How do you fire a doctor?
 

Yes as you can see I am up in the middle of the night again. Lovely huh?:D
Anyway, I went to PT today and again I left in as much pain as when I went in. Now that I am awake I realized that they put me in more pain.
I will explain my appointment. I went in and they asked where I was hurting. So I got some dry heat and was asked to do streches. No big deal, I thought I would get a little massage as I normally would after the streching. Nope...I thought wrong. I was made to do exercises that aggrivated my SI joint (after being told to NOT do stuff like that in my last appointment :rolleyes: ). Well then, here comes the doozy. She wants me to sit and then lay back on this hard cylindrical piece of foam for a new strech. The moment I sat down on it, I had pain shoot up from my tailbone and told her so. She insisted that I lay back on the foam round thing and the pain moved up to my waist. I didn't even lay down. I told her that was it, it hurt too much to even try. This is why I am up now....great appointment huh? Well it gets better!
As I leave my PT appointment, my physiatrist, who my PT works under asks me if I am still hesitant about the SI joint facet injection. I said yes and that I wanted to talk to my pain doc who has done all of my epidurals, facet injections, etc. before I decided to do it. He also wanted me to try another session of acupucture and I told him no.
So now after 2 months of PT (which only helps a little) and now feeling pressured into getting more acupuncture and into getting the SI facet injection how do I fire my PT and physiatrist? Okay the uncomfortable part, they work out of my pain doc's office, so I would still physically see them when I go to my pain doc appointments. So I want to be nice about it but firm.
HELP!!!!:D

I have fired many PTs that have been in my OS offices. I have cancelled the appointments and said that I have made other arrangements. I am taking my health care more seriously and find that your process do not fit with my plan. I am looking for a different kind of treatment that you do not or will offer. I am looking for a treatment that I am aa active participant in and that does not fit in with the treatment style of this office.

This is difficult but PT does not have to hurt. I have many physical problems and fibro too. I have found a wonderful PT that works with me not against me. If something hurts we don't do it that day. If we have to do something unorthodox to get it done, thats what we do. I have had great success. It took going thru many PTs to find my gem but it can be done.

it is hard...but you have to do what is the best thing for you and your health.

be very proud of yourself.

you don't have to give them an explantion. you can let them know you are looking for a different course of treatments. what meow said was great : I am looking for a different kind of treatment that you do not or will offer. I am looking for a treatment that I am aa active participant in and that does not fit in with the treatment style of this office.

i am so sorry they caused you pain. ((((wendy)))

I'm a wimp when it comes to firing doctors or PT's.

I just call to cancel my appointments, usually making some excuse about my car not working, then I tell them I will call to reschedule when my car is fixed -- and then I never show up again.

Since your PT is in the same office as your pain doctor, you could cancel your appointments by saying that you want to speak to the pain doc before continuing, and then when you have an appt with the pain doctor tell him the problems and ask for a different type of PT (or no PT at all).

In my experience with PT, they never understand fibro or connective tissue disease so they end up ordering me to do things that make me worse. One PT injured my SI joint and left shoulder a few years ago, and both are still having problems today because of what the PT did.... so I told my doctor that i will not go to PT again unless she can find a PT that understands fibro, CTD, and hyperflexibility.

Take care,
Liz

Thanks everyone. Tomorrow is the appointment, so needless to say I am a little nervous about going.
I think what I will do is what Liz suggested. That I am going to discontinue PT until I talk to my pain doc. That seems to work best for me considering they both work out of the same office. Like I said I feel like they are trying to force me into procedures that I really don't want to do.
We will see how it goes.

Well, after doing some research....I found that Medicare only covers $1740 of PT a year. $1000 was taken up by my Functional Capcity Evaluation I had to have done earlier this year. So I have no choice but to stop because I can't afford to pay out of pocket any money to keep going.
WHAT LUCK!!!!!
Thanks again everyone for helping!

Well, I did it! The physiatrist and the PT is gone! Now I just hope that I don't start getting bills from their billing department because I went over the Medicare alotment!

Hi Fiberowendy,

I just noticed this but seems like you have taken care of everything very nicely. Good for you. My PM Doc wanted me to try PT to see if it would help with my pain and so I did give it a try. The physical therapist ended up causing me more pain than I had to begin with. I just told him that I couldn't do this. I told him that the pain is worse than when I first come in, so I can't do it anymore. That was that!
I then told my PM Doc and he wasn't upset with me at all. He said, well, now we know that won't work, so guess we will go from there.
Don't worry about hurting their feelings. They need to understand that we can make our own choices as to our health care.
Good luck to you and I hope you won't have to worry about any bills from them.
Linda :)