Oh No! I Moved To Texas!

[babealcakes]

I am one of many sad sappy pain patient stories, not wanting to waste anyone's time with the details. Suffice it to say that I lived in the civilized US when I was first diagnosed 7 years ago, but moved to Texas for love and found out I screwed myself! I had never heard of backward, anti-constitutional rights practices like incredibly expensive urine testing to receive the same kinds of meds that were dispensed like candy up north. Turns out I am paying the same terrifying amount for my medical care here with excellent insurance that I was as an uninsured vagabond in the north. And my doctor will only prescribe me 1/4 of the meds I was on before! It's dehumanizing and depressing and debilitating. I used to buy some very low level meds online before all the big crackdowns, and I am thinking of taking the practice back up if my doctor tells me to undergo yet another spinal injection for thousands of my dollars and no pain relief! I just want to establish myself here as a sound, pragmatic, intelligent and once-happy pain sufferer with no real options left. I am very curious to see what everyone has to say about their own struggles. I know some people just want to get high, and that's fine with me too, but I also know that there are so many pain sufferers out there who are not being treated like the human beings they are and are instead being squeezed dry of their cash and offered no help in response. I used to lead a moderately happy, moderately fulfilling life with my CPS, but now that I have moved to Texas I can't even work the job to pay the doctors bills any more! I am so beyond fed up, and so beyond being told to use a heating pad and take ibuprofen. I know some folk out there feel the pain. Any help would be more than appreciated, and all anecdotal sympathy will be welcome as well.

Did I mention I am lying on a heating pad and taking ibuprofen right now while the world goes on without me? Boo!

 

[2earls]

Hi Babealcakes!

I know many here can relate to your story. I landed here after losing my PCP due to an Obamacare snafu. I had spent a fortune at a pain clinic that's goal seemed to be making sure I was in constant pain. After having my first order seized, I was fairly desperate!

This place will definitely help you out.

I was able to find what I needed. It's not cheap, but at least I finally got some pain relief for the money.

I'm sure things will be looking up for you as well!

2E

 

[Mr. Crowley]

Nothing says sound, pragmatic, and intelligent like blaming a state for their problem. Sounds like you need to find another doctor. Different doctors have different philosophies with regard to pain management. You need to find one whose philosophy matches up with your needs and then you can supplement through vendors as necessary.

 

[babealcakes]

The problem in this state seems to be many layered. I hadn't lived somewhere that PCP were 'unable' ie afraid or unwilling, to help CPS patients. Where I lived before the standard way of treating intractable pain patients was to have them see a specialist once every 4-6 months, then to have their PCP write scripts for whatever the specialist thought was necessary but also to do the full compliment of other medical care as well, so you could have a team of doctors who both knew a bit about you. This isn't the case here. I never saw hide nor hair of a PCP who would touch my scripts with a ten foot pole, and every one that I did see told me that I wouldn't be able to work that kind of system in TX. So while I have no problem seeing a specialist, I think you can imagine what the state of these clinics is when everyone who needs any sort of medication above the level of tylenol for more than one month's time is shunted into half a dozen clinics. 

I thought at first that I would make a clean break with any doctor who immediately told me they wanted to do another spinal block when they have never done anything for me except leave me in more pain and far more broke than before, and when I have undergone them more than half a dozen times already. But then I was running through doctors quickly and didn't want to seem like a 'doctor shopper' so I landed with a guy who seemed okay at first but revealed himself to be totally unaware of my medical history on a few occasions, like not knowing that I had a three year history of long acting, highly potent meds before I moved and lost my insurance and my doctors and couldn't afford the drug tests to get my meds. 

I am thinking of changing doctors again now, but here it seems like pain treatment is big business and nothing else. I doubt anyone here knows a compassionate doctor in Austin that will spend more than 4 minutes with me, and who might be able to remember that I have been an intractable pain suffer for 7 years, not 2... 

Thank you for feedback and words of support.

 

[Guest]

Hope you find a good one soon! Xoxo

 

[2earls]

We have the same problem where I live. I was referred to one of the few pain clinics in June.

I dropped my insurance so I could go back to my old doctor months ago.

2 weeks ago I got a call from the pain clinic "the doctor can see you now".

6 month wait! The referring doctor forgot to mention that. I could have been laying on a heating pad for 6 months. Great system. Glad I took matters into my own hands.

 

[Suzie]

I am one of many sad sappy pain patient stories, not wanting to waste anyone's time with the details. Suffice it to say that I lived in the civilized US when I was first diagnosed 7 years ago, but moved to Texas for love and found out I screwed myself! I had never heard of backward, anti-constitutional rights practices like incredibly expensive urine testing to receive the same kinds of meds that were dispensed like candy up north. Turns out I am paying the same terrifying amount for my medical care here with excellent insurance that I was as an uninsured vagabond in the north. And my doctor will only prescribe me 1/4 of the meds I was on before! It's dehumanizing and depressing and debilitating. I used to buy some very low level meds online before all the big crackdowns, and I am thinking of taking the practice back up if my doctor tells me to undergo yet another spinal injection for thousands of my dollars and no pain relief! I just want to establish myself here as a sound, pragmatic, intelligent and once-happy pain sufferer with no real options left. I am very curious to see what everyone has to say about their own struggles. I know some people just want to get high, and that's fine with me too, but I also know that there are so many pain sufferers out there who are not being treated like the human beings they are and are instead being squeezed dry of their cash and offered no help in response. I used to lead a moderately happy, moderately fulfilling life with my CPS, but now that I have moved to Texas I can't even work the job to pay the doctors bills any more! I am so beyond fed up, and so beyond being told to use a heating pad and take ibuprofen. I know some folk out there feel the pain. Any help would be more than appreciated, and all anecdotal sympathy will be welcome as well.

Did I mention I am lying on a heating pad and taking ibuprofen right now while the world goes on without me? Boo!

hi babe and welcome to the forum.  I live up north and seem to have the same problems.  My doctor refers me to a gastro specialists who has not been any help at all and I've had 2 colonoscopy's in the last year for no good reason.  Then my dr. refers me to a pain clinic after I asked her for help with my pain and this doctor immediately decides I'm depressed and prescribed an anti-depressant on my first visit and after I looked it up and read about who should not take it I found out it would have been dangerous for me to take... arggh!!  I'm so sick of  umping through hoops for these doctors and being in pain every day so I really feel for you.

 

[PTFC]

Sorry, but the topic title made me laugh hahaha. But seriously, it seems you guys in US have to go through so much hassle sometimes for pain relief, insurance etc. No offence intended either! I've only been to US A couple of times, a wedding in Alabama and popped over border a few times when visiting family in Canada

 

[babealcakes]

There are just so many backward rules and regulations here. Like Suzie, when I first went to the pm docs here in TX they tried to put me on anti depressants that were dangerous for me. When I got to the pharmacy to fill the scripts the tech said that all the scripts had been cancelled because my idiot doc had prescribed things with possibly fatal interactions without any knowledge of the fact that I had actually suffered from serotonin syndrome in the past- the super special specialist had prescribed me exactly the same possibly fatal bs the lowly NP I saw at a walk in clinic had given me, just under different brand names. The tech caught the mistake because I had told the pharmacy about my SS diagnosis in the past. I was shocked. And I was out for the cost of that first visit, since the doc insisted I come back to re-evaluate my scripts. He faulted me for not having told him I suffered from serotonin syndrome in the past, even though I know it was right on my initial patient eval forms. 

I am not depressed because of life- I am depressed because of pain! Situational depression is a real thing and any good psychologist/iatrist knows this. They also know that situational depression should not be treated with anti depressants. If only all PM docs understood this and worked with the shrinks to figure out a good plan of action. No one here has time for that with their patient loads, so unless you get in a shouting match with your doc he probably won't listen to you. Here, that is. Not my experience everywhere. I have talked with docs in the past who totally understood that SSRIs and what have you would not be useful for me. I even gave them a shot in the past.... 

Be very thankful if you live somewhere that you can easily manage your own pain. When I visited Europe it was a complete non-issue. No docs were even involved, but here it's 80% of my income and I am still in pain... Many of the best memories of my life are times I had abroad, and a big part of that was feeling independent and in charge of my own fate, not relegated to a waiting room and a cursory evaluation from a jerk who couldn't care less about my quality of life...

Thanks again for the commiseration. It's always nice to find people who understand, and on a forum like this it's a lot of people who have been forced to work as their own advocates outside the boundaries of traditional medical practice. If it weren't for the war on drugs and all the other bs people are so into in the US, and in certain parts of the US particularly, we would all lead better lives. I think pm patients are some of the real casualties in the war on drugs. Kudos to us all for realizing we have rights that aren't being recognized. I think this forum is awesome!

 

[Gyre]

Those insurance problrmatics over there sound terrible. So glad that I love in the Netherlands, where everyone has insurance and nobody has to think about medica bills.

Good luck!

 

[ttony]

I can relate to your story. American medical care has gone down tremendously. I Never thought I'd see the day where doctors don't help people anymore.

 

[moongoddess69]

I have so many horror stories of my pm docs here in ny too, no one prescribes anything here at all anymore. It's awful that we get treated as poorly we do, we would like to lead normal lives as well.

 

[babealcakes]

Thanks for the kind words. I have tried to become a helpful member here for my limited experience, and I credit this site with making it possible for me to continue to work and function- I was in danger of losing my job for too much time off, and then I would really be F'ed!

I am going to switch docs- maybe it's not all as bad as I thought, but to make things worse with this one the last time I saw my doc now, after over a year as a patient there, after my 4th MRI, the lady looked at me and said 'did you know you have [my diagnosis I've known for 9 years and have been treated for for just as long]?" I couldn't believe it- it's like she never looked once at my medical records. "Yeah, I know that, I'm the one that told you that and brought you the 100 pages of paperwork to prove it!" Wish I had the guts to say that to her... I am a terrible advocate for myself after so many years of being treated like an addict. I was quite young when I first screwed up my back and even now I have so much trouble getting anyone to take me seriously... I agree that early 30's is no age to be in this state, but here I am, so now what?

The terribly ironic thing here is that through my doc's negligence I'm forced for economic reasons to take meds stronger than I would like. Yeah, I bite them into bits and can rely on one for all day relief, but what's gonna happen when I am accustomed to those stronger meds my doc doesn't even know I am on? So frustrating. I know you all can relate to some of this. Thanks for caring. You guys are the good guys!

And I will continue to post anything relevant that I can think of here. I don't want to just notch up my posts erratically but rather to provide the kind of information you all deserve from your members. So many thanks for basically saving my livelihood! 

 

[ttony]

What a horrible experience. A lot of us on here are here for the same reasons as you. Dam second rate care in this country