I think there's a conspiracy between Dr's just to make ore money!

[napi21]

I've been diagnosed with several degenerating disks in my back & neck. It's very painful, but 3 out of the 3 GP's I saw calimed they "DO NOT PRESCRIBE ANY PAIN MEDS OR SLEEPING PILLS!". They all offered to refer me to a "Pain Specialist" which of course costs another office visit to a SPECIALIST which is more expensive than the GP visit. What the heck is going on? What happened to the GP of several years ago that handled almost any med. problem you or your famiy had, and only referred you to a specialist if you had a proble that required "special treatment"?

I'm going to the pain specialist and all he does is have his asst. ask how's your pain, how many hours a ght do yo9u sleep, and take a urine specimen once every few months, and the doc. writes the scripts. Feels like just a wy to keep these "Pain Specialists" in business!!!

[KharmaTrain]

1. Liability

There are few true "GPs"...and those that do do general practice or do diagnosis will almost always call in or refer to a specialist to determine both the cause of the illness (the second opinion) and the type of treatment. In the heavily litigous world of medicine there are many physicians who don't like to "travel alone" in treating serious illnesses.

[Indydem]

2. No.

You have pain because your body is sending you a message. You need to seek TREATMENT for that injury, whatever it is, rather than covering it up.

My wife found comfort in pain pills and chiropractors until it was too late; she had to have emergency back surgery and now has permanent nerve damage because she didn't see a doctor when pain presented itself.

Doctors are trying to help you get well. Listen to them. Seek treatment and avoid the unfortunate fate we will live with for the rest of our lives.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. You're just noticing that GP's no longer provide treatment? They will kind of diagnose a problem and

refer you to a specialist some type. I've heard about a GP that wouldn't set a broken arm, but refereed the patient. Is it any wonder that we have the most expensive health care in the world?

[Lasher]

4. I have two primary care physicians, one GP at the VA and one that takes my commercial insurance

Either of them will write prescriptions for anything I need. But if I go to a pain specialist they would want me to get my pain killers from them. At least part of their rationalization is to discourage people from illegally scheming to get more pain meds than they sould have.

It seems you need to be going to a specialist. Be glad he hasn't decided to operate, which with back problems usually leaves you worse off than before. Ask if spinal injections would improve your condition. That treatment worked wonders for my wife.

In a more general sense you are correct, doctors do conspire to make money. Treatment and tests are often prescribed based on how much insurance will pay and not on what a patient needs.

[napi21]

11. they DID want to operate & I said NO!!!! I'm scared to death of back surgery.

Everyone makes mistakes & it doesn't take much f a mitake on your spine to be paralized! I have an appt. next week to see if injections are recommened. I'm hoping! My BIL was helped with them and I hope I will be to.

I'm not so much complaining about the GP not wanting to deal with the back pain. I realize that usually does require specialists, but the 3 that I went to wouldn't eve prescribe a mild pain killer or seeping pill as interim treatent. I guess ther's n way for them to know if a patient would ever sue, but I'm NOT a itigous person. The only thing I can ever imagine sueing for is something very obvious like operating on the wrong leg, or, like what happened in NC where they did a heart ransplant and filed to check the bolld type compatibility and the patient died after they tried to fix the problem with a second heart trasplant 2 days later. I accept that everyone makes mistakes...even drs' but blatant incompetent behavior is another story.

[Lasher]

13. Those GPs should have given you someting in the interim.

Do you have a regular primary care physician that you go to at least once a year? If not, that is part of the problem. A GP would be less reluctant to help like this if you had such a relationship with them.

I'm worried about your specialist who recommended an operation, apparently without having considered alternatives. Maybe you would be better off going to the same one that your BIL went to.

[napi21]

20. Can't go to the one my BIL went to. I live in Ga he lives in Va.

I've had experience with these GPs. Never anything major, bad cold, infected toe once, etc but each of them said "I don't prescribe ANY pain meds or sleeping meds of any kind. If you feel you need something like that I will refer you to a Pain Specialis!" I don't go to the doc who said "surgery" anymore. I only went once When I told the doc I'm currently seeing about that first one and how he jumped on the surgery train right away he said that many times when you go to a surgeo, that's what they want to do right away. I' just isgusted with the whole medical community. I honestly think most of them are more interested in money than their patiets.

[haifa lootin]

5. The gold miners are in on it too...

:evilgrin:

[JackRiddler]

22. beat me to it.

[notesdev]

6. You expected health care?

Silly, our medical system is nothing more than one big money-eating bureaucracy, with accountability neatly excised (unless you are or have the money to spend on high-powered lawyers).

[Uben]

7. There are good GPs....

...just like there are good cops. But, you are right in assuming they like to refer to specialists to jobs they don't want to or don't know how to do. I went to my GP because I had a lump on a testicle. He felt it and referred me to a urologist, who also just felt it and determined it was just a harmless cyst on the epididimus. Why couldn't my GP do that? Didn't he study to be a fucking doctor?

I truly believe it is a game where they try to get you to use your insurance as much as possible so the medical community can reap as much as possible from every illness. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a fucking duck!

[w8liftinglady]

8. well,I can only offer my personal insight.

Caveat-I have insurance
I owe my life to my internal med doc.
my first neuro doc kept upping my "nerve" pills(which are supposed to stop seizures).
my IM doc talked me into seeing another neurologist,who immediately worked me up for surgery.he cut my "nerve pills" out of the picture.i was physically addicted to them.

can you go to a teaching hospital,or get in their system?A lot of VA systems are affiliated with teaching hospitals.they tend to be aggressive and try new treatments.

[leeroysphitz]

9. You must be thinking of miners. They deal with ore. Doctors deal with medicine. n/t

[DCKit]

10. Forget the Death Panels, they're MINING Grandma and Grandpa! n/t

[Cleita]

12. Over the counter pain medications often work as well as

other prescription drugs. You need to find the right dosage and know the trade off in side effects. So does medical marijuana, which you might want to investigate because the side effects are pretty benign compared to other drugs. Your pain specialist should be versed in the pros and cons of this. I work for a pain specialist so I know that much of the pain medication out in the market today other than morphine is pretty useless. You probably need surgery but you might have to seek out an orthopedic surgeon and it will be expensive.

[napi21]

21. God knows I'd try Med MJ if Ilive soewhere where you could get it.

I live in Ga We'll ALL be dead before tHIS State ever considers THAT! I did try Advil, Tylenol, asprin, and Alieve, but they did so little, I resorted the the Pain Specialist. He's prescribed Hydrocodne. It doesn't make the paid disappear but it's dulled enough that it's bearable.

[TorchTheWitch]

14. I think dentists got worse

Need a root canal - go to root canal specialist
Need a tooth pulled - go to oral surgeon
Need gum treatment - go to periodontist
Need dentures - go to prosthodontist
Need caps/bridges/implants - go to caps/bridges/implants specialist

Seems that all dentists do anymore is basic fillings and cleanings.

[TwilightGardener]

15. And xrays. Lots and lots of xrays.

There must be money in xrays, because I went to a new dentist and spent twenty minutes being zapped and irradiated every which way and angle--and this was just a routine exam and cleaning, no current dental problems. Used to be just a couple films, now they're photographing every fucking tooth like a mug shot. What bullshit.

[madmom]

19. Oh for sure. I had a dentist tell me 10 years ago, that I needed a root canal, since

my hubby had a bad experience with said dentist and the same operation, I said "no thanks". Here I am 10 years later, no root canal, said tooth is just fine.

[Greyhound]

16. Partly, but there's another much more ominous factor, particularly in

pain management, the DEA. I've spent the last two years caring for two family members, one with cancer and another with a variety of age and abuse issues. Both of them required pain mads with some regularity and this caused all kind of problems for their doctors.

Our Oncologist showed us a letter he gets every couple of weeks from the DEA that basically says, "We are watching you, be afraid". A GF I had several years ago had back/neck injuries and she went through the same thing.

We are so concerned that somebody might be misusing these drugs that we force millions to live in unnecessary pain for years.
:kick: & R

[Lance_Boyle]

17. 3 GPs? You present a pattern of doctor shopping with drug-seeking behavior.

No wonder they will not prescribe narcotics for you. Take their advice and see the pain specialist.

[napi21]

23. I guess yu could call it doc shopping, but it was for a very different

reason. Thank Go I've had a very healthy life and never frequented any docs much. I got discouraged with the one practice because the wait time in the waiting room was never less than an hour. I lived in TX for 6 years & NEVER did anyone have to wait more than 15 mins (usually 5 mins). I checked our ins. to see which other docs were within a reasonable distance from our house and chose one. On the first visit I realized he just wasn't someone I could have a dr/patient relationship with. I then chose another practice that was a little farther away but not unacceptable. That's how it got to be 3 docs in about 3 months. I see your point though. The doc wouldn't have know that. I have been seeing the PS for about 6 months, and he referred me to someone who would eval. the possibility of injections.

I spent my whole life without taking pills of any kind. IF I took an asprin once a year it was unusual and I'd love to go back to that.

[Codeine]

18. That's because pain specialists are actually trained as specialists. In pain.

They're going to do a better job in dealing with your pain than a GP would.

And you should be warned that your behavior smacks of drug seeking/doctor shopping.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dr.Phool]

25. You sound like an idiot.

[TexasObserver]

26. There is. It's endemic to the for profit health care system.

Job one is make a big profit.

If a patient gets better, that's good, but if they don't, the system doesn't care.