Author: MSL3
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:12 pm
| stephent wrote: |
| What the heck is with this doctor? How does he still have a license? Does he not have regular office hours? I do not understand that. I would have gone to the ER. Using any opiate unless its under the doctors orders (after surgery or something) is playing with fire. I doubt this is the first warning sign you had from this doctor. It is your responsibility to make your appointments ahead of time and your responsibility to find a good doctor. Do not blame the medication for that. |
I understand and agree with everything you are saying, just remember everyone is different. Not trying to make excuses, just hoping you will see my point of view a little better.
First of all, you are absolutely right. I thought two or three days notice to make my appointment would be ok, but it wasnt. I should have known better, it was partly my fault. I hate going, his office moved far from me and I am busy as it is, so I procrastinate, and I dread the drive there. I cannot argue with you there.
I still dont think him disappearing for an entire week is reasonable. It has happened before where it took him three days to return my call, but never longer than that, and usually I can tough it out for three days without suboxone or have enough left before I call to make the appointment. When I first started with him, he had a secretary, and his office was in my area. After his secretary left to go to college or whatever, he decided he didnt need one really, and moved his practice closer to his area. I should have switched doctors then, but I trusted him, and its hard to find a good doctor.
I just came back from the visit today, and he looked extremely thin. He had been sick with something in his gums and had to go to an oral surgeon. I still think he should have been well enough to take care of emergencies, but whatever, Im not in his shoes. Im not going to judge him, but I am going to find someone who fits my needs more, like the new doctor I found who is in the same practice as my general practitioner, and he has secretaries.
While I was in his office today, I heard a guy ring the bell in the waiting area three times. The doctor went out to see who it was, and I heard the guy say "Ive been trying to reach you for a week, you dont understand…". Or something like that, basically he was desperate and didnt even have an appointment, he just showed up. The doctor stopped him and said ok ok, sit down, let me finish with this patient and Ill see you. So based on that and his full voicemail all week, I can tell there were a lot of upset and desperate patients. Also, he used to have something on his voicemail where if it was urgent, you could press 0 and it would take you to another voicemail, which i guess is his cell phone. He took that off for some reason, all you get is his regular voicemail. If I hadnt emailed him, he probably would have never gotten to me till today.
As for why I didnt go to the emergency room over getting the opiates, this isnt an excuse, but I have had horrible experiences in the emergency room. Ive been for reasons unrelated to drugs, once for gallstones (like I explained above) and once three days after giving birth for getting an infection and having an extremely high temperature and basically unable to even stand. Each time, I waited 8 hours crying and in pain in the seating area. It was a nightmare, I dread going to the ER.
The worst time though was related to suboxone. After I stopped using heroine out of choice, just being tired of the money and not really getting high, my boyfriend gave me half of his suboxone since he was getting off too, and he knew I couldnt afford to see the doctor at that time. We broke up and I decided no biggy, Ill take my last pill and quit. The WORST experience of my life.
I had a 5 year old son, and I was in the worst withdrawal I had ever experienced .I was basically rolling around crying from the pain and just that feeling of not being able to rest or sit or do anything comfortably. My mom took me to the ER, after waiting for 5 hours (at night), they told me they could not prescribe me with suboxone or ANYTHING, that I should instead go to a nearby ER in a hospital that also specializes in addiction. So we did. After waiting SIX hours at that ER, fidgeting and crying in a chair, they gave me a bed, where I was informed they would not prescribe me anything either. They sent me upstairs to the addiction treatment center, where they informed me they would not give me anything, all I could do is enroll in rehab which would cost over 1000 dollars. Unlike one of the above posters, my mom is not able to watch my son for days at a time, its a long story, but she is not mentally able nor is she willing. Also, I didnt have 1000 bucks. After that night of hell, I gave in and called my exboyfriend and begged him for a suboxone, which he gave me, as well as the number of his doctor, which I went to the next day. This is the doctor Im at now.
I realized the other day that my situation was different back then, I did not have a doctor prescribing me suboxone, so that was most likely why the ER would not prescribe it to me. Perhaps this time would have been different. But the experience left me absolutely scarred. Nobody in either hospital really gave a shit. They wouldnt give me ANYTHING, nothing to help me sleep, nothing to calm me, nothing. All they saw was that I was an addict, and therefore unworthy of any kind of medicine.
If this happened to me again, I would take the vicodine and xanax in a SECOND. But please remember, everyone is different. My addiction was mainly cocaine, I was never that much into pills. The only reason I snorted heroine was because it was cheaper, and I didnt even like it anymore after a while, I just wanted to avoid the withdrawals. So although I would not recommend that anyone do what I did in my situation, please understand that based on my past and my own knowledge of myself, it was the best decision for me. And if you still dont agree, it’s ok. Like I said, I fully expected people to tell me that I was an idiot, and I listen carefully and can appreciate every point of view, even if I dont 100 percent agree.
