That's why I call the NHS No Help Supplied. Cynical and certainly far from true at times, but at worst...
This GI was supposed to be seeing you in order to assess your needs - now he has postponed that for three months. In effect, he has assessed your needs without seeing you and has decided that you can wait another three months !!
The simple remedy I would be inclined to use, should I ever be unlucky enough to have such a dorkish dolt of a doctor (I'm lucky, mine is fine), is phone or better still write to his office stating your symptoms and specifically how they are making you unable to function on a daily basis, and that you consider such an extreme postponement of appointment to be grounds for a complaint to the local Health Authority, the General Medical Council, and in the case of adverse medical consequences, perhaps even grounds for legal action. That, I guarantee, will make him sit up and take notice ! He won't like it, but he will certainly get the idea that how you feel today really does matter, even more than the administrative needs of his appointment book. Half the battle is getting the doctor to feel that the symptoms, if they are ruining your life, are worth caring about
, even if on some cloud-Gastro-land chart they are at the bottom end of the minor to major scale. By all means, apologise for going off the deep end when you see him - but get him to see you, and take you seriously !
I don't know much about
codeine, but I do have the distinct impression that taking paracetemol with it is likely to be a pretty bad idea from your liver's point of view. This is not a theoretical abstract risk, this is real and immediate, so go carefully ! That codeine does not cut it for pain relief does not surprise me. Narcotics are the only relief in some Crohnies - not a pleasant idea I know, but hey, look on the bright side, British medical practitioners have one thing very much in common with US practitioners - a distinct, real and absolute determination not to dispense narcotics unless the "guidelines" (ie petrified-of-prosecution-by-authorities insurance company or medical committee) say it is okay. So at a guess, unless you can get referred to a pain specialist - which your GI might be glad to do, to get you out of his hair - you may not get them anyway, and certainly not immediately. You might want to hint that you'd be a lot happier if you could pain relief managed by a pain clinic.
Try writing down your symptoms and their effects upon your life as a daily log. This document (keep a copy for yourself) put into your medical record will not only give a clearer idea of what your disease is doing to doctors present and future, but will provide tangible evidence of any screwups, and this will be clear to any doctor who knows you are keeping him on the ball with the threat of "action".
Medical etiquette is crystal clear - due to a lack of indepth knowledge and advanced training, your GP is not treating this condition, his senior colleague the GI is. For your GP to intervene is usually considered tantamount to "poaching" a patient, a heinous crime in medical circles. (This is a hang up from a century ago, which has stayed due to legal issues over responsibility.) My experience is that the best you could hope for is a hurry-up letter from your GP, which is as slow and useless as you might imagine, although if your GP really feels that things are critical he or she has the ability to take independent action to radically alter your treatment, which is usually seen as a criticism of the doctor who should be treating you. Like I say, not to be done lightly - the sort of thing that can blight a doctor's standing in the medical profession. (Although depending on personalities and circumstances, some GIs might just say, "Thanks, we dropped the ball there".)
You are obviously in the UK - which Health Authority are you under ?