I went for my third appointment today. My appointment was at 10:30 am as soon as I checked in they told me the doctor was in surgery and would not return till 12:30. I thought this couldn't be happening again. I told them I would return at that time. Doctor didn't get there till 1:00. I didn't see him till 3:00. He said that the bluging disk was not that bad and that I had arthritis in my lower back. He told my to go to PT and gave me a rx for Lodine XL. He also told me to lose weight. I am not sure what to think or do next. Has anyone taken Lodine XL?

Jeannett, Hi. I personally dont have an issue with the doctor being late for coming in from surgery. If it was for another reason yes, but to me.. that is a legit reason for being late. If I were the one that he/she was doing they surgery on.. and something needed more time, I would be appreciative he didnt rush it and botch something.

But all the same, I do not like waiting either. I can certainly appreciate your frustrations on that. My surgeon had the same thing happen to us one day. At least his staff came out and informed us of how much he was behind, and some of us went for coffee and came back.

I have beent to appointments like the one you described, leaving there feeling no better off then when you went in. And you went there for some answers. Very frustrating again. I had several of those with one surgeon I was seeing. I dumped her after me wising up and taking charge of my health instread of just waiting for her to do something. I fired her and starting getting other opinions. It took me 4 tries to find the right surgeon.

But my current surgeon is sympathetic, listens (most of time & that is a real biggie with me), and he takes action. This is my preference of a doctor. If you are not happy with your current doctor.. don't waste anymore of your precious time, search for a new one.

We all probably are overweight with back issues, since most of us have been unable to exercise for some time.. but it's not pleasant to hear the doctor tell us to drop some weight. But it does indeed help to do so.

Lodine is just an anti-inflammatory. If you take the Lodine for a few weeks and notice no significant help from it, I would call that doc and let them know it's not helping and to try you on something else or increase the dosage for more effectiveness. Did they give you anything for the pain? If you are in pain, it might help you to have some form of pain management program to help you ease it some. Again, take charge of your health. You know you better than anyone, and if something isn't working, get someone to change it.

I really hard to learn to be assertive to get someone to help me find what was causing my pain and to treat it.

All the best to you. Take care. Tammy:wave: