I have read so many stories of neurologists that don't take this seriously. But I have to say I'm glad I have the doctor I have. I mainly went because it's been a while since I saw her. I told her my migraines were getting worse, that lidocaine really works, was worried about when I had a crises and have to go to the ER if I'll get someone who knows nothing about TN or think I'm seeking drugs. For each thing she was great. She has quite a few patients with TN and migraines and we talked about the options to stop them in their tracks. She's glad the lidocaine helps. They use it for all kinds of nerve pain and it really works on breakthrough pain. If my TN gets worse, just to start taking more of the drug I'm on (Nortriptyline and contact her so she can put it in my chart and change the prescription or change drugs as needed).
But the best part was that she didn't just shrug off my concern about crises pain. She told me a lot of ER docs know about TN because they get a lot of pain cases in there. That if and when I have a crises, to call the crises line at Kaiser (my insurance) and they can access my chart and let the ER doc's know what to expect when I come in and that they WILL take care of me. They have the info on the computer and know that I am being seen by a neurologist and she assured me that it's a team that would help me to get control of the pain. The best part. She assured me that I do not look like a drug seeker. She smiled but was serious when she told me that it shouldn't be a problem because of my medical record, I have an issue with sever pain and am under the care of several docs. But am not a doc shopper. nor do I have a lot of pain prescriptions coming in from a lot of different doctors. It really encouraged me and I hope she's right and as for socialized medicine - I am a big fan. I can go to any doc in the system and they know what meds I'm on and why.
Now why this makes me sad. There are many people with serious pain issues that end up seeing a different doc each time and may get different prescriptions for different doctors because they have a PAIN problem, but may look like a drug seeker. It's hell.
Now the ugly, in the Kaiser office they had large signs saying that all narcotic prescriptions will be entered into the federal database as per federal regulations. Ok, I had no idea there was a federal database on WHO was getting WHAT, WHERE and HOW MUCH. I am not an addict but this is just so "big brother". I understand I have to take the good (excellent care anytime I want) and the bad(spying on the patients), but this is just WRONG.