Transitioning Pain Clinics

Has anyone done this? Any recommendations?

I'm working with my PCP to try out a new pain clinic, but it's a 2 month wait list to get in. Meanwhile, I've got serious issues with my current PM. I don't know what's going on with him, but I've been having more & more issues. They had settled down for a while after the surgeon who ex-planted my SCS reamed him out for not doing his job, but they've been getting worse & worse until last week when my psychiatrist became furious that he couldn't be bothered to even have a nurse return my frantic, pleading calls about a serious med reaction (I didn't realize just how serious) while she took time out of her day to personally call me and try to temporarily patch up the situation until my next appointment, while still insisting that someone needed to immediately re-evaluate the anticonvulsant. He finally called & then decides that late on a Friday, he's going to switch me from a medication that I really should have been seen at the ER for to its sister medication -- with no plan in case something went wrong and, of course, he wasn't even on call this weekend. Fortunately, the reaction wasn't quite as bad, but it was serious enough.

Obviously, I'm not taking another dose of that medication tonight (plus, this newest one doesn't even help at all with my pain) & I'm supposed to see him for an office visit tomorrow. I'm trying to figure out how to coordinate the 2 months or so before I am set up with another clinic. This has been an issue for a while now. Phone calls are often ignored or not returned for days -- even from other doctors. It's entirely unacceptable. If switching pain specialists were as easy as switching other doctors, I would have already switched by now. It's just all such a mess.

Do I keep getting meds from my current PM until I start with the new guy? Does someone else take that over? Do I need to just be in unspeakable pain between now & then? I just don't know.

Can your primary care MD provide your pain prescriptions for the next two months?

I went to a pain management MD (anesthesiologist by training) for a consultation last week. He seemed visibly relieved when I told him I was seeing him for a consultation only and that my Palliative Care MD would continue to be writing my scripts.

The point being: You are making the right choice in deselecting from your current pain management MD if he cannot be respectful of keeping you out of harms' way in failing to reply to an urgent medication reaction.

I would ask your PCP if he/she would write your narcotic prescriptions until you can see the new pain management specialist. My PCP has done so for me when my Palliative Care MD has been unavailable or when I have needed short-term prescription coverage.
- Karen -