RANT: I *hate* my new doctor

[Neco]

Hi everyone.. I haven't posted anything in detail for ages.. That was because things were going great! Now, not so much.

I am so boiling with anger right now, I don't even know where to begin.

As some might recall, my long time doctor died in an accident quite some time ago, and eventually they brought in a new doctor to head the practice.

Well ever since she has taken over, it has been nothing but one headache after another, I have repeatedly had to jump through hoops to get my monthly Methadone prescriptions.

I no longer go in every 3 months and receive 3 scripts (one to fill immediately, and two dated to be filled 30 days apart). I have to call every single time. I was forced to take (and pay for!) an EKG before she would continue prescribing my Methadone. I also had to give blood. I also had to give a urine sample - I am still subject to random urine tests at her apparent discretion.

She has no ****** clue what she is doing. She has shown an epic lack of awareness about what my treatment plan WAS set up as, and now she has dared to tweak and make changes to it.

My original plan called for
#110 pills every 30 days. Base dose of 3 pills daily, 4 extra pills alloted per week, and the remainder of unused pills at the end of the month to build up an emergency reserve supply.

She didn't even know I had a reserve until I just recently told her. That appointment was a total ****** joke. In the past two months or so I have had 3 teeth extracted.

The first tooth, I received antibiotics and a prescription from a dentist I saw who was not my regularly dentist. I diligently took my prescription for Tylenol #3 to the office to get permission to fill it. I guess I was lucky she WASN'T there that day, another doctor there who knew me OK'd the prescription to be filled.

About 2 weeks later I was again in extreme dental pain, and learned I needed to have 2 more teeth removed, this time I had to go to an oral surgery center to have them done because they were in poor shape.

I got an appointment and asked for some Tylenol #3, which she would not give me because she "checked 3 different sources" and they all said Tylenol #3 would not work with my Methadone... Despite the fact I told her I took it just the other week and it worked great.

At the time of that visit, I had taken close to 2g of Ibuprofen, 1.5grams of Tylenol, and a couple hundred mg of Aspirin all in a 12 hour period. Not a single person in the office seemed concerned about this, much less the doctor. She made no attempt to counsel me on over the counter usage and any limits I should observe and made NO comment on me having mixed two NSAIDs (Ibuprofen and Aspirin).

Instead she had the gall to ask "We're giving you 110 methadone every month, where is it all going?" - As if that has ANYTHING to do with my visit!! And when I tell her I take my 3 or 4 pills a day, and any leftovers go into a reserve supply for emergencies, she's starts shaking her head and says she can't prescribe me more than I am using.

THEN starts talking about reducing my pill count. Just flat out decides I will get 95 pills a month, without making any effort to ascertain exactly how much I am using every month.

95 leaves me with 5 extra pills a month...wow.. Thanks doc!

So some time goes by and I get my first refill (she is not there) written by another Dr who has written me refills in the past. So I get my 95. Which I filled on Dec 1st December 30th I call, and she is not there, Some guy named Dr. Flood writes me a script for 12 pills because "he doesn't know me" (god forbid you look in my chart you moron) and I will have to make an appointment to get the rest from my doctor...

I'm not making a stupid appointment for a refill that is routine. I don't have that kind of money, and I let the nurse know it, so she says to just call on Monday. Which I did - today.

I just got a call back saying the Doctor will not write my prescription until Wednesday because the prescription I had, plus the 12 pills I just recently got should last me until then. Which I vehemently dispute. So I sit on hold while her and this other doctor "do the math" - they must really suck at math.

Their assumptions are based on the math that I take 3 and only 3 pills a day the entire month, despite the fact that for the past 2 years my prescription instructions on the bottle state, as we set up under my treatment plan "Take one pill 4 times daily as needed".


Where the hell does this lady get her numbers from? #$*#%$!#)$*!%*!#%

I have to make an appt to see her in Feb, because apparently she wants me to (which I was told after I said I -would- be making an appt to come in Feb, because I don't know where she is getting her numbers).

This doctor has done nothing but screw me over, messing with a plan that was untouched for 2 years and that was WORKING. And on top of that has the gall to use my appointment asking for Tylenol #3 as a gateway to lowering my pill count - why doesn't she just accuse me of drug seeking and get it over with?

She is going to get a severe earful, and is lucky I am not typing out a detailed complaint to the state medical board and am instead ranting on the Internet...

Rest assured if she has the audacity to take this even further and try to cut me off completely, there will be a severe complaint forthcoming, and I will threaten her with it as I walk out the door.

[ViewsAskew]

That severely six, Zach. My doctor did similar things over time until she finally fired me.

She could NOT handle any ambiguity in the dose, either. When Dr B - what was working with her - gave me leeway with a dose because it was the first time I'd taken the drug, she refused to give me the max. I hadn't a clue if I'd need the max, the min, or somewhere in between. How the heck was I to know how much?????? I told her that whatever I got, I'd stretch to as long as it lasted. If I needed the max, it would last a week; if the min, it would last 5 weeks. She FREAKED!

I think the they are TERRIFIED of getting in trouble. What a crappy situation for everyone - we can't get what we need, they feel hamstrung, and everyone loses.

Hope you find a solution...

[badnights]

Zach, do I ever recognize your anger! I hope you're as articulate as you need to be when you're on the spot with her. With those kinds of people, you have to say you're using the 4 pills every day, you have to lie, basically; except too late for that now. And you have to go look for another doctor, which will be hell for you, but that woman is not going to change. I can see it, you can see it. Start looking now, before she dumps you or ruins your life completely.

[dogeyed]

Dear Zach,
Oh, I hear you, man. Dang those stoopid docs!!! I hope you can find a couple old bottles with the standard prescription label on it (since they have no idea how to look thru records), and sit that on the doc's desk, and ask her how come you can't have what has been routine for two years. [If you can't find the bottle, the pharmacy might have the computer record and be willing to print out the last year or two of that medicine for you, or the office in which you have been getting these medicines I imagine a clerk who knows you or the doctor's nurse would Xerox copies of the last two years of that medicine.] You need some ammo. And if any male member of your family knows your situation, bring them with you if you can, two work better against one.

Now, on the dental thing, THAT was not right. But you know what, I had a similar thing, had a biopsy done with local anesthetic, but it hurt like hell and I was crying when I asked for some pain medicine at the biopsy place, NO WAY JOSE. So, I called my family doc and asked for a handful, which I got. I also was on another pain killer that WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO USE FOR SURGERY, for crying out loud. That would be akin to doing an operation without anesthesia or put in the hospital after you've been cut from stem to stern and them saying "no pain killers" since you already take them. I mean, don't they know that limiting pain killers works both ways, that if you dip into your normal dose, for one thing it's not going to necessarily kill dental pain (the worst) or kill biopsy pain or surgery pain, AND it means you don't have enough RLS medicine to make it.

The docs are working under an entirely different set of parameters. Most have no idea what it is like to be dependent on a regular dose of pain medicine for a neuromuscular condition that hurts like hell and bothers you 24/7. If they did, they'd be nicer to their patients. Well, apparently this new doc is gonna do things her way, and your mission is to convince her that your way IS her way. Men are better at this than women, we all cower and suffer in silence, until we get "hysterical" one day. I did, collapsed in the hallway of a place I'd been to for years when a new doc refused to give me ANY of my pills. If it hadn't been for a psych doc who knew me there, picked me up off the floor, and encouraged my new reg doc to give me enuff to tide me over until I could make an appointment with my specialists, I'd have suffered withdrawals. So now I have to pay for a specialist all the time instead of a regular doc.

By the way, I also have my two specialists throw ten pills per month over the prescription, for those just-in-case times, when days don't go well, when I run out when it snows, plus to build my stash. I have heard of so many people who take pain pills who keep extras. Only people who HAVE to take pills that cause dependency can understand the pure unmitigated misery we go thru when we lose some of our regular dose or come up short a day's worth of pills, that kinda stuff. But like I said, docs are on another mental plane about this, their goal is to deprive us of all "pain killers," period, so that they don't wind up on some list, I guess. But for you, you've been on this particular prescription for two years, so any Fed that comes down there and looks at the doc office records will SEE that you've always gotten that, your diagnosis requires it, and surely the doc wouldn't get in trouble. But I don't know their end. I just know mine.

Well, keep us posted on the events, I'm glad you started this thread, we all think the world of you, you are so intelligent and confident, I hate it that somone is bothering our good friend. And I hate it for all of us, that we have to deal with this becuz of some meth addict in NYC who stands outside a shabby pharmacy and sells pills on the corner to get their dope (why don't they put ex-lax in one of the easily-obtainable ingredients for meth?).
GG

[Neco]

Yes, I have several old pill bottles from the last year, because my dad reuses them to leave me daily doses, or sometimes multiple doses when the family goes away and I stay behind.

I also spoke to my pharmacist and he said he was more than happy to vouch for my refill history, because I've been filling the same thing, at the same interval, since before he even started working there regularly.

I am really afraid I'm going to end up looking for a new doctor, because my reserve is probably only 2 or 3 weeks big. But I totally intend to give them woman a severe grilling when I am in there.

I have been nothing but nice and cordial to her in all my visits, but I have had enough... She just damn well better write my prescription tomorrow when I call, like she said she would..

[Polar Bear]

Zach you are in a horrible position.

Good luck for your prescription tomorrow and I hope it goes more smoothly that you anticipate.

[sleepdancer]

Hi Zach. I'm new around here so I don't know your story, but I do understand how having a doctor you are at odds with is a very uncomfortable place to be. It's a big decision whether to try to continue working with a doctor or go through the ordeal of finding a new one. Maybe you won't have to go that far.

I've learned something new from your post. I had no idea a prescription could include extra to build up a reserve. Learn something new every day.

I have twice been in situations where a doctor's treatment of me was so blatantly shoddy that I felt expressing my strong feelings about their treatment was warranted. Once I wrote them a letter afterward. Other time I lodged a complaint with the medical director. However, other times I have found that doctors respond to a patient who needs them to make an extra effort to meet their needs. Never had one respond positively to anger. That is the beginning of the end.

If you have any interest in trying to repair the relationship, try to approach the doctor with a "Please help me understand why you..." frame of mind. Or even tell her that you've been real upset that a plan that was working has been disrupted, but that you want to try to understand her decisions. Maybe she feels your other doctor was out of line or took risks she doesn't know you well enough yet to take. I have no idea. I just hope this all works out with the least disruption to your effective treatment and with the least agitation for you. It's a rough place to be, but let's hope for the best.

[SquirmingSusan]

Zach, I hate that you're in this situation and I that all of us have been in that same situation at one time or another, or could be in the future. It's just crazy. Hopefully your new doctor just needs to understand the situation better. Some doctors don't believe that methadone is a viable treatment for RLS, and some are just afraid of prescribing controlled substances.

My previous doctor told me once that she could prescribe a certain amount of methadone before the feds started sniffing around the clinic. I can't remember if it was 90 or 120 tablets, though. Sorry about that. But that might be the situation your doctor is in, and being new, isn't sure just what she can do.

Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to ditch the pain clinic and just have Dr. B prescribe my methadone, along with my narcolepsy meds. He has to Fed Ex those to me already, so one more prescription wouldn't be a problem and I have to see him twice a year. The pain clinic makes me drive downtown every month to pick up the prescription and have an appointment every 4 months. Yes, I know it would be easier if Dr. B prescribed the methadone.

But my pain doctor is OK, and he also has prescribing privileges for Xyrem, so if Dr. B retires someday he could potentially take over some of the other prescriptions. It's nice to know that I have 2 doctors who are willing to prescribe what I need.

You might want to look around and see if there's a primary doctor nearby who has an interest in managing pain. There is someone like that at my primary clinic and I've thought about asking if he can take over my methadone. I'm guessing there are more doctors like him in other larger family care clinics.

I hope you can get this worked out quickly. Nothing worse than wondering if you'll be able to manage the RLS.

[Neco]

Yes, there really is nothing worse.. It also sucks because I've been stressed out since last Thursday when I made my initial attempt to get my refill.. One of the things that makes my RLS worse is stress....


I don't think I'm going to go in there bells and whistles or foaming at the mouth.. That's not quite my style. I tend to frame my objects in a logical analysis manner and, yes,

"Why are you changing this when I have been doing it for the past 2 years and it has worked flawlessly? These problems did not start until you started making changes to my script, and all the excuses I've heard so far don't have any real medical basis that I can see"..

Is pretty much one thing I intend on saying.

[dogeyed]

Zach,
Yes, I like the tone of that question to the doc. I'm glad you've got old bottles and that the pharmacist will vouch for you (write down his phone number and the days he works, to also give to your doc). Wondering how your call went yesterday to get the refill. Well, hang in, keep us posted.
GG

[Neco]

I was surprised actually.. I got home from work, took a nap and gave them some time, then I called to see if she had even remembered to write it, and it was waiting for me.


So I got that filled. The pharmacy still owes me 30 pills, so I'm gonna pick those up later today or tomorrow, and then ask for a print out of my refill records.

[sleepdancer]

Happy Dance time! Glad it went well for you.

[Polar Bear]

So glad for you that you got your prescription.

[dogeyed]

Hooray! Pills and a plan!

[Neco]

Yeah, but let's just hope the plan doesn't end up costing me pills in the future