Dr not so great Pain Managment Specialist from my past

I went to post a response/comment on a petition about the DEA and their crackdown on doctors/pharmacies and how it negatively affects pain pacients… well when I started writing I couldn’t stop (Yes I’m in Canada, but USA policy often affects Canadian an changes how people think an act, this is also why so many Canadians keep up with the USA elections as they affect us more than you know often. So anyways once I started I clued in this post wasn’t so valid about the topic at hand more a venting about an old doctor/doctor’s office I went to. Still the petition got me thinking an writing, (I rewrote an edited version shorter and more to the point to add as a comment to the petition, this petition; change.org/congress ease DEA's Grip )
currently I have had more luck than most getting my pain medication, but that has not always been the case.

For a long time I had to travel over an hour to my doctors every 30days, (without a driver’s license due to medical issues) take extra medication in order to make the trip and then once there be handed a cup to pee in as though I was a junkie. The part that floored me was that the instant piss drug test they had on hand in the office never once registered I was taking my meds. At the time of each test I was often on the max dose of my medication in order to be able to handle the travel, but still the drug test I was given came back negative each month I came in, and then I was accused each month of possibly selling my medication. Despite this seeming evidence I was not taking my medication, I was still re-prescribed the same medication each month. Finally after the 4th month of this routine I told him to order a blood workup to test for my medication as I knew I was taking my meds and was getting frustrated with being accused of selling my medication every month and him not even believing my pain situation. I figured logically the doctor would accept my suggestion and order bloodwork, instead he said it was unnecessary and decreased my prescription despite the fact that as time went on my pain was getting worse.

The next month I came in I was handed the sterile urine container and told to hand over my coat an purse (this was new) then I was lead over to the in-office washroom (until then I had used the public one down the hall as I was told to) where I was told to pee into the cup, as I did the newest doctor in the office stood against the door. Well seeing as I also have bladder issues at times this made it nearly impossible to pee, but I managed. This new routine stayed in place and it was now only the new doctor who would see me, who would full out yell an make threats when once again my urine for some reason showed none of what they thought it should. This doctor also would demand to hear why I needed medication, tell me I was too young to be on medication and that I shouldn't need it, yet had never read a word in my file (and was working in a Pain Management and Rehabilitation Clinic). It seemed if I stood up for myself my medication dose wad decreased, if I sat there and took the abuse nothing changed I still hobbled out with that months prescription. At one point when I saw my original doctor in that office again, I asked if there was anything else we could try as the current medication was far from managing my pain, and most of the time I couldn’t take any medication considering pill count at that point. He told me there was absolutely nothing he could do for me and that there were no options for my pain, which I would have to learn to simply live with it. It was at this point I decided I should try to get into a different or better pain management clinic as, it wasn’t for stronger more effective meds necessarily (though that was a hope) but I couldn’t stay with a doctor who had given up and told me to do the same when I was still in my early 20s with progressing pain issues. 

At my late October appointment with my original pain doctor, I went in knowing I would be seeing a new pain specialist (with multiple doctorates in a wide variety of areas, and was world known) in the middle of December so I only needed to deal with this current doctor for this one last appointment hopefully. Well during the appointment I was drug tested like normal and as always none of my prescribed medication showed up, however one pill I had taken 2 weeks before that I was given by the ER when my back was in a total spasm DID show up in my urine and the doctor lost it on me, calling me a drug seeker and an addict (this confused me as he also would accuse me of not taking any medications prescribed... so how can I be both, but that's another issue), well I explained the situation but apparently he now thought I must be selling my prescribed medication in order to buy the one that did show up on the drug test (that made sense to him rather than simply calling the hospital to verify my story).  In his anger he told me he would only give me half my prescription (once again, so IF you really think I’m selling them than why are you still giving them to me?). Well I told him I couldn’t manage on the current prescription halved as November was a busy month( in fact I’d tried to set aside and save some pills the last couple months in order to have more over the very busy November/December holidays so I could manage in public without feeling miserable), well he said he didn’t care. It was at about this time I immaturely stated that I was glad I would be seeing a new pain specialist in December, well that caused him to rip up the script and tell me something along the lines of “good well you’re his problem now”, I was stunned and asked if he was really going to send me on my way with no medication, and he told me that I didn’t need any medication as I had a new doctor and sent me on my way. 

Walking out of the office I couldn’t help but be scared, this was the end of October, I wouldn’t even meet the new doctor for at least 45days, how would I manage. Sure I knew I had a few extra pills saved up but not enough to even come close to helping really, heck it turned out the extra pills I had saved without mentioning to my doctor weren’t even enough to help with my normal safe withdrawal (many medications you can’t simply stop taking, the effects of stopping to quickly can not only be painful an miserable but can be very dangerous). I tried to stretch them out allowing myself to have a withdrawal period but in stretching out the medication the way I was I still suffered from many of the withdrawal issues, when I could no longer handle it I made a desperate call leaving a phone message to my soon to be new doctor explaining the whole thing, he wrote me a small script to help me do until I saw him, not enough to manage pain so I was a ball on the couch for the next few weeks but I wasn’t a ball on the couch who was also in withdrawal. 

This is where I will end.

Two more Appointments Known

Appointments are coming together

Yesterday I got a phone call from my general surgeon’s office about when I will go through pre-op questions, hand in my pre-op questionnaire, have an exam and blood work taken at the hospital Guelph hospital. Wednesday June 5^th I will be meeting an unspecified nurse to go over all the pre-op paperwork and also so she can any questions I might still have. That said I plan on writing up a letter to fax Dr. Mylene Ward’s of questions I have thought of since leaving the office last Friday as she told me whatever questions I think of after leaving the office she would answer no problem.

Then on June 7^th I will be meeting the anesthesiologist who will be the one putting me under for my lumpectomy. With the medications I take on a regular basis it was concluded that I should at least get the opportunity to talk it over with the anesthesiologist as he should know before the day of surgery what I’m on, and be able to make suggestions if necessary. This should also prevent the possibility of arriving for surgery only to be told I can’t be put under general anesthesia due to this medication or that, as that would be a total piss off.

Now as it stands the only appointment I am still waiting for is the Wire localization and that I already know is happening the morning of surgery I just don’t know exactly what time. When I know the time of the wire localization procedure I will know what time I have to head to the Guelph general hospital the day I’m having my lumpectomy or more specifically “Left Breast excisional biopsy with preoperative wire localization”

Skullcap for Interstitial Cystitis

well i have been working on the post i said i would be doing next, but i am having issues getting the details on one of the treatments, since to be honest most doctors don't know about it and apparently there isn't exactly research on its use either, and i don't know how to give details about it without quoting right now so i will start off with the safest treatment that anyone should be able to get their hands on, and in the next post i will cover the next treatment and so on.

Alternative treatment for bladder issue, in my case semi diagnosed Interstitial Cystitis (i think i have explained being "semi diagnosed" in a past post, though later i might check and if not, i will explain it in a later post)

Herb (found at health food stores)
name: Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

Traditional Use:
It is used in alternative medicine as an anti-inflammatory, abortifacient, antispasmodic, slightly astringent, emmenagogue, febrifuge, nervine, sedative and strongly tonic.
Traditionally it is known as a nerve tonic and sedative for relieving anxiety, neuralgia, and insomnia. In China it is found in prescriptions for fevers, colds, high blood pressure, hypertension, insomnia, headache, intestinal inflammation, vomiting of blood, and other
conditions. Because of its calming effects on the nervous and musculoskeletal system, it was also at one time considered to be a remedy for rabies, thus it's name "mad dog weed."

Percautions: A medicinal infusion of the plant is used to promote menstruation, it should not be given to pregnant women since it can induce a miscarriage. There have been no documented cases of negative interactions with other herbs or medications, it does have a sedative effect and should not be combined with prescription sedatives.(for the record i have never had it effect my menstruation in any way at all, and i have taken scull cap and then a prescribed sedative without thinking and no issues personally). Overdose symptoms include giddiness, stupor, confusion, irregular heartbeat and twitching

Preparations:
Skullcap is available in dried form as teas, capsules, tablets, and tinctures. Care should be taken to buy skullcap from a reliable source to ensure the identity of the plant material.

How i take:
2-4capsles (425 MG each) when i am starting to get a flair or getting really bad sudden issues. (granted i find my IC flairs are at times semi anxiety related so that might be why it helps me but it being a sedative effecting nerves might also be part of it, so who knows. But i do often find it impressively effective.  I find if i am feeling urgency and pain before i take it, it takes effect and makes it so i don't feel the need to rush to the washroom within 20-40minutes of taking the pills. This seems to happen for more anxiety based flairs or when its not too extreme IC flair.