Update

Vicc · 02-02-2007, 05:54 AM

Hi all,

I've been MIA, but not hiding this time: when I brought my computer to Best Buy (under warrantee) they warned me that it would be ten business days until they would even be able to look at it; they were telling the truth. I got it back 17 days later and was told there is nothing wrong with it. Someone had removed the DSL filter from our home phone line. That "someone" is my 20 year old grandson, an amiable idiot with a high IQ and absolutely no evidence that he has any "common sense" at all. I called ATT and they fixed the problem the next morning.

I was scheduled to see my doc on Jan 17. My son usually drives me on these quarterly 300 mile R/T trips, but he had accepted a job 300 miles from here on Jan 3, so work comp had to provide transportation. I told them I would need a van with a lift so I could use my power chair; what showed up was a mini-van with no lift and a driver who told me he wouldn't push me in my manual chair from the parking lot to the doc's office. I had to reschedule my appt for a week later.

Some may wonder why I would be willing to endure riding 150 miles each way to see a doc who can't do anything for me except write prescriptions. Here's a hint: read KateLynne's post Am I the only one...?

I have another grandson; he's 18, and unlike Brennen, he isn't what you'd call "amiable". The word "sociopath" comes to mind: I let him live with us for a while, but when things kept disappearing I told him he would have to leave. The rest of the family told me I was being unfair, and they felt so sorry for him that when he showed up homeless for Thanksgiving dinner, they didn't bother to tell me that they quietly let him move back in.

To make a long story short, on the weekend following Thanksgiving, my wallet disappeared; in it were all the prescriptions my doc had written on Oct 18. The wallet reappeared, minus the prescriptions. I still had a reflill for my hydrocodone for December, plus enough hydro's to last until I saw my doc again - except I had to reschedule.

In September, the scrip for oxycodone never arrived in the mail, so I had to phone my doc and ask for a replacement, which he sent. We all know, however, that most doc's consider reports of missing Schedule II prescriptions are a red flag of possible abuse. My doc has been treating me for ten years and we have an excellent relationship, so one missing scrip was not going to be a problem; I did not want to have to tell him another scrip was missing though.

I wouldn't have had to except that I was gonna run out before I could see him and get another handful of scrips. I told his nurse what happened (another red flag), and he called in a scrip for hydro that day. But I still had one more "red flag" for my doc.

Those who were here on Nov 29 may remember my first post after months of no posts: it was the one in which I later mentioned that I thought I would eventually have to commit suicde rather than enter a nursing home or hospital to die from slow starvation. I weighed over 220# when I was hurt, and had gone down to 130# and was still losing weight.

A couple of weeks before writing that post I was pretty sure I was gonna die, so I decided there was no point in taking less pain meds than I needed. I gave up my macho and decided to stop gritting my teeth through the pain. Guess what? It's hard to eat while you're gritting your teeth. My doc had prescribed six oxycodone and three 10mg hydrocodone daily, but I began taking eight oxy's a day.

When I went back to see my doc on Jan 24, I not only had the "red flags" of two missing scrips; I also had to ask him to increase my oxy scrip to eight per day. A lot of you have probably had to ask for an increase, and many of you can probably remember the frown, the long silence; those tactics docs use to get you to back down.

My doc said: "I was wondering when you would finally ask". That is why I am willing to endure a painful 300 mile R/T in order to see him.

A final note on this topic: I mentioned that I weighed 130 pounds in my last visit; I was sure that I had finally gained weight this time. It would be the first time in more than a year that I hadn't lost weight. The nurse actually had to support me when the scale said I weighed 129 pounds; I thought I was going to pass out. I remember asking myself; "How can this be?"

My doc told me how. He had called someone in to make sure the scale was accurate, and the guy found out it was weighing four pounds heavy. I actually weighed 126# on Oct 18. I had gained three pounds. I know my doc had that scale checked because he wanted to know exactly what was going on with my weight.

I think he is the most human, most caring doctor I ever met; something rarely found in a neurosurgeon.

I still have a way to go: he is going to implant an intrathecal pump once I gain some weight. This should be a major help in trying to write my article, since it's hard to work on a major project when I never get to sleep more than 3 hours before pain wakes me. I believe that gritting my teeth through the pain and sleep deprivation have been the major barriers to being able to write the kind of article necessary for publication in a medical journal. One down, one to go.

I may have problems writing a major article, but I can still write posts about RSD. In fact, I am working on one right now; a reply to KateLynn's thread about doctor's not believing RSD is real. There are good reasons for not believing it is real, and I will explain them in my reply.

I've reversed my weight loss, but I'm still very weak and have no endurance at all. I want to reply to several posts; especially to express my outrage over what Allen's doctor has done to him. That man is a disgrace to medicine, but unfortunately he is only one of many. I would like to reply to other posts, but I can't; not if I want to reply to KateLynn and the other horror stories on her thread.

I think I have something important to say about that, so I hope others here will forgive my not replying to your posts and hope you will learn something useful in my reply to Kate...Vic

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