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But none of that is relevant to fluffy's question. How could your muscle tear be evident on the x-ray when x-rays (afaik) don't show soft tissue?
Interestingly, this additional information you've added to your story may better explain why you weren't given a prescription for narcotics. It appears that the doctor wanted to perform an MRI to properly diagnose your condition, but you refused to be admitted. From his point of view, since you weren't willing to follow through with his recommended course of action and were willing and able to just go back home, you could have just been looking for some pain pills from him. I'm not saying that this how you viewed it, but it does make his refusal to provide you with a prescription and send you on your way without a complete diagnosis seem more reasonable than your initial description.
You could be right. I think the Dr. ordered the x-ray because he just wanted it to appear he was trying to do something about my problem since Medicare was picking up the tab anyway and he couldn't squeeze me in for the MRI. Remember, Dr's are under pressure to make ER visits as profitable as possible and when a Dr. discharges a visitor without at least a $1000 x-ray as standard procedure they catch hell from the director. My Dr. was a young new grad anyway I could tell. An old timer would have prescribed a narcotic without hesitation but old Doc's can't stand the rigors of ER work anymore, while the kids head to the ER first.
I didn't want to get admitted because of the sheer inconvenience of having to stay overnight away from familiar surroundings. I mean I hadn't even packed my things (toiletries, comb, electric razor, etc.)
I don't think this is an issue unique to retirees.
As I've posted in several threads, we recently relocated to a new area several hours from where we've lived for decades.
While searching for a new medical provider, we discovered that many here carry disclaimers that say they do not prescribe pain medications and that if patients need such, they will be referred to specialists who do so. When we selected a primary care physician, we had to sign a form acknowledging this. This was somewhat a surprise to us, it's not something we came across in our former community but it doesn't seem unreasonable.
It's not unique to providers who accept Medicare. Our new PCP doesn't limit his practice to Medicare patients.
I don't have a problem with it.
Persons of any age who are terminally ill have access to hospice care, which provides pain medications.
Hospice care is when you're dying, when all treatments have been stopped. While you are being treated you can be in tremendous pain as well, depending where the cancer is. My Uncle had cancer in his spine, which was agonizing. They don't put you on Hospice until everything has failed, and until then the pain can actually interfere with the treatment.
I agree with OP but it is not just retirees. I'm 55 and was out of work for 10 months last year for horrible sciatica so bad I couldn't even walk, I literally crawled to the bathroom for weeks, and even that took 20 minutes due to the agonizing pain, and once I got there, sitting on the toilet hurt so much I would lay on the floor and cry.
I had a great pain management doc luckily, but it was several weeks before I could even get in to see him...he made me wait too long initially IMO, but then was good about prescribing me meds. Thank GOD I had leftover Percs from a surgery several years ago or I don't know how or if I would have made it. I know that sounds dramatic, but for anyone who has been in that kind of pain, they understand.
The way health care works today, a referral for the next step can take forever. I had four epidurals, and I had to wait weeks to get on the schedule each time. If I didn't have Percoset in between, I literally don't think I would be here today (my blood pressure went from normal 120/80 to very high very quickly due to the pain, and I went to Urgent Care twice afraid I was having a stroke). It was the very worst thing I have even been through, and if you have never been in 10/10 pain, you cannot possibly understand. It took from March to October to get me to the surgery stage, and even then I had to wait an extra month because my insurance denied the surgery the first time (laminectomy) and it had to be appealed. Our health care system is SLOW unless you have unlimited funds and Cadillac insurance.
Medical records are very available now. Both my doctors and my pharmacists could see at a glance that I don't have a history of taking pain pills or of abusive tendencies. THAT is what they should go by, individuals. I never asked for another Rx after my surgery. I took the Percs for months and stopped when I didn't need them anymore. I never felt "good" from them or high, they took the edge off and took my pain from 10/10 to 6-7/10. I never felt a need to take one when I wasn't in pain. I still have a couple of dozen that I am hoarding until the day I wake up in agony again (my spine is riddled with arthritis and I also have spinal stenosis) because I am terrified I won't be able to get the medicine I need when that time comes.
I also work in nursing home rehab, and am appalled because we get people for rehab with broken bones or after surgery who are in terrible pain, and half the time they have "Tylenol" as the only pain med ordered. These people don't make progress in therapy because they are in too much pain. We always ask for pain meds to be administered 30 minutes before a patient's scheduled rehab time because effective pain management is crucial to make any gains.
As someone who went through it, I can almost guarantee the suicide rate is going to skyrocket if these pain meds are withheld from people who need them. No one could live long with the kind of pain I was in. Treating everyone as if they are the same is the opposite of good medical care. People are individuals and should be treated as such. Having blanket policies that apply to everyone doesn't make any more sense than a hairdresser giving everyone the exact same haircut.
My mother in law broke her hip and arm while on vacation, and had her hip replacement in another state. We finally managed to get her to her home state, but were unable to get her pain med prescription filled. The pharmacies treated me like an addict looking for a fix when I tried and tried to get her prescription filled. We couldn't get an in state appointment for her for several weeks and so she had, at 90, to endure the pain with aspirin as the pain relief.
<snp>
I had a great pain management doc luckily, but it was several weeks before I could even get in to see him...he made me wait too long initially IMO, but then was good about prescribing me meds. Thank GOD I had leftover Percs from a surgery several years ago or I don't know how or if I would have made it. I know that sounds dramatic, but for anyone who has been in that kind of pain, they understand.
Medical records are very available now. Both my doctors and my pharmacists could see at a glance that I don't have a history of taking pain pills or of abusive tendencies. THAT is what they should go by, individuals.
In my state, we have electronic records but they are not available to all ERs, all Physicians, all pharmacies, at all times. There is a lot of "drug seeking behavior" going on but unless the practitioners have easy access to all of the patients' records and have the time to review them, it is impossible to identify all patients who are engaged in drug seeking behavior. I know that all drug seekers are not necessarily drug abusers but a record of such should raise a red flag.
My mother in law broke her hip and arm while on vacation, and had her hip replacement in another state. We finally managed to get her to her home state, but were unable to get her pain med prescription filled. The pharmacies treated me like an addict looking for a fix when I tried and tried to get her prescription filled. We couldn't get an in state appointment for her for several weeks and so she had, at 90, to endure the pain with aspirin as the pain relief.
I too was treated like that, by the pharmacy I had been going to for YEARS with no history of getting prescriptions of pain meds, except for 1-2 very short periods (3 days to a week) after surgeries. At the time I got my first prescription, I was in too much pain to drive, so had been taking Uber to all my doctors' appointments. I had Uber waiting for me outside the pharmacy. The tech looked at my Rx, made a distasteful face, and said bluntly "We don't stock this". When I tried to ask if another CVS might have it, she had already dismissed me and moved on to the next person.
Again, these people have at least 15 years of my prescription history, and I did not deserve to be treated this way. Urgent Care was even worse...the doctor was so rude and harsh to me during my exam after she read I was taking Percs for pain, that I stopped her twice and said "You understand I am NOT here for pain meds, right? I am not going to ask you for pain meds".
I paid $50 to be treated like a bum off the street, btw, that's what really gets me.
After my surgery, I knew the surgeon was going to give me a prescription, so I proactively went to my pharmacy a week before, asked to speak to the Pharmacist, and explained in advance that I was getting surgery and would not be able to come in and my bf would be getting my Rx filled. They said no problem, asked for his name and info and claimed to put it on my file, but when he went to fill it the pharmacist said he couldn't fill it and I had to come in. In the end, I had to send my bf back with proof that I just had surgery.
I can't tell you how many times I wanted to shout "I"M the customer!!" to pharmacists, doctors and nurses, for many things not just prescriptions. The medical community now treats "customers" about as well as the airlines do.
In my state, we have electronic records but they are not available to all ERs, all Physicians, all pharmacies, at all times. There is a lot of "drug seeking behavior" going on but unless the practitioners have easy access to all of the patients' records and have the time to review them, it is impossible to identify all patients who are engaged in drug seeking behavior. I know that all drug seekers are not necessarily drug abusers but a record of such should raise a red flag.
This is not true where it comes to Opiods and Narcotics, Every prescription for them a patient has had filled even in another state is available to health providers and pharmacies instantly in most states through something called the MAP program, and my state is one of those who participate.
........... It took me several years to use up the other 22 pills - an occasional headache, or a sprain, or whatever - one at a time. I wondered why they gave me so many - I suppose for the sake of convenience so I wouldn't have to be running back to them. And I also wonder how many I would get if I had the same surgery today.
Why couldn't you return them to the pharmacy or doctor for disposal?
With so many things these days saying not to flush, that is my option for unused medicines and used pet pain syringes. In the case of the pets, I take it back to my Vet and let them dispose of them.
As far as pain goes, I've been fortunate for despite the meds they have given me here or there, I don't use them. I've developed various mind over matter techniques over the years, such as gate theory (either "turning everything on" so pain is just one more item to catalog or sending a counter pulse down the line to block).
Why couldn't you return them to the pharmacy or doctor for disposal?
With so many things these days saying not to flush, that is my option for unused medicines and used pet pain syringes. In the case of the pets, I take it back to my Vet and let them dispose of them.
As far as pain goes, I've been fortunate for despite the meds they have given me here or there, I don't use them. I've developed various mind over matter techniques over the years, such as gate theory (either "turning everything on" so pain is just one more item to catalog or sending a counter pulse down the line to block).
I tried this, but the pain was too severe, I have a 12-part Mp3 for overcoming pain, I listened to it multiple times a day while I was lying on the floor in agony, but it't hard to imagine sunlight coming down your spine to make it stronger when it feels like someone is standing over you slamming a sledgehammer down on your ankle over and over and over. I really couldn't think too much beyond "Oh, God, please help me" over and over (at times it was "Please either help me or kill me", that's how unrelentingly agonizing it was). I do believe very much in healing through the mind, but there are degrees of pain and illness in which meds are absolutely necessary. You are fortunate indeed, I hope you continue to never need them.
Why couldn't you return them to the pharmacy or doctor for disposal?
With so many things these days saying not to flush, that is my option for unused medicines and used pet pain syringes. In the case of the pets, I take it back to my Vet and let them dispose of them.
As far as pain goes, I've been fortunate for despite the meds they have given me here or there, I don't use them. I've developed various mind over matter techniques over the years, such as gate theory (either "turning everything on" so pain is just one more item to catalog or sending a counter pulse down the line to block).
What would be the advantage to me of returning them to the pharmacy or doctor for disposal? That would be a trip and standing in line for nothing. By keeping them, I had a supply of pain pills which lasted me a number of years (22 pills). I had already paid for them, why not use them? (It should be obvious that I was not abusing them if 22 pills lasted me a number of years. I can't remember how many years they lasted.)
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