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May 22, 2006
GP Appt. Outcome
Finally saw my G.P. today. All in all im satisfied by the outcome, its about as good as I could have hoped for. I wouldve liked to have seen more happen, but her hands are so tied, I cant blame her at all, its the consultants i blame and so does she. Even though I promised myself I wouldnt cry in her office, and id be a macho male, I lasted only about 3 minutes before my voice croaked and I lost it. She says im having a nervous breakdown and blames my consultant and the pain clinic for it.
I told the Gp about the situation i'd had with trying to get an appointment with the Pain Clinic and specifically about a) seein the consultant himself instead of the useless pain nurse who is impotent when it comes to making decisions on my case - or so it seems to me. And b) the fact that theyve ignored all my messages and not called when they said they would to discuss my pain killer dosages.
She was NOT happy at all, and so she's written a two page letter of complaint to the consultant about my experiences and his actions towards them. I dont know exactly what was in the letter, but I saw her write it out by hand ready for the secretary to type it up, and she was muttering away to herself whilst doing it and say "disgraceful" "not at all fair", and other bits like that when I kept adding on bits and pieces about other experiences with them.
She says that its obvious that the pain is the #1 cause of the depression. Anyone can see that (she says - and shes right), and so it is his actions thats lead to the NB. I actually despute its a NB as Ive had one before and at that time I had real bad agorophobia with it. But she said theres no clinical check list for what constitutes a NB, its just a saying thats put to chronic depression, sobbing, lack of sleep, suicidal tendancies, loss of appetite and all the other things Ive had lately. So maybe shes right. I just dont like that term nervous breakdown. I feel stigmatised by it.
Anyways, we now wait to see what happens from this letter. It will be interesting to see if the pain consultant brings the appt I have forward, or if he contacts me before the appt. Im betting he wont, but I hope to god I'm wrong because I need some pain relief, and I need it NOW!
Apart from this, I got my anti-constipation drugs changed. No longer on Four sachets of movicol twice a day. Im not on another one who's name ive forgotten already. Havent had any yet, as I dont pick up my scripts til tomorrow.
The pain meds have remained the same, but at least Ive got a fresh box of tramadol to fall back on now. I only get 50 per month, and theyll likely be gone in the first two weeks, but they do help a lot with tiding me over to the next dose of the main pain killer.
Aside from this nothing has happened. Ive not been sleeping. The pain has been pretty bad, fortunately it was bad when I saw her today too, so my GP saw me in full swing so to speak.
So, whilst its disapointing I didnt get an amendment to my PKs, there has at least been some action taken, and things are moving. I didnt really expect any change to the PK script, as shes altered it all she dare herself, its up to the pain doc to make any future changes now. The question is, how is he going to react to me next time he sees me because of this letter.......................................
J.
Pain: 6/10
Depression: 7/10
Posted by Jason at May 22, 2006 07:29 PM