Question about RFA/nerve burning...and disrespectful docs

I know someone just talked about this, but I wanted to start a new thread anyway so maybe my question would be better seen.

So, I had the procedure done about 10 months ago, on my lower back, and got significant relief. Pain has been coming back over the past 6-8 weeks or so. Pain doc agreed it is time to repeat. I have to call to schedule. I had a kidney infection last week, which caused an increase in back pain, but higher up. Is there any reason I should wait to get this done? I can't imagine one would affect the other, but wanted to be sure. I know I should ask the pain clinic people, but it's pretty much impossible to actually talk to the doc, except right before and after procedures. And the rest of them aren't real bright or helpful! Yes, I am looking for a new doc/clinic.

Also wanted to talk about one other thing....last week I got very very sick. Thought it might be a kidney infection. Lots of pain and just felt horrible. Long story short, I was treated poorly by my doc. She wasn't sure what to make of my symptoms, but at my request, she ordered some lab work. During the week, I called the clinic 3 more times and saw another doc (mine had no openings) and really got no answers from anyone. My doc offered very little in terms of possible solutions or a plan of action. Ended the appt with her when she said "ok, see me in 3 months." Well, the clinic staff made the appt for me for 4 months, and the paperwork instructions I was given said to follow up in 6 months.

So, I'm now taking antibiotics (doc #2 prescribed them) and feeling quite a bit better. I had only seen my doc 3 times since I switched to her in April of this year. She looks good on paper, but nothing beyond that. I do have info on contacting the clinic manager....I think I need to. I was treated like dirt and there were tons of communication problems between all the staff (at one point when I called, they said that my doc had never ordered any tests, another time I was told a nurse would call "shortly" and I didn't receive a call until over 24 hours had gone by).

Question: I want to have all the facts in order and think about what I need to get out of a meeting with the manager, but if I wait several days or a week, will it be less effective? I need them to admit they screwed up and that they were unprofessional. My other goal for this encounter is to stand up for myself, to send a message to myself that the treatment I got was unacceptable.

It's bad enough being sick, but this time, more than ever, I felt like I had to really plead my case, to prove that I was ill and it wasn't in my head. I went there for help, not for them to act as if I had to convince them I was sick. I feel it's like that with a lot of my medical stuff....a lot of it cannot be detected by a blood test or MRI. Like migraines, back pain, joint pains, anxiety, symptoms of GI problems, like nausea, pain, etc. I was told by 2 docs when I was a kid that my bladder problems were in my head (turned out to be severe nerve damage), then later told that my back MRI's looked ok so I couldn't be in pain, and 6 months ago was sent to biofeedback for bowel problems "in case it was psychologically caused".

I'm sorry to ramble. I just had a horrific week last week and everything came crashing down on me. In addition to everything else, I got scolded by an oral surgeon for not taking care of the affected area the way I was supposed to. Too bad he didn't believe me when I told him they never told me what to do and had never given me the necessary supplies. Lastly, I was lectured by a nurse at another docs office, saying if I had gone there for treatment, they wouldn't have treated me or run the tests ordered by the other doc because I should know I will always have some degree of infection (due to my condition). (That probably didn't make much sense, but she pretty much said I was wrong and unintelligent.)

Now I doubt myself and want very little to do with any medical "professionals".

If you are actually still reading, thanks for listening. I'm at a very low point and feeling very fragile. Thanks for any feedback.

Sorry to hear about your pain issues.

I thought I might chime in here as my new job is both as office manager and front desk/receptionist at a Primary Care office. May I ask what day you had the lab work done and then when were the three times you called the office that week? Was it a day after, etc? I'm a bit confused on your timeline as you say you called the office, got in to see the Dr...they ordered lab work, but then you called back and then went to see another DR? Was this the same week in the same practice?

As Vickie mentioned, a Dr. can only do so much with the symptoms you present and many times if you keep getting antibiotics for things, you can develop an immunity and not have them work very well. Did she not do a quick urine culture test?

Also as mentioned, someone like myself, or even the nurses and MA will look at any lab results and then read the notes that the Dr. put on the chart and then tell you to come back in x amount of months if there was nothing significant found. So I'm also unsure of what you were expecting from them?

Remember that Drs. as well as staff can have "bad days" and are most always trying to help the patient but there are times when a message doesn't get relayed properly. Especially if you are calling multiple times to different people and seeing two DRs. in one practice all about the same issue.

Has the office manager set an appt. to meet with you? That is highly unusual and as Vickie said, they only manage the paperwork/billing/etc...the Drs. are the ones who run the practice so once again, you will have someone who is just relaying info to them.

Now that I have this job, I am getting to see things from both sides now, as a patient for SO many years, and then now the Drs/Practice side. As I mentioned, 99.9% of the time, no one is trying to upset you but if you call, there are others on hold, patients waiting to be seen in the exam rooms, patients in the waiting room, someone waiting to be checked out, Drs. and Nurses returning other calls, etc.. And unless a test result comes back with URGENT info or something very bad, you usually won't hear back about results or they will just mail them.

Many Drs. will never call a patient back directly if there is not big news...and even just an infection that needs a quick round of antibiotics is something that a Nurse/MA can call you back to tell you.

So the two choices when calling are booking an actual appt. with a Dr. or Nurse, or having a MA/NP/Nurse take down your information and then call you back if you are asking about test results.

I know for myself when I am feeling sick or down, many things can seem magnified and even waiting a day for someone to call you back with non-urgent info seems to last forever but they must prioritize things.

Again, I am sorry you are feeling so badly right now and personally, I would wait to see how your back pain is a few weeks after the infection has cleared up as well as maybe even having a different frame of mind. Our pain can "feel" worse when we are not in good spirits/feeling optimistic.

Just some thoughts to share, take what you want and leave the rest:)

Sunny there in may be your problem. If you dont advocate for yourself, speak up, ask questions, etc they may assume alls well and you need no further explanation or instructions. It helps between appts to write down something that crops up so when you get there you can ask quickly and efficiently as SB says they are busy places and from the time the phones turned on and the doors unlocked its a continuous influx of calls, faxes, patients, deliveries, medical & pharmacy reps, not even counting hospital patients he has.

Most specialists see an average of 75-100 patients a day plus inpatient people. I personally am glad to Not get a call concerning a lab, scan, test from my Dr or any for that matter, they only make the "bad " calls in general!

As for the dentist I'm not sure I understand why whatever was done wrong wasn't caught at a previous appointment?

Good communication is the key to having a smooth relationship with your Drs and their office staff, not saying there's not days when all #*&# breaks loose and there's major chaos going on behind scenes and unfortunately patients can catch the attitude of staff from that situation. Those are times its better to call back to ask questions another day.

In a busy practice everything, emergency visit to phone calls are handled by severity not order. They're going to get back to the patients with out of whack labs that could become a medical emergency first before calling someone on a raised cholesterol or such.

Many patients feel they are the only patient and many have a habit of calling the office everyday with inconsequential questions that can't be answered via the phone, won't be, or needs to be addressed at their appts.

Wow. Got a lot of responses that I was not expecting. I guess I didn't explain things well or enough in detail.

I always take notes in with me about what's going on, when it started, how it feels, how it's progressed, any med changes or life changes around that time, etc, etc.

As far as me calling, it was completely appropriate. I had gotten quite sick and wasn't sure if I was on the right meds, if I should be inpatient for IV antibiotics or what. I have a history of bladder and some kidney problems (and rarely have any symptoms until it gets really bad), and when I am told I will be called back, I expect a call back.

Antibiotics are a class of meds I am not on too often, had them in December for a severe bladder infection, March/April for an infection in my upper jaw that was eating away the bone, and now this. I know that overuse will lead to them not working, but I don't take them unless I really need them.

And yes, I did see my internist Mon morning, called Tues cuz I felt much worse, saw another doc in the practice Weds (mine was unavailable and things were a lot worse), then called twice Fri to get lab results. Things were so screwed up that on Weds, I was told that the doc on Mon never ordered the tests. So they were reordered. Then test results showed up Fri for the Mon tests that actually were ordered, and I received Weds test results on Sat.

Thankfully I am feeling much better physically now. Mentally still confused. Not sure why things got so screwed up. Shouldn't have been that difficult. And they did skip the quick test to check for bacteria in my urine, because I cath thru a stoma, so there will always be some amount of bacteria.

Things with the dentist got messed up because after my oral surgery, I saw the dentist at 2 wks post, then 1 month post (that's when they should've been telling me about the special care instructions), then I saw him again for a 2 month post op visit, which is when he got mad because I wasn't following the instructions that I was never given. Ended up having to see him last week because as I was brushing my teeth, the fake tooth fell out into the sink (thank God it didn't go down the drain!). This time, the dentist was much kinder to me, although it sure seems like his people skills are lacking a bit. But as long as he does good work and treats me with respect, that's all I ask for.

I have not called the internal medicine manager yet. Have yet to decide what to do. When I went to my appts that week, each time I got a page of info where each person you contact during your visit writes their name on the paper and what their position is or what they did. It also tells who to call for what reasons, and at the bottom, a message from the manager with her contact info and it says if you have comments or concerns about your visit or providers to contact her. I need to know if the clinic was having a bad week or if that's how it's always going to be. Right now I guess I just have a lot going on and will not put up with a medical office that has a lot of communication issues, poor follow-up, etc. I do not want to gamble with my health. My previous doc was much easier to get in to (had same day appts when you needed them), took time to really listen and understand what was going on, we would come up with a plan for how things would be handled, and she looked at the whole picture--seeing how symptoms fit together or how meds interacted, stuff like that. But, she's in the process of retiring. It's hard because I was with my old doc for many years, and the new one (of course) doesn't know me/my case at all. I suppose it will take time, if I choose to stay with her. I have a follow-up scheduled for July 9, so we'll see how that goes.

The last thing I will mention is that I guess I am used to having doctors who care a bit more or something. With this new internist, I felt like if the labs showed nothing, then yeah, she didn't want me to see her again for several months. I have a problem with that. Even if the labs she ordered showed nothing, I still have a problem. I still had significant and worsening symptoms and rather than figure out what was wrong, I felt that I was supposed to just shut up about them and deal with it until I saw the doc again in 3, 4, or 6 months, depending on who you ask. I have some pretty complex medical issues, several of which can get infected or develop worse problems with few symptoms, until things get really bad. In December, I had seen my doc on a Friday, and by Sunday early morning was in the ER with hemorrhagic cystitis, UTI, and severe abdominal pain. My only symptom on Friday was some blood in urine. I guess it's just that I am dealing with a bunch of chronic illnesses (am in the process of more testing to determine how much of my colon will be removed when they create the ostomy).

I am really sorry this got so long. I just wanted to explain things better and respond to comments I received. Thanks for listening, any further comments or suggestions are welcome.


Sunny.