Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Smith
I can't say for sure, but I wonder if that may be partly their training; there are a lot of things they don't seem to acknowlege besides pain.
It may go back to something in that Dr. Rob's blog post:
Maybe it has to do with apprehension of being asked for (more) pain medication, and all the ethical/political baggage that goes along with that (instead of just allowing doctors to be doctors)?
I hear you, Lee, and of course I'm only guessing/speculating - trying to see it from both sides. I've had doctors like those you describe, who just see us as their 10:15 or whatever... But I have gotten comments from others indicating they believe me, and their willingness to put that in writing. And my PCP does say, "Oh... sorry." or (albeit brief) words to effect when he asks how I am and I answer candidly, so there must be a factor of individual personality involved as well. Perhaps they view it as keeping things "professional", which definition is bound to differ between them and us(?)
Doc
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This has been my experience with my pain doctor of 11 years. He is pretty quiet now and doesn't make good eye contact anymore. The degeneration and pain are much worse now. The mulitple surgeries were needed for stabiliation of the spine but increased the pain considerably. He has been a doll and arranged for a pain doc to manage me post op. as he doesn't trust surgeons to do a good job in that area. He never minded going toe to toe with the out of town super spinal surgeons relative to my post op care and fought for a week to ten days of inpatient rehab before allowing me to go home where I live alone. The traditional treatments never helped the Fibro and other autoimmune problems. He was always interested in the non tradtional routes I took and used them on other patients. As the spine has continued to go downhill, Medicaid now refuses to cover any physical therapy as I am considered a bad investment. He couldn't look me straight in the eye when he told me I now have multiple autonomic disorders that don't respond well to treatment. I don't think I would want his job. Best wishes.