I just don't understand?

Question

Why would a doctor question me whether I have a pain somewhere or not - especially if I have total health coverage and he is getting his money? I was having bad back pain, my orthopeadic surgeon and my general doctor more or less questioned it was as bad as I was telling them. For 4 years, I was given physical thearpy (which made it absolutely worse - and I told them so), I was given celebrex (which worked for a couple of months), I was given Mobic (which didn't work to well at all). I was in agony - serious agony, and eventually was told there was nothing to be done. I finally got in touch with a pain specialist who gave me a series of epidural injections. This is the first time I've had no pain in 4 years. Why wasn't I given this option to begin with? The first 2 doctors are not idiots - they are tops in the field - but I always felt they thought I was lying. Even if I was - why would they care?

Answer 1

They aren't just in it for the money, they are liable for treating you, medicating you, and for setting physical demand limitations for employment purposes. They have to be sure of the condition before doing those things.

Answer 2

It could be for a whole bunch of reasons. Sometimes all doctors have to go on is diagnostic testing, what they can observe. It's possible that your expression of pain and complaints did not mirror the doctor's perception of what was going on, based on their exam, knowledge, etc. That does happen frequently, where patients can be in terrible pain but their doctors are like, "Your tests show nothing of the kind." So in other words, it may not be that they're doubting you but that they simply don't know how to treat what they can't actually see or find on a diagnostic test.

Another reason may be your insurance or the way the doctor handles referrals, etc., through his office. I used to have an HMO and they would make doctors do the most conservative care forever, before moving on to other things (like the injections you received, which are considered more invasive). It's possible the doctors didn't want to leap into the more invasive measures and sometimes physical therapy can help for back pain, so they figured they'd give it a shot.

I'm glad you found something that worked - you may want to check out a chiropractor too. They're not quacks, they really do help with back problems and other issues. I have been seeing one with great results and so have my family members. Either way if you don't trust that this doctor takes your pain seriously, then get a new doctor. There are plenty of them. Being the best in his field doesn't mean he's the best for YOU.

Answer 3

A lot of doctors question a patient and the severity of their pain/injury when they go in.
The first reason is that they want a diagnosis and another reason is that they want to make sure you are actually hurting and not just looking for a Rx.
It's not surprising that they wanted to know about your pain but the fact that you felt like you were on trial for hurting just isn't right. Especially when what you needed were some injections or something just to stop the pain.
Most of the time doctors get cautious when you ask for pain killer or something specific, but if you were just trying to resolve the issue, no matter what the treatment was then they shouldn't have made you feel like you were doing something wrong.

Answer 4

If they thought you were angling to get narcotics, they could have been reluctant to acknowlege your pain and prescribe what they THOUGHT you were trying to get. While an unscrupulous doctor won't care about anything but money, a doctor with reasonable ethics will not be willing to prescribe narcotic medication for someone if they're not comfortable with the person's need.

That being said, the fact that you presented as being in pain means that they should have done SOMETHING. To tell you that nothing could be done is irresponsible; no matter what their suspicions, they have the responibility to ensure that you are not in pain if they are able to prevent it.

More than anything, if you don't know what a doctor is thinking, then ASK. They don't read minds, and if you think that they think you're lying, then ASK why they won't prescribe you something. Communication is obviously important, but sometimes it has to be the patient who initiates it if the doctor is trying to simply be polite. If you don't get the communication you want after that, it's time to find a new doctor!

Answer 5

sometimes people need to advocate for themselves and take charge of their own problem....why would you wait 4 years to seek other treatment...if they are idiots as you say why keep going back to them....sad to say but there are people weho do fake things just to get meds and such and doctors have been under the gun about issues like this....also whatever insurance may not have covered certain things,like an epidural untill more traditional treatment was done

most doctors are not pain management specialists.

back pain is a very tricky thing to prove...unless there is an obvious problem that shows on an x-ray,mri etc anyone can go in and say their back hurts and get meds,be put on dbl etc etc

every narcotic prescription written has a doctors dea number on it and gets recorded and since people do doctor shop to get meds from multiple docs there is alot of abuse and some doctors are not about to risk their licenses to write scripts that can be used in an abusive manner,which is within their right....the doctor does not have to write you a script...thats why people need to advocate and find pain specialists or whatever other services they need


you can thank the people who have abused the system and the ones who file frivolous lawsuits for these changes in procedure

Answer 6

Protecting their reputations by not giving addictive narcotics--see that's not really a solution anyway. Malpractice is sky high and they have heard every rationalization in the book. I will only take Ultram,an opiate-like painkiller that is not a narcotic. I actually can keep my pain at bay without the addiction problem. Pain management places are more flexible and take more time with the patient. It also tells them that you seriously have pain because you're there.

Answer 7

Many doctors are under-educated in pain management. If they can't see the problem, it must not exist. Thankfully, this
is being taught in more medical schools now; and pain specialists now are available.
They care because they don't want to go before the medical board, accused of distributing [ writing false prescriptions for]
narcotics.

Answer 8

To avoid malpractice suits docs have to have a physical reason to prescribe procedures.......you can thank insurance companies for this by the way.

You have to meet certain criteria to have insurance pay for meds and procedures.

It's not the doctors....it's the insurance company that cares. Blame them for setting guidelines for the doctors. Insurance companies don't WANT to have to pay.

Answer 9

They care if you're lying because they care about their patients. There has been so much overmedicading lately. Sounds like they were just being cautious. I'm so happy to hear you're feeling better now!

Answer 10

YOUR DOCTORS ARE AFRAID OF THE D.E.A. (DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY) DOCTORS WHO WRITE TOO MANY SCRIPTS FOR CERTAIN PAIN MEDS BRING ATTENTION TO THEMSELVES AND PUT THIER LICENSES IN JEOPARDY. A DOCTOR WOULD RATHER LEAVE YOU IN PAIN THEN TAKE A CHANCE ON LOSING HIS LICENSE. THIS IS WHY ONLY THOSE DOCTORS WHO DEAL ONLY WITH PAIN PATIENTS AND CAN ESTABLISH LONG TERM HISTORIES AND TREATMENT PLANS TAKE THE CHANCE TO TREAT YOU WITH THE CORRECT MEDICATIONS.