Tell your story of living with chronic pain, by leaving a reply at the bottom of the page. Do not mention specific medications or dosages. Stories do not appear right away.
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Tell your story of living with chronic pain, by leaving a reply at the bottom of the page. Do not mention specific medications or dosages. Stories do not appear right away.
Up until two days ago, I went to a pain management clinic for just under fifteen years. The day I started at this clinic, of course I had to have a urine test. But after that I went there year after year for well over a decade, and my appointments lasted literally two minutes with the same doctor every month. About a year and a half ago was the last time I saw that same doctor. The clinic fired the receptionist for helping patients out and not strictly making our appointments 28 days apart. They do this to suck thirteen months out of a full year. Because that’s one extra month for every patient to have to pay for another office visit. It’s all about profits!!!
So they fired the receptionist and hired three new, I think doctors. And so for the past 16 to 18 months I’ve been bounced around between these three new doctors. About eight months ago, one of them said to me “Oh, I see you haven’t given us a urine test in a while, on your next visit you’ll have to give us one.” Then I’d go to my next appointment and nothing. This happened like three times. I remember asking him “Why what are you looking for” and never got an answer. The only reason I asked is because I smoke and wasn’t sure if they punish patients who test positive for weed. I got no answer anyway. In fact I started to get the sense that none of these new doctors liked me much. I don’t know why, but it was like they were in training and it was amateur hour.
I felt very uncomfortable being bounced between these newbies. They knew nothing about me except what was in my records. So, two days ago I went to my appointment and first thing this woman doctor calls my name and tells me to go into the bathroom and pee in the cup. No worries, I do so, then have my appointment, which lasts two minutes. I go out to make payment and this lady calls me back into her office. She says I have benzos in my pee. I said yeah, and? My psychiatrist prescribed me a benzo that I only take for panic attacks. It’s in my records. No one ever told me I couldn’t take them before. Out of the three new doctors and my old one that’s still there, nobody ever said a word.
Long story short, they want to punish me. Gave me two weeks’ supply and have to come back in two weeks, pay another office visit and $40 for another pee test. I said no, I refuse to be punished for violating a rule I never knew existed. And it’s hard enough for me to come up with $$ every month, no way I could do this twice. I had to walk out I was so pissed off. I left.
My father was USN retired serving 25 years. By the time he started his second career in ship building as a Master Machinist, he had one back surgery to treat a Vietnam injury. He spent four months in a body cast in 1985. Years passed of Dad working in shipyards.
1994 brought an industrial accident at the shipyard. An 8-inch steam line burst and swung down and burned my Dad and his supervisor, knocking them into the water. They were knocked unconscious but saved by co-workers. ICU for five months and another surgery was planned. Shipyard cleaned up accident site so worker’s compensation was only option instead of manufacturer of steam line. Ultimately surgery was done and failed. One more surgery and improperly installed hardware was flipped and my Dad could walk.
Years later, Dad was cold turkey taken off the opioid and he had a seizure at work. He was unaware this reaction was a possibility. He defecated while unconscious. Everything changed. He was instructed to take med again. My mom and I drove him to and from work for two years. The company changed his job, using his expertise for tool repair only.
His personality changed. His physical healthcare was done at a clinic contracted by shipyard. Worker’s Comp case settled in 2002. He was a shell of the man he had been. All those years, going to doctor at same clinic and getting script, taking med that ultimately calcified his kidneys. Now it was 2014 and was given two months to live. Timeline was wrong but for the rest of his life he was treated like shit by newly introduced pain management clinic that PCP pushed my Dad into with a referral that read ‘I inherited patient. IDK why he is on med’. That doctor had been writing script for seven years. Dad was unable to comprehend what was happening. Why would his ‘great’ doctor abandon him?
I assembled forty years of records and took my Dad to Naval Medical Center and arranged to have a myelogram. Had it sent to spine specialist down the road. He was expert in his field. He said there was no way he could help my Dad considering his age, conditions, and how the past surgeries decreased his chances of getting positive results. We got a second opinion and there was no solution for my 73 year old widowed father.
It had been a little over 18 months that we fought for med to allow Dad to breathe. Nutrition changes and keeping his glucose in range lengthened his life but the stress of being a patient on that medication was too much for him to manage alone. I was forced to advocate for him. I searched for answers about how this issue with pain med and my Dad happened. Nothing contained in his record warranted any action that was required of my Dad. I wish I could claim to have been the dutiful daughter because I am kind and my parents raised me right. I am kind but I was forced into that position by a government who jumped into a situation without a plan to help those already affected by prescribing doctors who weren’t looking into med and treating my Dad with alternative therapies. It was too late. He died on March 4, 2020.
Thankfully, I was there when he died and his legal documents made that time easier for ourselves and paramedics. He was not a litigious man. He wanted to die at home. No hospital. Story should be over but I am so affected by that ordeal.
Denied opioid pain treatment? American Medical Association AMA wants your stories!
Video channel from Dr. Thomas Kline, MD, PhD: Medical Myths Revealed
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iGjKHrD1OW0
Crap site get real and let’s form a stand-in and get our reps to listen to us or leave Maine because they have no compassionate care here in a “pill state”. 31 years on Tramadol, so many disabilities, and they just wean me from just eight. My life has gone into a spin not to mention my health. They want to stick pain patients with the addicted. Shame Shame
Punishment for seeking pain medication post-op botched dental surgery UCONN.
POST OP: 7 visits to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital ER following fall due to post operative pain. Ignored by UCONN request for pain control. Wrote letters to Dr Ruiz and head of dental school. Told TO CEASE CONTACT WITH THEM. No I won’t. Currently trying to get implants; doctors are both afraid to prescribe pain meds to set posts
Following UCONN DISASTER: Dr Kenneth Finn gave me an accurate diagnosis; UCONN LEFT MY JAWBONE EXPOSED. He finally gave me pain meds after my review of him as poor GOT HIS ATTENTION. One script, and his “poor me” whining. Surgeon Weyman agreed to give me pain meds for 18,000 dollars. After surgery, one script, not adequate. Called office five times, no response. Weyman’s nurse just lied to my face prior to post implant bone implant bone grafting, totally committed to no pain issues for THEIR PATIENTS. What BS. Weyman finally confessed he was limited by DEA IN TREATMENT OF MY PAIN. I’m reporting all of these Connecticut physicians.
Then I fired my primary physician, Dr SHARIFF of Hartford Healthcare, for refusing to treat a second outbreak of Shingles pain. Lidocaine – are you kidding?
Lawsuits no one will touch THESE GODS / Demons
Every doctor in Connecticut has confirmed that they are afraid of prosecution; not concerned with our pain because of their licensing. They are BREAKING THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH: “ABOVE ALL DO NO HARM”. THEY ARE VERY COMFORTABLE WITH OUR PAIN LEVELS AT “HIGH”. I’m sure they have a healthy supply of [pain meds] for their family.
I am a 54 year old woman who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. I can’t find a doctor who wants to help relieve my pain. They do however want me to take medicine that has severe side effects. I have been suffering for years. Some days the pain is so bad I can’t move. If I ask for pain medicine I’m told flat out NO. There has to be help out there somewhere.
We should all file claims for disability – inundate disability offices with applications as this denial of effective pain treatment has caused many of us to become truly disabled. Make sure you get copies of your medical records, lab results and imaging. Almost every state is required to provide a patient with a copy of their record.
I am over 55 years old, and have severe arthritis in my neck and my back. I have had about eight or more injections in my back that did not help. I have a good PCP, however had to kick me off my pain meds because I had illegal marijuana in my urine. Been in pain ever since, had to get on subs, and I can’t stand them, but this is why people are forced to get illegal drugs and OD.
I have arthritis so bad that I don’t sleep at night. The pain is so bad that it interferes with my appetite and I don’t know what to do at times. I cry all the time due to the pain being so excruciating until it’s unbearable.