Attitude re Pain Meds while at Urgent Care..

[Mariaa]

Yesterday I ended up in Urgent Care as I have been having chills the last few days, and L ear reddened, cheeks flushed, ear fullness and so on. Figured I had Otitis Externa/Media.

When I was getting the left ear lavaged, it became very painful (had impacted cerumen obstructing tympanic membrane/eardrum) and then more so after curretting the wax out to see the eardrum that was very inflamed.

I was grimacing and saying "ouch" and holding my ear and the doctor said to me "I can't give you anything for pain since you're on Methadone but you can take Motrin"

I replied I couldn't take Nsaids for GI reasons so he then said "take tylenol" so I said "ok", then I went on to tell him that the Methadone worked specifically for my spinal pain, not bunion pain, not migraine pain, toothache pain, sinus pain and so on. Told him I wasn't asking for any pain medication just wanted him to be aware of the fact that the pain medication works to relieve my low back pain not every other pain I might incur.

The male nurse really gave me the cold shoulder ...

At the end, the doctor apologized for causing me increased pain in the ear and hoped that the sample medication and the eardrops would take care of the pain (cost me $80 for antibiotic eardrops) and he said he wished me well with my back endeavor as I had told him about the ADR possibility...

I guess working in Urgent Care these health care personnel might often see drug seeking behavior, however, I wish they could figure out when someone isn't drug seeking and educate themselves a bit more on Chronic pain and how medication for that works...

BTW, at the time I was the only patient in there so it wasn't a matter of not having time to ask about my medication history..

[Harrison]

Mariaa, sorry about your experience. it sounds like a "double whammy." Are you OK now? What the heck happened?!

[Mariaa]

Hi Harrison,
Yes, I'm ok, a tad bit weird feeling tho I think I can pass that off as nearly normal~
I haven't had Otitis Media since I was working in a Preemie Nursery in the 80's so not sure what happened tho sure seems to be "untimely"!
I'm still going to the symposium Sunday- hopefully will have the opportunity to meet you at the next one!

[Poncho]

Hi Maria,

Being in similar professions and situations - I can definitely relate to what you are saying here. It seems as if some if not many health care practitioners in general do not learn or will not learn (take your pick) - that there are 3 different groups of patients that need to take medications such as methadone for either chronic pain, opiate medication addiction and lastly drug seeking/abuse. It just seems as if when some of our collegues notices that a patient is on methadone or similar meds there is an automatic assumption of "drug addiction" as if it is being prescribed for recreational purposes only. AND they "paint" us all with the same brush. - I'm not saying all providers do this, but I have to say - all too frequently, assumptions are made before doing any real investigating of the reason(s) behind this type of medication regimen.

Unfortunately, been there - done that..... However, Maria, I'm confident when you are on the other side of surgery - you will soon start coming off this stuff and not have to go through this kind of crap again.

One thing I do know is that I have learned a lot from being on the "receiving" end of the health care system!!!

[Kristine]

Maria,

I can also sympathize. I had a med problem with my old PCP. He thought I liked my Percocet too much. Little did he know that I was (am) in alot of pain due to my usual L5,S1 disc DDD and also a ruptured L4-5 disc. After I changed PCP's, I made in known to him that I hope in the future that he will learn to trust his patients and also learn about chronic pain.

I hope your ear gets better soon and hopefully after ADR you won't have to explain yourself.

Take care