Hello friends! I've been away from the group for several weeks. Thanks for all the well wishes. The Bell's Palsy is mostly gone, thank goodness. Each day I'm still dealing with the pain, some depression and feeling overwhelmed that the MVD surgery, that I pinned all my hopes on, was not a success.
Other than this I have been fighting with the pain clinic I go to, as they knew they'd have to take over my post-op pain meds, and I had a long discussion with them about what I was taking, the MVD, what GN was, etc. I felt pretty good after my appointments with two different nurses there- they seemed competent, friendly and focused on helping patients. I was not fond of the front office staff who appeared to be a lot of not -yet 20 party girls, with little concern for patients, but I figured they could be rude since I didn't have to deal with them often. My prescription for Dilaudid was due to run out in a week and a half and the nurse was very clear that all I needed to do was call, stop in and a prescription could be written. This, as I'm assuming most if not all pain clinics requires urine tests to receive opiate prescriptions, and that's never been a problem.
So, I began calling as it became closer to the time I would need the refill. Initially the front office girls just said they would give the nurse the message and he'd get back to me in 48 hours. Next they said I came up with Dilaudid in my system so they were not giving me any more refills. Well, of course I did! It's in my chart. The nurse knows this- that's why I'm calling!! When I called back in 48 hours, with only a day or two of meds left, they began addressing me each time I called as "the one who claims she had brain surgery." Excuse me??!! They said the nurse had no paperwork that I had brain surgery so he wasn't going to refill my script. I hustled around, had paperwork sent, not once but twice as they claimed they did not receive the first copy. I had two medical assistants calling and one heard one of the girls outright lie to the nurse, while she was on hold, stating I had said if he did not fill my script I would just get my neurosurgeon to do it. The medical assistant was on the phone yelling, "That's not what I said!!"
Ultimately they received my paperwork, and my favorite medical assistant stayed on the phone with the office manager, describing the hellish withdraw they were knowingly putting me through, asking why they suddenly pulled the rug out from under me when just a week and a half prior the nurse had been hunky dory about filling my scripts (we still have not received an answer to this, which is my primary question-Why? What the hell changed?) until they agreed to give me a week's worth of Dilaudid. At this point it was demanded that my neurosurgeon call the nurse as he still somehow did not believe I had surgery, needed medication, etc. I also take Methadone, but I had been taking Methadone much before my MVD for the excruciating pain, and the Dilaudid was what I counted on to take the edge off enough so I could get through my day. I will be seeing the nurse on September 3 and if I do receive a satisfactory answer as to why I have been on the receiving end of such rude and unnecessary behavior, plus without warning having my most effective pain med abruptly stopped I plan on complaining to the nursing board. I know that there are many drug seekers in the world, but even if they thought I was one, say they missed the 27 staples in my head, they still would have no right to treat me in such a dismissive and rude manner. I have no idea if the nurse even received any of my messages or the medical assistants messages. I have spent the last week and half exhausted and angry that I am being treated like a seeker and an addict. For the life of me I cannot figure out why someone who understands the effects of opiate use would knowingly and purposely stop providing my prescription for it. Everyone and their brother knows you have to taper off these meds. Since the nurse and his staff have been so erratic, I am stretching out my prescription as long as I can, which of course doesn't help much with the pain.
So, my question to all of you is whether you've ever had to fight for your prescriptions or been treated unfairly since this is an unseen disorder. I'm still aghast at the way they've treated me. I didn't do anything wrong!!