20th September 2004
I just wanted to get some input here on a situation I am having with my doctor’s office. After a few visits my doctor asked some strange questions and diagnosed me with ADD, which I had as a child but was never treated for. He started treating me with Adderall. My dosage was 10mg 3 to 4 times a day. I have been on this dosage for about 6 months. After two months or so on Adderall it seemed as if every week I could shave off another pill because my life, body, and mental state had become stable in a way it never had before. I wasn’t stressed out all the time, my migraines went away, my panic attacks occurred much less frequently. I was able to cut out two pills for blood pressure (as it stabilized), the statin as my triglycerides slowly but surely dropped to a normal level. I also went off Lexapro, Depakote and Seroquel as the weeks went on. This brought me down from 10 pills daily (most of them multiple times a day) and others as needed for pain down to THREE. Adderall 40mg, Prevacid 60mg, and Ativan 1-2 mg as needed for anxiety, insomnia, and those times where you start freaking out at other people on the road for no reason. Also omega-3s at the advice of my doctor. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
Well I went in for my appointment this month (as I go back monthly to see the doctor and get a refill, which I have been doing for 6 months and also going to counseling twice a month) and sad as it is, my doctor quit. It sucks as for me, I haven’t ever been to that many doctors about 6 different ones all together, and the two I did see now were both great, and I think we all know how hard it can be to find a doctor that your really comfortable with. Finally found one that actually listened to me and didn’t act like I was a waste of his time and he quit. OK, I’m over it. So I go in to see the new doctor who gave me a nasty vibe right from the start. I was in his office for literally 4 minutes total. And in the four minutes, I had to listen to this man tell me how obese I was and that I “needed to lay off the burgers and fries”. After a two minute lecture on my weight (I tried to tell him that it was the Depakote and he shook his head and said “don’t try to blame your bad eating habits on medicine.”) At this point, I’m in shock and confused as to what to say. He asked me why I was here and I told him that I was here for my refill I come once a month. He asked why I was on stimulants and I told him I had ADD to which he replied “no, you don’t.” Then he questions me on the Ativan and I told him when and why I used it and he said “you don’t need it, stop taking it”, (I have been taking lorazepam almost daily for 4 YEARS!) then he said he wanted me only on 15 mg of Adderall because “I was way over the maximum dose and only drug abusers would be on such a high dose.” Hello? The maximum on Adderall is 60mg a day. Then he says for me to go also back on Seroquel 800mg a day, and lamictal starter pack. Can you believe this?
Then the guy asked me if I was working and I said no, he wanted to know why. I explained that I had severe sciatica and chronic pain in my back and legs. Ohhh boy, that’s all he needed to once again lay into me about my weight. I told him they want me out for at least 6 months and this man sits there and tells me to go back to work, there’s nothing wrong with your back, what you do for a living (server) is a real light job, you don’t lift anything heavy (yeah, those trays weigh in at over 30 lbs with 3 entrees) and go back to work! I told him I was having surgery in a week he says go back to work! It really took me all I had not to blow up and kick this guy’s desk over. And I get that way, too. It wouldn’t be the first time I had flipped out on a doctor, but I decided not to and asked him if he was going to write a statement saying that I could go back to work, to which he gave me a glare and handed me the prescription and sample thing and I walked out. I busted out into tears on my way out the door and left there feeling like a piece of crap. I have never ever ever been treated so rudely by a doctor in my life, I went there for help not to cry and be more upset. I went back the next day and told the lady at the desk because she is so nice to me, and I told her what happened and I wrote everything on a form so I could see a different doctor there. I saw the nurse and told her that when I took the lamictal twice each time I have gotten sick (vomik) and she insist that I take everything as the doctor told me until I see the new doctor. I told her he didn’t even look at my file, he just picked up the copies of the prescriptions and shook his head. She told me that my old doctor documented how much I had improved and said all the reports from him were excellent indicating my progress. Then the nurse called me back and made me an appointment but told me if the new doctor didn’t want to treat me she could send me back to the new doctor that was mean to me. Can’t believe it.
I cant believe that the doctor did this to me, I feel like I have been discriminated against because the doctor saw a young guy with a bald head, beard, tattoo and a pierced lip and just put a stamp on my head that said ‘drug abuser’. Well I also mentioned to the nurse that I never ever had a dose increase and I never called and asked for an early refill obviously that goes along with drug abuse I think??? I am still in shock over it all.
I am so sorry but this is so long… :yawn:
Thanks for reading all this.
Well I went in for my appointment this month (as I go back monthly to see the doctor and get a refill, which I have been doing for 6 months and also going to counseling twice a month) and sad as it is, my doctor quit. It sucks as for me, I haven’t ever been to that many doctors about 6 different ones all together, and the two I did see now were both great, and I think we all know how hard it can be to find a doctor that your really comfortable with. Finally found one that actually listened to me and didn’t act like I was a waste of his time and he quit. OK, I’m over it. So I go in to see the new doctor who gave me a nasty vibe right from the start. I was in his office for literally 4 minutes total. And in the four minutes, I had to listen to this man tell me how obese I was and that I “needed to lay off the burgers and fries”. After a two minute lecture on my weight (I tried to tell him that it was the Depakote and he shook his head and said “don’t try to blame your bad eating habits on medicine.”) At this point, I’m in shock and confused as to what to say. He asked me why I was here and I told him that I was here for my refill I come once a month. He asked why I was on stimulants and I told him I had ADD to which he replied “no, you don’t.” Then he questions me on the Ativan and I told him when and why I used it and he said “you don’t need it, stop taking it”, (I have been taking lorazepam almost daily for 4 YEARS!) then he said he wanted me only on 15 mg of Adderall because “I was way over the maximum dose and only drug abusers would be on such a high dose.” Hello? The maximum on Adderall is 60mg a day. Then he says for me to go also back on Seroquel 800mg a day, and lamictal starter pack. Can you believe this?
Then the guy asked me if I was working and I said no, he wanted to know why. I explained that I had severe sciatica and chronic pain in my back and legs. Ohhh boy, that’s all he needed to once again lay into me about my weight. I told him they want me out for at least 6 months and this man sits there and tells me to go back to work, there’s nothing wrong with your back, what you do for a living (server) is a real light job, you don’t lift anything heavy (yeah, those trays weigh in at over 30 lbs with 3 entrees) and go back to work! I told him I was having surgery in a week he says go back to work! It really took me all I had not to blow up and kick this guy’s desk over. And I get that way, too. It wouldn’t be the first time I had flipped out on a doctor, but I decided not to and asked him if he was going to write a statement saying that I could go back to work, to which he gave me a glare and handed me the prescription and sample thing and I walked out. I busted out into tears on my way out the door and left there feeling like a piece of crap. I have never ever ever been treated so rudely by a doctor in my life, I went there for help not to cry and be more upset. I went back the next day and told the lady at the desk because she is so nice to me, and I told her what happened and I wrote everything on a form so I could see a different doctor there. I saw the nurse and told her that when I took the lamictal twice each time I have gotten sick (vomik) and she insist that I take everything as the doctor told me until I see the new doctor. I told her he didn’t even look at my file, he just picked up the copies of the prescriptions and shook his head. She told me that my old doctor documented how much I had improved and said all the reports from him were excellent indicating my progress. Then the nurse called me back and made me an appointment but told me if the new doctor didn’t want to treat me she could send me back to the new doctor that was mean to me. Can’t believe it.
I cant believe that the doctor did this to me, I feel like I have been discriminated against because the doctor saw a young guy with a bald head, beard, tattoo and a pierced lip and just put a stamp on my head that said ‘drug abuser’. Well I also mentioned to the nurse that I never ever had a dose increase and I never called and asked for an early refill obviously that goes along with drug abuse I think??? I am still in shock over it all.
I am so sorry but this is so long… :yawn:
Thanks for reading all this.