Posted by alan on April 19, 2002, at 19:48:31
In reply to help! (rant; advice?), posted by Elizabeth on April 19, 2002, at 1:52:57
> After all this nonsense (all in a single appointment, mind you),
>I've *never* gotten this much crap about supposed "drug abuse" from any doctor I've seen.) How am I supposed to deal with this woman??? I want (and need) her to trust me, but she seems bent on mistrusting me. What can I do/say?
>
> Any ideas?
>
> -elizabeth
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Nonsense indeed. You'll NEVER change this person - I know from my personal experience - even with all of the constructive suggestions abouy forwarding records, teleconfrencing from Boston, etc, you are still up against what faschad describes above so well as the Controlled Substance Catch 22.Now the whole thing is that for some docs that UNDERSTAND this phenomenon and that have YOUR best interest in mind, not theirs, there wouldn't be a problem. Well, how do you get there from here is what I sense you're asking. And with your vast knowledge of medications and your own individual responses to them as you've explained so eloquently here at PB over the last year - at least from what I've read - you have one leg up on your doctors anyway.
You need to interview a pdoc or two - having your treatment summary from your Boston pdoc in hand and their telephone number if these two things become necessary to establish trust - not just earn it - at least not with the disrespectful way that you've been treated already in that regard.
Do you not have access to a doctor that is affiliated with a university or teaching hospital that is up on their stuff? One that you could challenge the slighest mistrustful and disrespectful blather with the type of voracity that you demonstrate in your many posts here at PB? My heavens, you personally have been an inspiration to me in that regard with a command of the facts and an assertiveness that is most impressive! Can you do this towards you pdocs? With the honesty and persuasiveness that you've demonstrated here many times before?
I'm not trying to be patronising at all. But if you would find a doc that would respond to your free flowing knowledge about yourself and medications and your history with them it would be wonderful. I know that this is the big question.
I went through (fired) three docs until I even found one that knew that addiction and medical dependence were not the same thing, one that ultimately asked me one important question when wanting to find out how a drug worked for me personally ("Well, do you feel better?"). That's when I knew I found the right person...not spending my time trying to earn the trust or change the attitude of the doctor. I did that for almost 10 years and 3 pdocs until I found someone that wasn't an idealogue or was reading from a script! And I just about lost my top of the career job doing it in the meantime - damn anxiety!
All I needed was BZD monotherapy but in high enough doses. Now how was I going to find that out if my pdoc didn't give me the latitude to find what a theraputic dose was in the first place? Of course the doses would have to go up (until they stopped for God's sake) if I were to find a theraputic dose in the first place.
Please don't waste your time with this person that has all of the warning signs of a person reading from a script. It'll just be a power struggle in the end. Just like with my previous 3 pdocs. One said that I could go through the yellow pages until I found someone that would give me the meds that I wanted (that's when I got up and walked out on him). Outrageous. They were going to discontinue my ativan because they thought that an ssri was going to conquer my anxiety disorder - after 3 years of experimenting with ssri's!
I got the last laugh though because I went to the pdoc that he recommended as I was walking out of his office (telling me all the time that he wouldn't give me what I wanted either) and low and behold....this new doctor asked me after a 1 hour interview of my history with my recordds in his hands, "Well, do you feel better and can you function on the ativan?"
That's all that I needed to know. Been with him for 3 years and have never felt better - and have experimented with many other drugs in the meantime - at his encouragement!!! Call it dumb luck but with your knowledge, ability to explain things clearly, and your perceptiveness, I don't see why you can't avoid the trap that has been set for you and as you say, the same trap that you see posters experience on this bboard in every day.
poster:alan
thread:103496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020416/msgs/103601.html