First time here

[DesertEyes]

Originally Posted by chloes1

.... I went and saw the pain/addiction Dr, and I have mixed feelings about it......

Good for you. Having mixed feelings means you are being careful and paying attention to details. That's called being pro-active and it's hugely important for those of us with chronic problems.

Originally Posted by chloes1

.... His office personnel didn't put enough postage and this HUGE packet of questions that I had to fill out. So, it came postage due. .....

hmmmm..... I don't like that. If the staff can't bother with little things like postage how are they going to do with _big_ things like filling out forms properly for disability, or referals to other docs, etc.

Originally Posted by chloes1

.... He averages about 2 complaints each year, .....

Good for you calling the state. Two complaints a year out of how many patients. If he only sees one patient a month that's a _lot_ of complaints. Was his office full of people?

Originally Posted by chloes1

.... He only accepts cash or checks and does not bill any insurances. .....

That means he's not seeing enough patients to be able to afford a full time insurance adjuster on his staff. So instead of filling out insurance papers he just shoves that work off on you. That also means that if your insurance gets nasty and declines your claim you are out of luck. The whole point of having the doc bill the insurance is that the doc has the staff and the knowledge to _fight_ the insurance for payment.

Originally Posted by chloes1

.... He encourage me to try low dose methadone to see how effective it is for me.....

Trying low doses of meds to see how they work is a good idea. If it does work the you can decide if you want to stay with it for awhile. It also tells you what _class_ of medications will work for you.

One thing my docs with me is change my "recipe" every couple of years. That way I won't develop addiction or tolerance to one particular med. I also take several different meds in low doses for the same reason. For example, I take 3200mgs of Aspiring a day for pain, and when I have "breakthru" pain too strong for the aspirin I add up to 30mg of Lortab, and when the pain goes beyond that I get on a short course of Prednisone.

The idea is that trying different meds at different doses under the direction of a doc is a good way to find the best "recipe" for your specific needs.

Now that you know what this doc is like, and how much Methadone you can handle, you can go shopping for a better doc. See what other docs are available to you, see if they will bill your insurance direct, if you feel more comfortable with the office staff.

I have found that having a good doc makes a _huge_ difference, and I've done _lots_ of shopping 'till I found a few that I'm really comfortable with.

And congratulations on taking care of _you_

Mike ((((( hugs ))))

[chloes1]

Thanks Mike. I hate not being able to trust myself in this situation. Normally I'm much more confident of my judgement.

Now to answer your questions: He has the license for suboxone and the Feds limit Dr's to only 100 patients for that. I didn't ask how many, but I will when I go back. *great question*!

I had the first appt of the day so no one else was there when I got there. When I checked out there 2 people in line and 1 person in the waiting room. I don't know what is "normal' though. I know my Rhuematologist generally has 1 person in each exam room and possibly one in the waiting area. So person 5 patients in an hour + the 7 hour work day, that ads up to what? 35 people a day x 4 days? (He only works 4 days a week) that's what roughly 140 patients a week?? The pain Doc doesn't appear to do any where near that. But I'd hate to guess based on what I saw that one time though...


arrgghhh! in terms of the postage, that's exactly what I thought! Hmmm details matter, a lot! At least to me.

And yeah about the receipe that is very true. I also believe in "drug holidays". Where you stop taking a med for a time to see if you still to take it. I've been surprised at how many meds I've been able to stop taking by doing that. You know there was a time when mega - doses of aspirin was the just about the only treatment for RA. I've tried that too and all I got was ringing in my ears and lot of nose bleeds. Needless to say I don't take aspirin anymore.

Got to post this and help cook our dinner.

Happy Christmas to all of you! ((((pain group)))