lesson learned

Sometimes it doesn't pay to try to do the right thing, does it???
I have been having really bad muscle spasms all weekend long and haven't been able to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time because every time I move the pain wakes me up. This is not an entirely unusual event, but as I have recently switched to a new PM who has been trying me with new meds, I did not have any of my old standby BTP meds to take. I very nearly went to ER on Sunday but managed to make it to this a.m. and called the doctor's office. The office is 60 miles from my home and of course, the docs are all out until Wednesday for the holiday. The nurse said "the new meds obviously aren't working, so you need to go to the ER and have them give you something for now and then we'll talk to your doc on Wednesday about fixing the med situation" but I in all my wisdom (or foolishness?) thought I would save my insurance some $$ by going instead to an out-patient urgent care center. Bad mistake. Although I asked the rent-a-doc to call my PM's office to get the scoop, he would not. He then told me he would not consider giving me any pain meds (or even a shot!) due to an office policy to weed out drug seekers. He lectured me on how if this is a chronic issue I should be seeing a specialist (um, hello??? was he not listening to anything I said?) and asked me what I expected him to do. I said "well, I was thinking this was a better option than the ER since I don't need to be hospitalized, just helped over the hump, but are you telling me I should leave here and go to the ER instead?" Well, then he backtracked right away and "called in a muscle-relaxant and a pain-killer" for me. When I got to the pharmacy I discovered that the "pain-killer" he'd called in was actually just OTC strength Alleve (which I had told him I was already taking). I am praying that the muscle-relaxant will be enough to at least let me sleep for a few hours as I know the exhaustion can't be helping, but I am more than a little afraid this will continue to spiral out of control and ultimately force me to go to the ER anyways.
Next time the nurse says go to the ER, I won't argue!
I am new to this forum, but I thought this story might help prevent some of you from having the same problem. Have a great (and hopefully healthier) new year.

Post Edited (ryand) : 12/31/2007 5:44:22 PM (GMT-7)

OMG, I would have done the same thing, gone to the urgent care and said "call my PM doctor."

I wonder if your PM doctor or nurse called ahead to the ER and told them you would be coming in....you can still go to the ER if your are still in pain. I would tell them exactly what you did and why.

Just curious, what muscle relaxant did they give you? I, too, have been having cramps that and I am hoping to try a muscle relaxant in addition to my other medicines to try to cut down on the BT meds I use and hopefully not have to up the medicine in my patch. So, what is it, and let me know if it works for your cramps!!

I am SO frustrated right now!!! I picked up a copy of the doctor's notes from the "urgent care center" visit so that I could take them to my PM doc at my next appointment, and I was completely shocked by what he had written! He said I came in "specifically requesting" oxycodone - NOT true! He asked me what doctors had tried in the past and I listed that among quite a few other meds that we'd been trying. When he told me he "couldn't" prescribe narcotics, I said I understood and asked if he thought I should go to the ER instead. He said "no" that I just needed a muscle relaxant. Then he proceeded to explain to me how a muscle relaxant would "break the cycle of the spasms" I was having. I said fine - whatever will help. I just need it to settle down enough that I can sleep a little bit. Well, his notes say that he "gave her the option" of going to the ER and I refused "after" he offered me a muscle-relaxant. Oddly enough, even though he spent 5 minutes explaining how to stop the muscle spasm I was having AND he prescribed meds for that purpose, his notes also say that I didn't really have muscle spasms but that it was "volitional" (my choice). The worst thing was a little addendum at the end of the notes that says they "observed this lady" after I left and that I was "able to get into the car and out of the car" without help and drove away "without hesitation" and that they should "keep that in mind" should I ever present "for request for narcotics" in the future!

I absolutely can't believe this! I never asked for the narcotics, and I certainly didn't refuse to go to the ER - he told me not to! And if they really observed me leaving, they might also have noted that I could not even lift my left arm to put on my coat, that I had to back into the car like a little old lady, and that I could not turn my head to back out of the spot and had to drive approximately 2 mph over the ice bumps because the jostling of the car hurt so much.

He also failed to include in his notes that I had given him my PM doctor's name and suggested that he call her office for information... Hardly the behaviour of an addict!

I have called the office and asked how I get corrections made to these blatantly false notes, and I'm currently waiting to hear back. Have any of you had something like this happen? Did it get corrected? I could just scream right now!

Thanks for the advice, Chutz. I am just floored by this. I was thinking today, "I wonder how many people he's done this to and they don't even know!?!" I habitually get copies of doctors notes because of the long-term nature of my back problems, but most people would never do that. I have gotten the address for the AMA and I'm going to get a letter put together this weekend. Do you have any advice for how much information to put in the letter? My inclination is to make a sort of bulleted list of quotes from the notes and follow each bullet with a note indicating what really happened. I am thinking I need to try to be pretty objective, too, so I hope I can keep my irritation in check. Also, should I cc the doctor himself?

Thanks again. Your support means the world to me. I am so thankful to have found this site.