My Emergency Room Horror Story

[truedelphi]

75. I wanted to change from my primary physician to another one

Due to inability to get an appointment, and then sometimes a three hour wait in a waiting room on appt day.

So I found a young woman doctor, and right off the bat, before even asking me why I was seeking a doctor's appointment, she told me that she would not tolerate my drug use, and that I needed to be on a psych med rather than pain meds.

I refused, went home and researched and found a really good primary physician. (I also found out that the psych med the woman doctor wanted me on has a lot of side effects, so I am glad I balked at that regimen.) Anyway after my new doctor saw the X rays of my spine, he agrees with my original physician that due to the fact my spine is messed up, I need Tylenol with codeine. He reviewed my drug history and realizes that I only take the things when in extreme pain, and certainly don't even take fifteen of them in any given month.

I can envision the problems an individual would have, (like what the OP described), if there was a whole hospital of doctors like the young woman doctor I encountered. And believe me, there are hospitals that operate like that. Hospitals where the whole staff of doctors proudly has Zero Tolerance for using any drugs at any time. Back when I did private duty nursing assistance work, one client had a leg amputated, and the hospital (Kaiser BTW) refused to let her have anything more than Tylenol. The family spent a good deal of time obtaining morphine for her pain from the amputation so that she could sleep through the night, and not lie awake screaming in agony.