I know its been so long that most of you may have forgotten me or just plain don't remember me. I'm Lynn from the old forum and have severe small fiber peripheral neuropathy. I've tried vitamins and the whole bit and am now on Duragesic patches which have helped somewhat better than anything else I've tried.

I had this little episode this past weekend I never want to relive. My previous Neurologist got to where he didn't talk or discuss anything with me period when I went to see him so I asked for a referral to another doctor in that same clinic who I'd heard good things about. I got this ugly letter in the mail stating "that neither he nor any of his staff would not treat me and that I had 30 days to get my medical records and find another doctor". He didn't even do the courtesy of helping me find another doctor. So here I am depending on my primary care physician to find a Pain Clinic in Kingsport, TN.

Anyway back to the weekend. My aforementioned Neuro's staff had 1 month to get my records prepared and sent to the new Pain doctor or clinic. I had an appointment last week and no records were sent to that office. The new docs hands were tied and the old doctor of course would not help at all even as a courtesy until I could seen the new doctor. So here I am without pain patches for 6 days until the new appointment. My attending doesn't believe in Pain Medication, I got no help from the other 2 docs. So guess what I sweated, felt bugs crawling on me and had to basically go through my own private little hell until I could go get my patches at the appointed time. By Mon. morning the drugs were out of my system but I was in so much body-wide pain that my husband had to drive me to my appointment. The pain was to the point that I could hardly walk. I have never been so humiliated and treated so badly by so called "doctors" in my life. Have any of you had a similar situation or could there me something I could do to remedy this situation not happening to another individual. It was all because a medical records department didn't do their job and sent my records to the new docs office and then I had to go through withdrawal symptoms. Had I know ahead al this would have happened I would have checked myself in somewhere but the hospitals in my area will not give drugs out in ER's so I probably would have been in a similar situation but just in the hospital.

Just because of drug addicts abusing drugs a person with chronic pain had to go through this situation.

If this situation were to re-occur which I certainly hope it doesn't what should I do or what would any of you do.

Thanks
((((((HUGS Lynn)

Sorry about the tirade I hope after a much needed vacation next week to join all of you again.

Some doctors are arrogant pr!cks. Can you file a complaint? And try to shop around for a doctor that meets *your* needs? I'm not fully awake yet so I'll have to ponder this and see what comes to me. Lawsuit does come to mind though.

I'm so sorry you had to go through this. Not like you don't have enough to contend with without this kind of petty crap.

Barbara

I would go pick up those 'records' personally and take them with me to the new doc at my appointment. Sign them out and say good bye! I'd first copy it all, and prepare a letter of 'correction' should there be any misconstruable information made by that doc in the files.
Once you see what they have...you may want to report the doc to the State Medical Boards-but first see the new doc, talk to your pain doc as well about the situation and get their take on things overall. IN the meantime, you have copies of the key records and will be better prepared.
Some docs are akin to dogs [no offense to any dogs out there], they are like many people, filled with pre-conceptions and biases. Those things work against us in chronic pain.
Good luck - and go GET EM! - Crossing my fingers for you - j

I understand that for some reason you were not content to see the old doctor, but I'm not clear on why you got the letter. For what reason did the doctor send you the letter telling you that neither he nor his staff would treat you. Why, what's the reason??

Billye

Unfortunately, there probably isn't anything you can do that will compensate fully for what you went through being in pain. Admin staff doing their own thing on their own time is par for the course in any industry and deadlines are consistently missed--they typically have an office mgr and the Dr's don't have direct oversight. You can't really pin this one on the Doc.

Best advice is to focus on getting what you need with the new Doc and maybe continuing to compile your med records from this guy periodically so if you're ever in a pinch, you'll have them.

You probably had the doc running interference on you
with the records problem.
I would have gone down to the office with the letter in hand and demand a copy of all my records...... NOW! -- "I'll WAIT!"
and not leave the office until you had them in your hands,
even if it was a 2 hour wait.
They probably would have also asked a fee for them and you'd have to pay.
Upon examination of the records, any inconsistencies should be
corrected by letter demanding that the letter be included
in your permanent record file.
Then place a copy of the letter in the records that you now have,
before you take them to your new doc.

Welcome back here Lynn. Rather than add my past tales of woe to your story, I'd like to point out that you can learn and profit from this horrible experience so that it doesn't happen again.

What follows in the rest of this reply is more or less from the book, "Sick and Tired of Feeling Sick and Tired: Living with Invisible Chronic Illness" (Amazon link http://www.amazon.com/Sick-Tired-Fee...5396164&sr=1-3 ).

We need the help and support of our family, friends, and medical staff. It's difficult to get and keep that help and support when we're in pain, frightened, sick and tired of it all, at the end of our rope, and faced with what appears to be lack of sympathy, empathy, caring, or competence.

Please understand that I'm not assigning fault or blame. Who knows what kind of day/week/month/year that medical office had before taking such cruel and unfeeling action with a suffering patient who relied on them for help? You have no access to the history of others and can't change their pasts, but you do have access to yourself.

Billye's post is the key. Have you identified why your neuro and his or her office staff reacted to you as they did and what you could have done differently? Were you ever discourteous? Loud? Argumentative? Verbally abusive? Unappreciative? Acting like you were right and that they were wrong and uncaring or incompetent to boot? To put a positive spin on this, what could you have done differently to get a different outcome and to empower yourself to get the most from those who care for you?

Again, this isn't blame. My wife and I had a similar experience unsuccessfully trying to get an prompt appointment with our infant son's pediatrician when he had a temperature and couldn't hold food down. We learned that doctors take the side of their office staff, even when that staff was rude and thoughtless.

I don't know that we could have handled that particular incident better, but we did the best we could to ensure that never happened again with subsequent physicians. It's not only out of our self interest. Medical staff have a stressful job and catch a lot of flack. We are now generous with thank you notes, letters of commendation, and gifts of candy, home baked cookies, or flowers with sincere notes of appreciation where justified. Acts of acknowledgment and appreciation go a long way to helping caregivers do a better job.

I hope I'm not out of line or preachy here in trying to give a practical solution. None of us should have to go through what you are going through, and you shouldn't go through this again.