Hi Richard,

Its been a really long time since we've chatted. I appreciate you stopping by and giving your opinion. It was one of these situations that should have been avoided. I went for my appointment thinking everything was in order as the medical records department said they had sent records to the new doctor. There was either a miscommunication or something to that effect. Thankfully the situation is remedied, I got my pain patches and am scheduled for an MRI after vacation to hopefully get to the root of the problem.

EMG's have shown small fiber peripheral neuropathy of multiple nerves. The pain has moved from my feet to the thigh area and from the hands to the arms and part of one shoulder. I take a slew of vitamins, etc. B-12 and have been faithful to do so.

Take Care and hope you are doing well.

Your friend Lynn

Hi Tony,

I like your new picture and have noticed you changed your name. I have a weird design on my avatar and one day will put my picture on there when I get all "prettied up" HAHA

How is Iris getting along? I hope very well. I know its been a lont time since I'd spoken with either one of you. I went through a bad bout with depression early in the spring but am doing lots better now except for the episode with the pain doctors. That was an uncalled for situation.

Hope to chat with you soon.

Smiles and Hugs to an old friend Lynn

Hi there Lynn:

You have been treated horribly. No doubt about it. While I cannot relate in the same way, I did have a bizarre experience with a former dermatologist of mine. I had gone to him exactly 20 years ago for a cyst on my back. He was about 35 or 37 back then.

So fast forward 20 years, which makes him all of 57 and he is still in practice near my neighborhood.
I had a small cyst on the side of my nose, and because I did not want to have a small anything on the side of my nose, I went to see him. He looked exactly the same.

I went into his examining room and I expected to be told to hop on the table. I was told to sit on a chair. I did so. I then looked directly at him and said "well, hi there, I remember you, it's been about twenty years, you took a small cyst off of my back". He looked at me blankly and said "So???"

Talk about a lack of social skills. I then said "well, I have a thing on the side of my nose, can you please tell me what I can do to get rid of this thing. He came over, looked at my nose, (and he did not prepare me for anything he was about to do, like swabbing it with alcohol or anything like that). He didn't even tell me what he was going to do. He just went over to this gadget, picked it up, (it looked like a soldering iron), turns out it's some kind of cauterizing tool or something like that...and without warning me, he just started to slice off the thing on the side of my nose. The first time he did it I said "what??? what??, and he just did it again. Burned just a bit but his mannerisms and method of dealing with a patient, well, forget it.

When he finished he told me "it will form a scab, and in a few days, the scab will fall off. You're finished, you can leave". That was it.

I walked out into the waiting room and saw many patients. I have no idea if they knew his personality, or dare I say "lack of personality"

To me, this guy was aspergers. That's all I can say. Just my opinion.

But I never went to him again. Never. I found a much kinder much nicer dermatologist who specializes in skin cancer and he took a thing off of my hand. He's the guy who asked me if I wanted to take off all my clothes so he could do a full body examination. I almost choked.

What a difference in personalities though.

I hope you have a much better experience in the future, believe me.

Melody

Lynn, I think you may want to think about why you go, or keep going, to doctors when they treat you badly. Did I understand you to say that your regular primary care doctor wouldn't help you because he doesn't believe in pain medicines? He let you go through withdrawal? You don't need to be a patient of someone who would treat you so callously. And withdrawal can be so dangerous, surely your ER would have helped you with this. And you seemed to have gone to your old neurologist long after he treated you badly. Maybe you should give yourself a good talking to: you are worth much more than this. You need to find some doctors who will treat you like the valuable person you are. And don't stick around if they treat you bad! I don't mean to be on your case, but the way you were treated was so appalling. I don't want that ever to happen to you again. I really think you need a more sympatico primary doctor who respects you more.

What was done to you was cruel and wrong, and just plain sad.
Please get that MRI done,you know it always seems like attending
Drs.... need to feel some pain. I hope you have better luck and
those records or your's,there was no excuse for that. Sue

Well, it sounds like you are better off rid of that "doctor". Your PCP refusing pain relief medication is another issue. To me, pain relief is a basic human right, and a basic part of what our founding fathers and subsequent patriots fought for. I hope you can convince your PCP to change his mind.


Here in California, all patients have a right to any and all of their medical records.

This is what I found for Virginia: http://hpi.georgetown.edu/privacy/stateguides/va/va.pdf

It sounds like a bit of a hassle, but if you fill out the proper paperwork, they MUST provide the records at reasonable cost. Good luck.

Hello Lynn52, it has been a long while since we have heard from you, i am sorry it had to be under those circumstances.

Don't worry there are plenty of those type doctors around, even here down under, you wouldn't believe some of the arrogant pigs i have come across since the start of my PN, these people have a cheek to call themselves doctors.

I had never had one problem with doc's before this, i think it must be the nature of this disease, it probably get's the better of them too, i assume they just want to hear their patients say " i am lot better since ...rar,rar " , but of course unfortunately this doesn't happen to majority of PN patients.
Anyway i hope everything works out for the better
all the best
Brian

Does this doc work out of a hospital? If so I would write a complaint letter to them or higher up. I know it won't take away your pain and what you have been through and I'm so sorry. Its mentally and physically draining. I know I have told my docs I have went for second opinions and most of them seemed like that was ok and the thing to do. I wrote on another thread and at the pain clinic I was at no pain relief meds. Also other ones and I think even like Mayo didn't use any meds none not even like Lyrica I could be wrong though. I do know CC only used the anti depressents. I think what works for one doesn't for another. So maybe finding a pain clinic or setting up a program for you of the meds, but other rehabilitation. As for support is there a friend or maybe a support group in your area?I hope your feeling better