Hey friends!
So after my follow-up visit with my new pain management doctor (a good friend referred the practice to me, because she said her doctor, whom I did not see because I was required to see the new head doctor) on Tuesday, I was left in tears. I was again dismissed and talked over. But this morning, I did remember something that the doctor said, and she said there was a note in my files from my previous pain management doctor. Now, I did have my phone recording the visit, but I was too wound up emotionally to ask what it was.
So this morning I woke up, and I texted two of my best friends who also deal with chronic pain issues, and are prescribed medications that actually help them, that I was thinking of calling in to ask if there was anything in my records that would flag me in a negative sense. I then decided to log in to my insurance website to see if I could check my health records there.
*It's important to note that I have only had 3 pain management doctors since 2008, and I was awarded SSDI in October of 2008*
Guys. I pretty much unlocked why I have been receiving substandard care. The former pain management doctor, whom I was seeing for close to a year and a half until this February, made a diagnosis of Somatic Syndrome Disorder. Basically, stating that while I DO have chronic pain issues, and they are documented, it is also a mental issue. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532253/) Basically, she is saying that it is in my head, and I focus too much on it.
Now, this is where it gets juicy. The former doctor NEVER disclosed this diagnosis to me. And with her not disclosing it, she did not refer me to therapy, as the DSM states that one with this disorder should have. However, thanks to going through my records, she absolutely DID acknowledge that I do have fibromyalgia (which was diagnosed in 2008), CFS/ME, Chronic pain syndrome, a multitude of spinal issues (which I have received injections, ablations, and epidurals for), and, most recently, hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I was also able to see that my rheumatologist and primary care doctor acknowledge those illnesses as well.
I even have it on record that after my hospitalization last year in August, the doctor who was taking care of me put in the discharge notes that I needed to be prescribed oxycodone for my chronic pain. However, the former doctor told me absolutely not when I went to her for a scheduled epidural injection just a few days later. My primary care physician was the one who prescribed the medication, but as a primary care physician, she was limited in how long she could prescribe the medication, and limited in the length of time.
So with the new doctor, I had high hopes that things would be better. They were not. In fact, the doctor that I saw suggested that I go to John Hopkins or UPenn, while dismissing me in the middle of my answering her when she asked what I am dealing with. At my visit on Tuesday, she did mention that there was a note from the previous doctor in February, but I was too wound up emotionally to follow up.
NOW I know what that note said. I now know why these past two doctors only pushed for the injections, yet would not prescribe any other medications to address my flare-ups/break-through pain - even though I knew for a fact that other patients with fewer issues than I have are being prescribed actual medications that take care of their pain.
I have the proof, I have the receipts, and now it's time to file grievances, and complaints.