LadyBlue0527

I'm not sure if this posts belongs here or I should be placing it in the forums for drug addiction.

My daughter, who is clean of opiates for 19 months went to the ER at 2:30 this morning. She has a bad tooth and she needs to see a dentist but it's the long holiday weekend. She woke up at 2:30 this morning and the entire side of her face and her tongue were extremely swollen so she went to the ER. Up front, she let them know that she is currently on suboxone for opiate addiction. The doctor saw her and looked at the tooth and was going to write her a prescription for vicodin or percocet

Thankfully she's secure in her sobriety and looked at him and pretty much made the same face that I just posted. However, what if she was early on and on the fence about using???

What is up with our medical system?

sugarbear1

maybe an antibiotic would be better.....and a dentist......

sorry, that sounds like medical advice.

I wish you and your daughter well! hugs

LadyBlue0527

Yes, she definitely needs an antibiotic to combat the abscess but I guess that my point is that with you and I both knowing that and a doctor NOT knowing that? WOW, just wow.

heath480

A lot of the medical profession,not all,just don't get it when it comes to dealing with us

Hope your daughter gets well,toothache is awful.

IOAA2

Sorry to hear the difficulties encountered. I'm not endorsing the doctors action but we as a general population seem to encourage the idea of instant relief from a bottle of pills or in our case alcohol. Just notice the TV for all our fixes we should take.
As kind of a serious joke/not that scares me: What do they call the last place student in medical school? Dr. BE WELL

LadyBlue0527

IOAA2, I completely agree with you ,"have a problem? Here's a pill!!!! It sickened me back when they started advertising drugs with the line "ask your doctor about it". I'm sure that if we did the research the increase that cases of "Restless Leg Syndrome" rose dramatically when they began advertising about it! Probably you and I will only get it but can you say "Marcus Welby Syndrome"? The scary thing is along with that last place medical student there are also doctors that get kickbacks from the drug industry. If you tell them you have the symptoms they pull that script pad out and bang away! Who cares if you really have the problem?

jaynie04

I had the same experience. I went to see a rheumatologist for my fibromyalgia and lupus about 3 weeks ago. I told her that I was newly sober, and that I had been addicted to alcohol and benzos. Sleep has always been an issue for me. She recommended I try Lunesta......????????? I had about 7 weeks of sobriety at that point and I was really surprised that an MD would recommend something that could be abused to a self confessed addict and alcoholic. It was disappointing and scary, and it taught me that we really do have to steer our own ships.

I hope your daughter is doing ok today, sorry to hear she is having tooth pain, that can be really painful.

foolsgold66

I don't think it is just addiction. The misconception is that the average doctor is any more competent than the average auto mechanic.

LadyBlue0527

I always say that we assume things due to the positions that people hold in life. We forget that we are all human.

The hard part is that you place faith and trust in doctors (mechanics too) because they chose that field and the implication is that they should know everything.

Again, we're all human.

Fandy

I have worked in American medical education for 27 years, my specialty is surgery to senior medical students. we stress medical ethics and professionalism.
Unless you have underwent the rigorous 4-5 years of medical school, 3-6 years of Post Graduate residency and further subspecialty training, you cannot fathom how difficult it is to obtain your MD or DO. The National Board of Medical Examiners and Continuing Medical Education have some of the highest standards for anyone obtaining a US license.
Doctors aren't allowed to practice here without US certification even if you train in another country.
there are exceptions to every rule of course, but this is the minority, not the way most physicians practice.

If your daughter sought help in the ER on a Saturday night holiday weekend, she would not get the same care she would have gotten if she called her own doctor who was familiar with her medical history. She wasn't a priority over an accident trauma, may have gotten a new intern who was overwhelmed. the triage notes might have gotten backed up, it's impossible to guess unless you were there with her what actually happened.
Hopefully she will contact the local Oral Surgeon today, most of the private groups would have a doctor on call who can do the extraction under a local.

SeekingGrowth

I have read several articles on the short shrift given to the subject of addiction and its treatment in medical school. It seems that most doctors graduate from medical school with very little education on this subject, unless they decide to specialize in the area. It does not surprise me in the least to hear that an emergency room doctor would write a prescription for an opiate-based pain reliever for a person in recovery from opiate addiction. I think that many primary care docs are in the same boat - knowing very little on the subject of addiction, unless they chose to seek out the knowledge themselves and educate themselves on the subject.