with all of my pain

medication prescribing. I had to do a urine test, and I guess they do them

quite routinely....but I have no problem with this.

After I left the appointment I started having some pain. I got back to Bluffton

about two hours later, stopping for lunch on the way home. By the time I got

to my pharmacy the pain was really getting bad, and worsening after I had to

wait 15 minutes for my new scripts. My pharmacist didn't have the

duragesics in stock, so I had to go to CVS, and after waiting there for 30

minutes I was miserable. I'd taken one of the morphine tabs, but not soon

enough, so by the time I got home, I was in agony. I had to just sit in the car

in the driveway for about 10 minutes before I could even get to where I felt

capable of climbing up the steps to the house.

Bent over double, I went in the house and my husband helped me put the

patches on my abdomen and back, I put on the additional duragesic and laid

down. 30 minutes later I was fully recovered and ready to cook dinner....so

all the new stuff seemed to work!! For the past two days, since the increase

in the duragesic, I've had no breakthrough pain, so I haven't had to take

anything else. I hope it continues!!

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

http://panassociation.org/anthology.htm#heidi

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and

should not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

Chrissy wrote:

> Hiedi, I dont understand that. Also I am not sure I know what a physiatrist

is. This doctor of yours certainly has given you a run a round so to speak

with your medication lately, hasn't he. Kind of sounds like the narcotics make

him nervous. How long have you been seeing this guy? Does you insurance

pay for your meds?