Quality of life?

Sam why don't you tell us exactly what it is you do want from the Doctors? Arktic as well since the conversation actually had little to do with you and more to do with her responses.

Sometimes the answers are no answers at all. Sometimes there's just no cure, no fix for what ails you. So what do you want? What is it that either of you expect when you leave a Dr office?

It's not whether he wants you to waste your time or money on treatment that doesn't work but rather he has no choice! You all are not understanding what's being explained here.

If you have seen 15 different Drs each one has to start from the beginning he can't pick up where a previous Dr left off. If you had PT with other Drs he still has to have you do PT for his protocol as well. The more Doctors you see specializing in the same thing is a setback in many ways.

Very little of pain management is in the hands of the MD anylonger and this is what we are trying to point out. Things are constantly changing, new rules, regs become effective from one visit to the next. If one RPH, one MD, one Nurse, has ever entered in your record that you have displayed "drug seeking " behavior, request early refills, lost or stolen meds, bad drug test, obtained a narcotics from any place else, or violated a pain contract in any way your going to have more trouble then others may have. Right or wrong, true or false, the prescribing to someone with anything like that can warrant the Dr to be audited, watched more carefully, and his malpractice carrier to refuse flat out to carry him. This is everywhere and not just your corner of the world. You may think that your not being treated fairy but we have people here who have lost the PM that they had for years in this war on drugs.

Thats the end of my part in this conversation. I have wasted enough time and my great amount of energy to trying to "help " those who already know the answers to the questions they ask.

I will set you straight as to who I am before I leave this thread. I have a associate degree in Nursing from the University of Ky and a minor in English Lit,thought you may get a kick out of that since my phone's grammar is so much better then mine. Computer broke and my budget won't allow repairs so I moderate this site which I have been a member of since 2008 and thank God everyday for the night I stumbled in here.

I spent 25 years working Ortho/Neuro at a Catholic Hospital until the day I gave up a knee to save a patient from a fall. 6 surgeries followed and I spent 2 months inpatient after contracting meningitis. I spent the next 2 years fighting Social Security for my disability while my kids and I lived on welfare and food stamps and finally won my case with SS on non other then chronic pain in 2002. I progressively lost 75% of my hearing bilaterally in 2003 from complications of the meningitis. I'm legally deaf now. I had a total knee done in 2004 at the age of 46. In 2005 I was T-boned and resulting in a L-5,S-1 fracture of the spine and the door took out my new knee replacement leaving me with a leg full of broken hardware and it so remains today since the auto insurance didn't feel responsible for replacing a replacement and Medicare didn't feel responsible for an auto accident.

So my days of multiple jobs, all my tripping around town ended long ago. At now almost 60 and multiple health issues just as you I spend most of my time as a on-call domestic violence counselor, moderate HW, and fostering abused animals. The medical transport takes me to the "pool " to "swim " and I depend mostly on one of those awesome kids Im proud to say I had a hand in raising to do my shopping for me. I manage to show up at my PM office once every other month for my appointment and drug test because that's what I have to do if I want to continue to be his patient. At the end of the day I thank God I am capable of doing what I can when I can because there's others here who have it far worse then I do.

That's who I am and where I have been and I am done here. We get many posts like this one and every single one wants to know why they can't get help. What they can do to get relief but not very many want to hear our answers and even fewer readily admit or know the answers to what it is they want or expect. We tell you what we know and we are lecturing? We give you the building blocks we have found that work and because you don't like them we are condescending?

Maybe it's time to look at what it is exactly your doing or not doing that has taken you 15 years later and still no answers or relief.

I wish you both nothing but the best in your quest for a better way.

Vicky, I am not sure what your motivation is in "moderating" in this forum. I also cannot pick out from your BS what actual "advice" you have offered other than to "do exactly what the doctors tell you." I have never done any of the "drug seeking" things you have described. I don't know if you were addressing me or not but I also have not gone to dozens of doctors looking for drugs. I have a great PCP, but have had trouble figuring out what options I have with consulting specialists. The pain specialist I was seeing off and on for years for flare ups moved his practice, and I have never been this bad off before. I have said in each post that I am looking for pain relief to bring my pain down to a level where I can function enough to do PT. I have not used prescription pain killers for longer than a week in 14 years and only used them for short durations a handful of times.

You asked me to tell you exactly what it is I want a doctor to do? I don't know. I posted on this forum because I was hoping to hear from others what worked for them during extreme flare ups of CP. There is a lot of conflicting information in the literature about what is effective, safe, and covered by insurance. I thought perhaps someone would say, "when this happened to me I did blank and it helped me get back to functioning." Instead, I was insulted, called a drug addict, and told that the reason I have been in pain for 15 years is that I don't listen to advice.

There is absolutely no point in arguing with someone like you. I read a great quote recently: "ignorant people are always 100% sure of themselves, while intelligence is constantly searching for more information."

I did an associates degree in emergency medical services when I was 17 and was a paramedic for several years after I turned 18 before returning to school to get a BA and a master's degree. From the University of Virginia-- you may have heard of it, it's a real college. Was I meant to be impressed with your education and "expertise?" I am not. It cracks me up that you said you have a minor for an associates degree. Does that mean you took 3 English classes instead of 2?

Here is what I think, Vickie. I think you are an ignorant narcissist with a high school education plus a bit more trying to pass yourself off as a medical expert, when you are really just forcing your small minded opinions on others, while acting like a hero for having 5 children you can't support. You boasted about how you left the hospital with a broken back because there was no one to take care of your kids. Well who took care of all your kids while you were doing all your jobs and riding the bus to your dangerous government housing project, Vicky? No one? Or did you maybe make that up along with your story about the doctors stealing your knee replacement.

You are full of crap Vicky, and using this as a platform to foist your ignorant views on others. Good luck to you enjoying your miserable meaningless life and telling yourself you are worth something.