I'll try to put this in a nutshell (still gonna be long):
She's been with one Dr. for over 30 years, for 20 of those years she's been treated with chronic pain, to which her then Doctor prescribed Tyl. c/Codeine #4. Her chronic pain is so bad she hasn't worked in almost 20 years. She stopped counting at a dozen surgeries, and it's probably more than doubled that number by now.
Anyhow, this doctor recently retired.
She went to a new one, this doctor issued her a prescription the same as the previous doctor (N per day) and referred her to a local Pain Treatment Specialist (which she had already gone to, but in a different city, 20 years ago when this whole thing started/became unbearable).
She went to see this 'specialist' who didn't even do a physical examination, although the X-rays the new doctor ordered showed both scoliosis and spinal degeneration. All he discussed, regarding medications (he didn't discuss any of her surgeries at all) with her , was that
#1 he didn't 'like' the med. she was given for muscle cramps/spasms because it turned into phenobarbital in the system (which she didn't know but doesn't remember if she thought that or said so verbally) and that
#2 That taking more Tyl & Codeine #4 isn't going to help her any more than it is already (she is at the max per day) to which she said to him "I agree!"
The prescription she was issued from her GP, taken as per that doctor's directions, ended/ran out a couple days ago. She called that MD for a refill. That MD now says she should have a certain number left
--that in essence the directions written were really not the right ones, and that she should have taken less (how, exactly, she would know that is anybody's guess).
The GP said he wasn't going to issue a refill and to call the Pain Treatment specialist AND/OR if the pain was too much to go to Emergency. (Now this is one of my friends major complaints: One is not supposed to go 'shopping around' for doctors/medications; if she did they could point the finger at her and say 'Look! She's trying to get something over on us!' yet it was the MD himself who told her to go to 2 other, different venues to obtain medication)
So she called the Pain Treatment guy (who, turns out, has a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 in patient health surveys; N=36, so it wasn't one or two disaffected patients). Guy never called her back so she finally called and was told that this doc faxed over to her GP 'I don't know WHY she is so resistant to weaning off Tyl' (and nothing substituted) when he never mentioned anything of that sort to her. The only discussion about medication at all was what I have already iterated.
Now after this she is freaked out and crying. She calls the (original) GP to both change appointment to be seen ASAP and to discuss with Dr.'s nurse/PA that the Pain Treatment guy, unequivocally, was lying.
Doctor doesn't bother to call her back. At all.
Tough beans, sweetheart.
After following the rules with her first, retired doctor for decades, now she feels she is being portrayed like an off-the-street drug addict trying to cadge medications, and it is her word (and evidence, as regards to how that prescription was written) against both these doctors.
So, in essence, she's got virtually 2 doctors who have lied to her.
I'm extremely concerned about her, she already suffers from major depression and has said that she doesn't want to, and will not live a life in constant pain. She is virtually a recluse in her house because of the pain -- even with med (she's been on Tyl for so long it really doesn't cover the pain anymore but she's refused to talk to her original doctor about anything stronger because, as she told me, 'I've already got a monkey on my back, I don't need an ape')
Also, sudden withdrawal of these kind of medications can also cause seizures.
So she's crying, upset, withdrawn and in pain
and I'm angry.
I at least want to find out if this primary care physician who won't even call her back is legally or ethically deficient.
She's being treated horribly and neither she nor I know what, if any, recourse she has to anything. Who does she call or write to? She's powerless with no chance of success, or being at the minimum Believed, over these 'titans of medicine'; and in the short term at least, she's hopeless.
I told her to go to commit herself if she becomes so despondent that she wants to end it, but she told me that one insurance just ended on the 31st and that she has no cards for the new, private, insurance so admitting herself at this point in time is out of the question. (Yeah, I've told her that she can be billed and then present the new Insurance Company with it but her husband says no, that won't work. He's a real fucking concerned prince, he is.)
And I don't want lawsuits after the fact. I want action before anything happens.
But I find myself powerless too; only grasping at whatever straws I can think of,
and calling her every hour to make sure she's still here.
= new reply since forum marked as read
