Did a stupid thing

[Sister]

This post is a little similar to the earlier "dreaded dr. ?". I have been in pain management for 1-1/2 years. When I first went to the Dr. he gave me scripts for lyrica, and lortab 10-500 and to take the lortab 3 times a day.

I had been going to pm for a about 5 months when I had to get my top teeth pulled and get some dentures. It was very painful breaking those things in and the dentist gave me 2 scripts for lorcet 7.5. The amount of pills was 12 each time. Also I was in the trasition phase of switching from CVS to Walmart and I ended up filling one of the dentists script at CVS & one at Walmart.

Well, OMG! I went to my primary care dr. to get something for a cough. He came in an chewed my ass out and told me that I had been abusing pain pills and he could get in trouble if he gave me anything for my cough that had codeine. We started a verbal spat back and forth about whether or not I had a problem. He said you have been to every pharmacy in town to get these filled, blah blah and I had not been to every pharmacy in town. He showed me a letter in my file that showed different dr. with their names blocked out and what I was filling and how much I was getting. I was in shock at this point and didn't think to ask him where that report came from. ( I think it was probably the texas monitoring program.)

Anyways about two weeks later I went to my pain dr. I have to see him every two months to get refills. I want to mention that at the pain dr. I went thru 6 shots of esi's and radio frequency nerve ablation (?) In my neck. Talk about painful! So at this visit I am scared to death of what he has to say because I know he had to have gotten the same report my primary care doc did. He didn't mention a word about it. Said on my next visit he was going to put me on percocett because of tolerance issues.

Well that has been nearly a year ago and he has never switched me to percocetts and I have been scared to death to ask for something stronger but dang 3 lortabs a day aren't working anymore. Do you think I should have the nerve to tell him that. I am worried he will bring up that report if I do.

Any advice will be appreciated. I know some will want to chastise me for being such an idiot and I don't blame them.

BTW I still go to the same primary care dr. and he couldn't be any nicer. He knows that I take a shitload of meds, bi-polar meds an various maintenence meds. I am a walking pharmacy!

[roxilady]

This has happened to me before. Years ago made a huge mistake by getting all meds thru insurance- well they keep tabs and sent a letter to all the Drs. Lets just say HOLY FUCK!! Had to start all over again. Have you used the same Insurance to get the meds or paid cash? I not sur how TX works. Anyway chances are that letter might be tucked away in your file. If he continued to give you meds he has forgotten or didn"t see it. I would risk asking. PM Drs have to be so careful that if he had seen it he would have cut you off already, he could get into big trouble giving meds to a drug seeker. He see so many patients that it hard to imagine he would remember that about you. My PM Dr is so fucking busy he couldn"t pick me out of a line up. Hope all goes well.

[Ickyuck]

Holy dilemma! Wish I had some advice, but I'm not a PM patient.
Just a plain ol' junky.

[upstate_007]

If your PM doc got the report from your other doc, you would have heard about it long ago. Chances are, your regular doc was just being an asshole and wanted to scare you. It worked.

Go ahead and ask the PM doc about the increase.

[OxyQueen]

Originally Posted by upstate_007

If your PM doc got the report from your other doc, you would have heard about it long ago. Chances are, your regular doc was just being an asshole and wanted to scare you. It worked.

Go ahead and ask the PM doc about the increase.

Yup, i agree. .... go for the increase

[Poppylvr]

Sister, since it's been a year, I would tell your PM doc - "my current script isn't covering my well enough anymore" and let him go from there.
I suspect the letter came from Texas' narcotic monitoring program. Many states now have some version of a central record of all controlled substance prescriptions. Your PCP or your PM doc can just type your name in and this database will show every controlled script that has been dispensed to you. It doesn't matter if you pay cash or use insurance - this is a state monitoring program to stop doctor shopping and croakers (docs who are easy with the narcs). There's talk about making this a federal database. Nice, huh?
Anyway, good luck at your PM docs and may you get something that helps with your pain and gives you a nice buzz as a happy gift.

[Sister]

Thanks everybody for the advice. I think I will just be honest and tell him about the current script not working as well anymore. I don't think I should be so reluctant to talk to him since he knows I have legit pain problems.

[sweetpoppygrrl]

with the current atmosphere it's hard to know which way to go...
some docs are there for YOU, some are just dix, pure and simple...

i don't even have the balls just to ASK about which way my doc would go if MMJ would be cool in our state---G-d forbid i send up a fukking *flag*...

but i think upstate's right--- if there WAS an issue, you'da heard about LONG ago---
good luck wit dat...

[GOLD N DIEMONDS]

Ah I maybe be missing something, as this seem a bit hard to follow (fer meh)
But I do not see that you did anything wrong
you had legit scrips from PM Dr.
Then got a brief legit script from Dr. Dentist
at this point I DOUBT that anyone would be SENDING OUT letters to all your doctors.
SOUNDS like Primary Care Dr. PULLED your script file himself (for unknown reasons)
and had a bad day? maybe just got hassled from dea over somebody else issue?
and your asking for a narcotic for cough issue- started to look in his eyes that you could be DR. shopping.
HOW MUCH TIME PASSED BETWEEN DENTIST SCRIPT AND COUGH VISIT???

really this is not a large & long amount of pain meds you were/are on
I seriously doubt you trip some "monitoring program"
ah gov't run things tend not to act so quick
and I agree with others-- if was real issue
PM DR. WOULD HAVE BOUGH IT UP A LONG TIME AGO

just start talking about increased levels of pain you experienced the last several months and let him take it from there

@sweetpoppygrrl- PLEASE don't ask your doc about MMJ until it is legal and available in your state.---- unless you are personal friends and do so on his "OFF" hours.
If I am a busy GOOD Doctor, I sure don't want to be explaining my stance on MMJ to me patience. I want to serve their needs as best I can with what is here and now

(me 2 pennies fer thought)

[OverDriven]

I'm with GND. Why the hell would this be cause for a doctor to not give you the meds you need? He called you an addict over you getting 24 extra Lortabs after going to the dentist? Shit...that would last a real addict about a day. You should tell the first doctor to fuck himself. You had extra pain from the dental work and the measly 3 lortabs he was giving you didn't take care of the extra pain, so you used the script your dentist gave you. There was nothing wrong with what you did AT ALL. Are you sure there isn't more to this story? I'm not saying there is, but that just seems like an incredible overreaction on your doctor's part. At the end of your post you said you are on maintenance meds. What kind of maintenance meds?

BTW...you might screw yourself if you go to percocet. They really aren't much stronger than lortabs, but doctors seem to think they are WAY more powerful. So he might do something like put you on only 2 7.5mg percocets per day instead of the 3 lortab 7.5's. That would be a step down IMO. Not worth going to percocets IMO unless you know he is going to give you a decent dose or just switch you to OC's.

[Sister]

My pain dr. hasn't said a word about the report I saw.

That was with my primary care dr. I still go to him cause we only have 1 medical clinic in this little town and it has about 7 dr.'s and I figure everyone at the clinic has seen my file. There was actually some kind of print out and I had about a minute to look at it before he closed the file. I actually called my insurance company and asked them if they knew anything about it and they didn't have any information on it. They didn't know what I was talking about.

I have thought about asking the Dr. who that print out was from and then calling them to see about getting my name removed. HA! Wishful thinking I know.

When I went in for my cough I didn't even ask for cough syrup w/codeine , just asked for cough syrup. He was really rude that day and pissed me off but now he is nothing but nice. Wants to sit and talk to me all the time.

I am bi-polar and take wellbutrin xl , zoloft, risperdal, xanax from my psychiatrist. Then I also take flexeril, blood pressure meds, 1 heart med. , and on and on. Atleast it seems that way. Most of my salary goes to medications every month. Also lortab and lyrica.

I used to take ambien but i got hurt really bad doing that. I woke up one morning and had a graperfruit size bruise on my shoulder with deep scratches. I have no idea what happened and you would think getting hurt like that would have woken me up. I quit taking that immediately. Oh yeah I also had grass burs in my bed and on my pjs so I think i may have gotten up and walked my little dog (she is now passed away ) : ( I guess I'll never know what happened.

Sorry about rambling but I am really keyed up tonight. I have been home with the flu since Monday.

[limitless_euphoria]

The big thing now is pharmacy reports. Doctors and supposedly hospitals can get them. Supposedly it's for your own good so in case you're not conscious to ask what meds you're on and there's no time to do a tox screen. It's just another step further in trying to standardize electronic medical records or if a doc takes on a new patient whom they think is questionable they can do their homework before they even get in the door. You don't have to sign anything--they can do it w/o your consent. It's just another step in the direction of big brother. Doctors can find out what you're doing and whom you're getting what from.

In fact, just as a scare tactic I think, my sub doc mentioned kind of nonchalantly that he ran a pharmacy report on a certain patient and found out he was getting xanax from one doctor, percs from another and I think his reason for doing so was to make anyone with a guilty conscience go "uh oh, maybe I'm next."

But, we later had a talk and he said basically unless red flags go up and you give him a reason not to trust you there's no random pee screening (unless your insurance requires it for bupe maintenance) and by virtue of that policy I don't think he'd do a pharm report unless he has good cause to believe you're up to no good.

I'm all over the place... what I was trying to say is a lot of these guys insist you use the same pharmacy for everything and they'll have you sign a contract. If you so much as get any script for anything Sched II-V you have to disclose it upon your next visit. Correct me if I'm wrong PM folks but besides Florida isn't that how it works nowadays? I was told by the guy I saw briefly (9 months) before I finally got caught out by I suspect just such a thing (a pharmacy report) all because his stupid lackie wrote "Vicodan" instead of "Vicodin" on my Rx. I'd had a procedure on a Friday, his dumb bitch of a lackie wrote the script, the on-call finally looked it up after they almost had me arrested and said "oh yeah, his girl was new and she probably didn't know."

Shortly after the incident I got a phone call saying any further scheduled meds would have to come from my PCP and they basically dismissed me as a patient. I will admit I did start going as a junky and at the time I did think my pain was worse than it was. What I didn't know was the extent to which my body would go to get me to seek out narcotics!

Just be careful. Be honest but not too pushy. Let the doctor feel in control--they do have huge egos after all. Nowadays it's very easy to get info and doctor shopping will one day be a thing of the past. I've learned even with my benzos as much as I'd like 2 1 mg 'pins vs. 3 0.5 mg 'pins I asked the doctor and he was very averse to this idea so I'm going to wait quite a few more months until I even broach the subject again.

[Sister]

Since I am rambling one more thing. My primary care dr. once told me that his girlfriend is bi-polar and he remarked it must be fun having your own private show going on in your head. I didn't think that was too funny. As you can tell he doesn't have the best bed side manner.

[GOLD N DIEMONDS]

Originally Posted by Sister

Since I am rambling one more thing. My primary care dr. once told me that his girlfriend is bi-polar and he remarked it must be fun having your own private show going on in your head. I didn't think that was too funny. As you can tell he doesn't have the best bed side manner.

THAT IS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL!
but whatever
From everything YOU and others have stated
NO ON HAS SENT A LETTER (red flag) OUT ON YOU.
your primary car DR. Unpro- pull your pharmacy report,
then maybe your recent switch in PHARMACY trip something in his head-

As stated they may do this to make sure they don't precribe a MED that may conflict badly with current MEDS you are on -
which seem to be quite a few (nothing wrong)
Basically this was all on the primare care Doctor
YOU ARE FINE------personal I would think of switching PC doc

ALSO- maybe you could drop a few meds and save a few dollars
Like Flexeril and the Zoloft?
you still have the xannax and Welbutren XL
YES-AMBIEN-----weird stuff

Good luck-- Good Thread---good ramblings
Welcome Abroad

[OverDriven]

Originally Posted by Sister

Since I am rambling one more thing. My primary care dr. once told me that his girlfriend is bi-polar and he remarked it must be fun having your own private show going on in your head. I didn't think that was too funny. As you can tell he doesn't have the best bed side manner.

Your doctor must also be a complete moron given the fact that bipolar disorder has nothing to do with hallucinations, as it seems that that is what he is suggesting.