How to see what the doctors see

Ang, most Drs request copies of your records from all previous Drs, hospitals and, pharmacys. A lot of people dont realize that hospital records are obtained as, including stays, and ER visits, nurse's notes and Drs summaries as well as H&PS along with labs an scans.

If one Dr or nurse or RPH ever entered a statement in regards to a possible drug problem then it's going to follow you to every Dr you see!

Now what kinds of things are we talking about that may inspire them to make a statement such as?

Changing Drs, pharmacys, often.
Requesting early refills, extra meds, lost scripts, meds, stolen etc.
Numerous trips to ER, urgent care, for pain issues while under pain management.
Refusing suggested treatment such as, injections, therapy, etc
Refusal to take or try non-narcotic class meds, always using excuses of "allergy "side effects "dont work "tried them all before "! Etc.
Frequently asking for med increases, different narcotics, specifically asking, demanding by name specific med.
A dirty drug screen or continually having more or less of med then should be.
Frequent problems with pharmacy, Rph, tech, causing a scene, requesting certain brand meds, etc.
Filling narcotics from more then one Dr

Anything that can be construed as suspicious behavior and alert someone to report to your Dr or enter info into your record! I've seen someone get a flag in their chart simply because they fell asleep in the waiting room!

Most Drs take one or two things with a grain of salt but if there's more then your going to have issues!

Is this a fair system? Not in my opinion but it's what it is.

Can you dispute any such thing? Of course and it will go into your chart as well but medical records cannot be altered or marked out they can only have an edit added so whoever is viewing still see's what was there.

Us old-timers are constantly repeating the what not to do's here but generally by the time someone gets here to post the damage is already done.

We urge folks to please think long and hard about constantly requesting increases in meds, true CPers will not ever achieve pain free! It's that expectation that us longhaulers have had to adjust, learning to live with CP is our lot in life.

If we had enough meds to be pain free wouldn't we nolonger be a chronic painer?

I'm not sure what it is your expecting from your Drs, what your asking from us?

I know many young CPers question why they can't get adequate care or why they have to suffer. In reality if you remember the term CP, it's not likely it's going away, your in your 20s,even 30s and on even half of the daily recommended dose of a opiate med now and most chronic pain issues are progressive in nature, what's going to happen when your 50-60? Your tolerance is shot, giving you above the recommended amounts playing with fire no matter how long you've been on it, so where do they go? How do they help you? They can't without killing you, so now your issues are far worse, your pain more widespread and intense, and nothing they can do for you?

Learning to live and adjust to pain is something we all have had to do, better to have some measure of relief for 20 years then be pain free for 10 and in excruciating pain for 10.

Your Medicaid Health Plan may have "come to conclusions" about you based on the meds you take, your age, diagnosis and the fact it's for chronic pain. There has been a push to get those on Medicaid who have chronic pain off of pain meds and it's only going to get worse. The same thing is beginning to slowly happen with Medicare. It's political involving cutting costs. They don't seem to realize the cost in the long run.

You also need to realize that most drs form their own conclusions just like the Medicaid health Plans do Many drs that treat Medicaid patients don't even bother to get the medical records, even though you sign the release forms.