This came up as a cry for help as my RSD was going crazy last night. In the meantime, I remembered how horrible my pain mgt. doc was recently. His laziness in listening almost cost me my life!


I upped my Ativan and gave myself my breakthrough amount of Dilaudid.

Then, I took one dose of baby Bendadryl. (I used to love it for this, BUT, it started a restless leg, leg pain thing and my injury is basically the right side.

Funny, how we stop eating "real food", as I now drink Glucerna with milk added, and Gatorade, as well as freshened water.

On the other site I warned about the pitfalls of not staying on schedule with your regular meds - a doctor and I discussed - and I mean just discussed the importance of making a topical that works for each individual, so that you can go off or go down on your meds, and that included mixing:

pain relief - such as dilaudid pills, just a few for a large container of cold cream

a very, very small bit of steriod,

an inti-inflammatory,

things good for the skin such as Vit D and Aloe, etc.

Well, I talked to my pain mgt. doctor about it and he put it in my reporr that I was mixing drugs for a topical and the work comp then refused all of my meds!!! (We have a date for trial on this.) So not only did I not do it, but they accused me of being an opiod addict and that it is called a "Las Vegas cocktail" when you mix up heroin and coke and get high...

I was VERY upset with my doc for not listening to me, but now, it created a need for the attorney and a hearing and just to get my bare minimum meds I've had to pay cash!!!

Outrageious, don't you think??? And this was MY doctor!!!

I think many of "our" doctors (not on the list), but ones we choose, are really insurance protectors and have no regard for our pain. I really do.

Thank you for your reply, and I hope that my reply may help others, also

Holy Cow Tam !

I never thought of it that way....that WC could deny us after we compound a cream with our meds. I guess I considered that it would be our own prescribed meds that we would mix in, we'd just be applying it topically instead of by mouth.

I just saw my pain doc today for an EMG and he (his own idea) has prescribed a compounded cream with gabapentin, ketamine, ibuprofen etc. I had been considering ordering some DMSO cream online and crushing a few vicodin and gabapentin in it. The only thing holding me back was the sulfa content in the DMSO because I am allergic to sulfa. I really wanted the DMSO because it's supposed to make the meds absorb deeply.

So, luckily for me....I now have a compounded cream coming, BUT I never thought of WC holding that against us ! I do now get their point......I can see why they would frown on playing with narcotics in a general sense.

I just think likening a homemade cream to heroin is ridiculous. We are trying to lessen our pain WITHOUT taking more systemic meds. Can't get high off a cream, can you ?

I'm so sorry this is complicating things for you. Chin up, hon Somehow you will get through this.

I remember back during my wc claim , while at PT I mentioned that I had "helped" dh swap the motor in my car..

of course it got mentioned in her notes..
and I'm sure they all assumed I was actually doing some wrench work...

basically I was just a gofer & keeping him company- I handed over a tool or picked up a nut that dropped on the floor a few times.

Sometimes we just get too comfortable or just have an urge to talk with care providers.... but it is best to keep some things to ourselves or it can back fire.

I really can't believe they equate a topical with major illegal drugs....just totally crazy - but any excuse for a denial I guess.

Can you contact the doc and ask him what his thinking is/was?

when it comes to anyone that can cause problems in your life,, its best to just answer questions as vague as you can,, do not give out your life story when your on the phone and you hear <this call is being recorded for quality purposes>,,,, actually there recording it to use against you , even your own doctor can be a problem,,, go in the office and when he ask,, How are you doing,, i wouldnt say Just great doc,,, I think a good answer would be,, I;m ok considering all the stuff I have going on,,, again,, be as vague as possible,, they use all kind of tricks to trip you up into saying something that can be used against you

The problem being that non of us know this until too late ! ! and we have actually shown parts of our personality in conversations and if not normaly grumpy and grimacing we have already blown it! I am now have a catalogue of Dr's assumptions from either wrongly veiw medical notes or conversations. The problem being that they will never come back to you to clarify anything, after all they are qualified medical proffesionals and I have to use spell check (which won't, sorry). If we constantly whined on about the truth of our situations it would drive us into total depression too. I can't help being one of life's optomists, good for my problems but absolutely no use what so ever for my compensation case.