Why is it so difficult to get pm doc and Gp together to discuss a game plan for my health?? It's not them missing work or getting a bad work record?

Pride, bias and ignorance!

They can't cure it..so they feel like failures...living in denial..ego.

Amen!!! Yes for 1 my gp is about 75 and my pm is about 30 and from India or somewhere!

My opinion of PM Drs. is below the scale of 0. They most likely think since they are the ones suppose to deal with cronic pain, they have no reason to talk to PCP's.

I do think though you are right about it. My PCP talks to a lot of my Drs. that have helped me. My TOS Dr. worked with him to help get me better and others have to. The 5 PM Drs. were ignorant of RSD in my opinion. The U of C was the worst. To me learning hospitals are good for using people for guinea pigs.

You asked if they believe in RSD. I believe so, if not they are sure using it for a big money maker in pills and SCS's and Pain Pumps.

Ada

Ada,

You're correct about learning hospitals.
You always see me "pushing University hospitals", but, ONLY for a diagnoses, and to get steered to conservative treatment.

This is not a disease that wants to be surgeried and pumped and have ribs out, etc. It needs to be studied a bit first.
Why?
Because, we're ALL different!

Our medical system in this country *america has become a "machine" for things like say, colon cancer.
Cut it out.
Chemo it.
Deal with it.

RSD on the other hand, is a toughy, because I've NEVER heard of anyone dying of it, directly.
And, it has no certain cure.

So, if you're a doctor, what do you do?
You must hunker down, and become a "Manager".

Did someone say "EGO"?

Haha!
Love it!


pete

I always say I wish all the specialties I would see would do a team approach. Each one only looks at there area to refer out and never follow up. I often wonder why they go to school for so long and study everything when they never will go outside there box so to speak. I feel for myself with all my conditions and things that have krept up since the original rsd pain in the leg that for it to not be connected is just so odd but no doc connects the dots.
I think a good PM doc after I have seen many is one who is willing to work with you. It is not just one thing or the highway. Like I saw one pain doc who would only do a scs and when I said no he said he could not help me but there were so many lesser things I had not tried. What I feel is many doctors are afraid of things that they don't know about or don't have the quick fix for. The ego docs I often feel are the ones from the top hospitals. There in and out so quick as well. I even had one doctor say to me just because a place is known does not mean it is good. I have no idea but I hope you don't give up and if these people won't help you try to find someone who will. It is a long frustrating battle and in pain is even harder.

Don't agree that there's a correlation between ego and top universities/hospitals. I've been to a lot of places, including Cedars Sinai, U.S.C. and a neurologist at UCLA here in LA, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, Drexel Univ. College of Medicine in Philadelphia and Johns Hopkins.

Currently, my P.M. is a blessed man who is the chief of Pain Medicine at U.S.C., triple boarded (psychiatry, anesthesiology and pain medicine) and an utterly compassionate human being,

On the other hand, the most egoic man I ever met in my life is a PM doc who left UCLA to set up his own shop; my surmise from what I was told about billing shortly after he left UCLA is that he did so, at least in part, so that he could make more money by refusing to accept insurance reimbursement.

As to the Mayo Clinic and Hopkins, you've got all types. I really think it's a matter of the individual doctor/department. Of course growing up in Rochester, I may have I bias towards the Mayo Clinic, but I have seen wild variations in personality through the years in one department (psychiatry: some adopt an extremely paternalistic approach, some don't) and have found others to be consistently aloof (neurology and unfortunately the Division of Pain Medicine), while receiving consistently compassionate care in other departments, including pulmonology, cardiology, and hematology/oncology.

And finally, I doubt that you would find that there are many patients of Robert J. Schwartzman who would give him bad marks for bedside manners. That said, his operation isn't really set up to provide continuing care to those who don't respond to the experimental treatments he has running, but I don't see that as a matter of ego, just efficiency. (Unlike the PM just out of UCLA who declared that I didn't have RSD - about 14 months after I first became ill, and 2 or 3 months after the blocks stopped working at another hospital. because I didn't respond to HIS block.)

Mike

Hello Mike

I love to visit in CA.

Dr S in Philly does have good bedside manners. His only option for treatment is ketamine because that's what his research program is funded for. His knowledge in CRPS is vast. I failed with the ketamine (full body RSD for me). However, he is alway availiable for questions from me or my doctors. He has become a source of knowledge that can translate to managed care (in a way).

Like you I have been to some of the best clinics in North America and I have seen my share of doctors. Some just don't have or want to take the time to get involved with something so complex. I use to hate the term complex, I have grown accustom to it over the years. Some want it to be something they can treat so they treat for anything but CRPS.
We ride an emotional roller coaster with this condition and sometimes the emotions are flared by the frustration over doctors.

Take care,
Sherrie

I did not have good experience at UCLA. I am not saying all doctors at these hospitals have a big ego but some do. I even had one doctor not at UCLA but in Ca say to me when I was asking ?'s didn't I see him on TV. Like I should not ask ?'s because he was on TV for this condition. I am not saying he is not a good doctor but it is also how one protrays themselves if that make sense to make one feel comfortable with working the doc. I know at UCLA the doc suggested the scs and answered no ?'s really and sent me home with a video. No alternative options at all. Does not make one feel at ease in a procedure. I could care less about bed side manner. All I want is someone who listens,gives options,and is skilled. Also one that won't give up.