Health Care priorities are misguided - my ER visit

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Firstly I am sorry for your pain.
I woke up to Rheumatoid Arthritis a few years ago. I can understand the "panic pain".
I also stash pain meds/ steroids for any flair up I may have (knock on wood)....
I underwent chemo for 8 months to get my RA under control. It worked.
With all that said....
We cannot/must not self diagnose.....I dont care what we think we know.....Plenty of corpses from self diagnoses and OTC drugs.
I found I can go to a local walk in Med Clinic (lots and lots of them around) see a Doctor and get any meds I need all in less than 60 minutes....day or night.....I havent been to my Primary Care Doctor in 3 years.
Everybody wishes to blame lawyers here....and a percentage of medicine is now controlled by legal rulings for sure....but you need to blame the AMA more than lawyers. Look @ their policies and teachings/seminars.....then try and blame the lawyers for this mess.
Go to a local walk in med clinic next time.....$50 and out the door with what you need. Screw Primary Care Physicians for anything but a snotty nose.
 
Originally Posted By: TheOnlySarge
Firstly I am sorry for your pain.
I woke up to Rheumatoid Arthritis a few years ago. I can understand the "panic pain".
I also stash pain meds/ steroids for any flair up I may have (knock on wood)....

I have been in severe chronic pain for the last 8 yrs and on/off my the last 30 yrs. I have Shuermanns disease of the mid thoracic area. Pain can be extremely dangerous for me. I'm talking 200/110 blood pressure in a flare up and that has hospitalized me twice. My pain must be controlled 24/7 the rest of my life. It can literally kill me (stroke). I will be on MS Contin and oxycodone for the rest of my life. People need to understand this We are NOT all addicts. I hate this label. It is embarrassing picking up my monthly pain meds. You wouldn't believe the [censored] I have to go through monthly to get them now. Fortunatley my doctor has found a few legal "shortcuts" that make it somewhat easier for me recently to get them.
 
Originally Posted By: TheOnlySarge
....Go to a local walk in med clinic next time.....$50 and out the door with what you need. Screw Primary Care Physicians for anything but a snotty nose.


Thing is, I couldn't leave the bed on my own. I was dead stuck. Would the doctors at the clinic have given my wife the meds if she showed up? That was the only way it could happen. Next time, I'll go to a clinic the same day I am in discomfort and get some meds...for use the next time around.

Now for the big time IRONY.

I wasn't able to leave my bed Friday to check for meds in our cabinet. My wife checked for me, and without a stool to check all items on the upper cabinets. Well this morning I checked out of curiosity. In seconds I spied a bottle of Diclofenac with about 2 dozen pills leftover from 2010. It's for pain and inflammation. No doubt from one of my earlier back spasm periods. I couldn't believe it. That might have gotten me out of my mess. Now it's relabeled and placed lower where she can see it. Like oil changes, don't trust someone else to do it right for you.

The ER PA referred me to an ortho on Monday. I'll make an appointment, something my PCP never cared to do as I went through back pain the past 6 years. Hopefully, an MRI comes out of this. We still don't know what exactly causes my lower back spams over the past 17 years. I agree, PCPs are often more dangerous than anything else. I suspect they can kill you by their lack of action. My biggest fear is them totally missing signs of heart disease or cancer and letting it ride for several years before they do something. I had severe BPH prostrate issues for 5 years before they gave up on ineffective meds and sent me to a surgeon at my insistence. Now I'm not 75% improved. Had they had their way, I'd still be suffering whenever I left the house.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
...popped 400 mg Ibuprofens just in case. It was a normal day so far. The next 30 min after that a tidal wave of pain started building from the foot, shin, hamstring and into the hip. It became unbearable until I found an awkward sideways, 45 deg slouched sitting position on my bed with my head leaning against the headboard. Any attempt to move a few inches or get flat on my side was met with a lot more pain. So I stayed crunched up there for 2 hours. I called a nurse hot line offered by our state's health care system. The RN didn't tell me anything I didn't know. She said give the Ibu's 48 hrs to do their job and I'd be ok. .....I sat around my ER room for over an hour before they finally gave me a Valium pill (I don't think it was Vicodin). Within 20-30 min of being medicated they took me in for hip Xrays without the med having done much yet. That was pretty painful, they got me to tears again for those 15 min. At about the 60-90 min point my hip was no longer in pain. They couldn't have waited another 15 min on those Xrays? The ER techs did their job, I can't fault them. That one pill they gave me allowed me to walk to the car, and go home 3-1/2 hrs after arrival. No further spasms or over-the-top pain.

What I can fault is why couldn't I get a single muscle relaxing/spasm killing pill from my doctor?


Welcome to the effects of Obozo-care. Remember that one? Costs will go down? You can keep your doctor? Better care? They're still changing the rules....years after that DISASTER was passed. Point made...moving on.

Re: Nurse...400mg and wait 48 HOURS for it to take effect???? That's insane. Even the OTC label says to take another dose "every four hours". How'd that standard, safe govn't answer work for you while you're in a lot of pain?

OTC ibuprofen is 200mg/pill. So you took 2. (Can't remember what Motrin used to be when it was prescription....600? or 800mg?) I've had my own issues with pain shooting down my leg, lower back spasms, hip pain, etc. over the years. What I learned and discussed with my doc., is that for some people it takes A LOT more mg. to have an effect. For me, I start with 6. That's 1200mg....every 4 hours. Further, I crush the tablets into a powder, dump it into my mouth, and wash it down with 10oz of water at least. Pulverizing it means it's absorbed MUCH FASTER.

You won't feel any results if you're undermedicating...period. I'm 6'4, 252#'s. Two may work for someone else, with a headache, but not for me. Alieve is the same. Taking the label dose did nothing. I started out a 2x and went up. For some people it just takes more.

One last thing, for some, non-steriodal anti-inflamatories (NSAID) like aspirin, ibuprofen, alieve cause stomach upset. If so, you're already out of luck. Luckily for me, they don't.

Next time you're in for a visit, ask your doctor about increasing the dose. Worked for me....
 
Thanks Sleddriver. Next time I'll try the powder crushing routine. I have gel caps right now so I don't know how they will crush or if just a blob of liquid oozes out.

What I thought I wrote above is that I took 400 mg at 8 am, 400 mg more at 10 am as the pain escalated, and another 400 mg just before calling the nurse. I've never taken more than 600 at one time before. This time was different so I doubled that knowing I was in big trouble. I had 1200 mg in me when I called the nurse. And she said to keep taking the dose on the bottle as required...lol. Yeah, like if 1200 is doing nothing, 200-400 mg every 4 hrs is going to help me right now.

By 1:30 pm that total 1200 mg dose had done nothing. That's when we called for an ambulance. I knew I couldn't beat it. I took 800 mg the day before in 2 doses....the most I've ever taken in under 24 hours....2000 mg total. I typically don't find that Ibu's give me quick relief for a stinger in the back that forces me to bed. That usually requires a real prescription. Can't believe it's been 5-6 years since the last "big one."
 
Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Prescription Motrin is 800mg.
Yup, that's what my prescription is for. But it never really does anything for me. When my back flares up I have to take Vicodin, but I've only taken 1/2 the bottle in the last 12-18 months or so (small bottle to begin with too). Had to take one yesterday.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX


What I thought I wrote above is that I took 400 mg at 8 am, 400 mg more at 10 am as the pain escalated, and another 400 mg just before calling the nurse. I've never taken more than 600 at one time before. This time was different so I doubled that knowing I was in big trouble. I had 1200 mg in me when I called the nurse. And she said to keep taking the dose on the bottle as required...lol. Yeah, like if 1200 is doing nothing, 200-400 mg every 4 hrs is going to help me right now.

My daughter is a nurse practitioner and she recommends 800mg every 8 hours (2400/day) for 2 to three days. It can take that long.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: sleddriver

Welcome to the effects of Obozo-care. Remember that one? Costs will go down? You can keep your doctor? Better care? They're still changing the rules....years after that DISASTER was passed.



Seen on a recent bumper sticker: "If you think health care is expensive now, wait 'till it's free!"
LOL.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
...These costs are going to be paid by the providers and in turn continue to help raise everyone else's cost...

Indeed. It's a racket with so many sticky fingers in the pie.
Unless one is indigent then it's 'free,' of course.

Best wishes to you and the Mrs. going forward.
 
What I don't understand is why the OP was doing heavy lifting when he has a history of problems that could be exacerbated by lifting heavy objects?
 
OK, first of all no doctor is going to prescribe a new medication without a consultation visit, period. They can lose their license and be sued for malpractice. You can thank the drug seeking scumbags who live within our country for those rules.

Second, your doctor didn't force you to take the ambulance. You could have had your wife drive you to the ER. If the pain was really that bad then I highly doubt a prescription muscle relaxer is going to make that type of pain go away.
 
To the OP, I can relate. Doctors are so scared to prescribe controlled substances that it's frighting. I don't care about their liability when I'm in extreme pain. Whatever happened to the saying the "customer is always right"? And those that disagree should be lucky not to be in extreme pain situations.
 
oilpsi2high said:
OK, first of all no doctor is going to prescribe a new medication without a consultation visit, period. They can lose their license and be sued for malpractice. You can thank the drug seeking scumbags who live within our country for those rules.

Are you even a doctor?? And the few "drug seeking scumbags" I know do not even bother with pain meds. They buy heroin which is easier and cheaper to obtain.
Click to expand...
 
Well go to an Urgent Care place instead of the ER at the hospital.

The problem is that people lack that there are more options out there then the big o'l hospital.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
Thanks Sleddriver. Next time I'll try the powder crushing routine. I have gel caps right now so I don't know how they will crush or if just a blob of liquid oozes out.

What I thought I wrote above is that I took 400 mg at 8 am, 400 mg more at 10 am as the pain escalated, and another 400 mg just before calling the nurse. I've never taken more than 600 at one time before. This time was different so I doubled that knowing I was in big trouble. I had 1200 mg in me when I called the nurse. And she said to keep taking the dose on the bottle as required...lol. Yeah, like if 1200 is doing nothing, 200-400 mg every 4 hrs is going to help me right now.

By 1:30 pm that total 1200 mg dose had done nothing. That's when we called for an ambulance. I knew I couldn't beat it. I took 800 mg the day before in 2 doses....the most I've ever taken in under 24 hours....2000 mg total. I typically don't find that Ibu's give me quick relief for a stinger in the back that forces me to bed. That usually requires a real prescription. Can't believe it's been 5-6 years since the last "big one."

Though gel caps are easier to swallow, I buy the cheap, generic IBPFRN because I use more. I wouldn't advise crushing a gel cap.

No, you didn't mention your additional dosings. Remember that it does take time for sufficient responses to rise to theraputic levels when starting from zero. Taking more eariler helps with that, as the initial concentration is higher.

I seem to recall years ago when two Motrin tabs were prescribed. Well, that's 1600mg right off the bat. That would be equiv. to eight 200mg tablets. Again, your mileage may vary. There are stronger NSAID's available behind the counter, that last longer, such as Meloxicam (Mobic).

You might want to rethink your routine so as to not set yourself up for a repetitive motion injury, such as lifting the same thing, the same way, day after day. I learned this lesson the hard way with my left shoulder.

I wish you a quick reduction in your pain and healing. It will take time, so be gentle with yourself and good to your back.
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver

I seem to recall years ago when two Motrin tabs were prescribed. Well, that's 1600mg right off the bat. That would be equiv. to eight 200mg tablets. Again, your mileage may vary. There are stronger NSAID's available behind the counter, that last longer, such as Meloxicam (Mobic).

Yea..as I said earlier 800 mg 3 times a day for 2 or 3 days does wonders.
 
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