Comments on: “The List” http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/ A blog from inside the emergency department Mon, 20 May 2013 13:45:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: SeaSpray http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-22104 SeaSpray Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:42:20 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-22104 I missed this one. GOOD post!

And it is sad… frustratingly sad for the med professionals and for the sincere pts hurt by the fakers.

]]> By: Nuclear Fire http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-22093 Nuclear Fire Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:35:03 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-22093 @new nurse: pleurisy is treated with anti-inflammatories, not narcotics. It’s also a symptom, not a diagnosis. Treatment is outpatient, not an ER. Are you sure you graduated?

]]> By: EMTdude http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-6911 EMTdude Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:25:11 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-6911 Wow, this post really brought out the haterz. I guess drugseekers constantly search the intarwebz looking for confirmation for their lifestyles.

]]> By: RageVMedicine http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-248 RageVMedicine Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:54:27 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-248 what are you guys? The Abwehr? The Gestapo? That is the last time I heard anyone talking about medicine and list of people it was Mengele. What the heck to you care if some poor son of a gun want to waste 10 hours 1 or 2 days a month in the freaking ER Room for a script of probably only 10 Vicodens, the maybe another 5 hours in the hospital pharmacy? How many times have you had governmental action taking against you for writing a script for someone in the ER for whatever? You guys are the biggest bunch of wussies. Haven’t any of you ever been in combat or served in a forward area? Or at least had your freaking back to the wall? Scared of the DEA? Their pigs. They are lower than pigs. They are the bully on your playground right now and you all cower behind the swingset. Why the heck don’t you get the vaunted AMA to help, or better yet, band together in small units at first, link up and learn to fight! The DEA is cowardly and I will tell you why. South American and Mexican drug lords are no longer viable options due to their lethal abilities and armaments paid for by the 17,000% markup on imported cocaine. Interestingly enough, the same day the warrant was handed down for Noriega, there was also another warrant handed down for the apprehension of Ka Sahn, leader of the Shan warload states in the golden traingle. Unfortunately he has been very well armed by the CIA (Read Politics, Heroin and Southeast Asia to get a clue) and it was felt to be better policy to leave the group of sleeping dogs over 8,000 miles away alone. Can’t you see the DEA cannot stop the flow of drugs from outside the country. S0 what do they do? They pick the easiest targetlike any bull, in this case, you guys and pain doctors in particular, manufacture a crisis (there is a tremendous pharmaceutical drug problem know – forget about all that crack, heroin, coke, X, LSD and the worst of all offender drugs “Marijuana”, and now we would like to concentrate on shooting MD’s in a court barrel, most of whom have done nothing but help people like me their entire professional careers. Hell, if you’re that rabbit scared and shaking like French soldiers, why don’t all of you get togetther and do what the MF doctors here do and say with a childish supercilicious smile, “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t ever prescribe narcotic medications. YOU PEOPLE TOOK AN OATH. First and foremost to do no harm. Well history would agree I thing, that inaction is the very worst and sould perverting action that can ever be taken. Better to do something than nothing Churchill said.

Also, I do not understand this. Our justice system was predicated upon the premise it would be better to have 1,000 guilty men walking the streets, than 1 innocent person in jail. Why in the name of God and all humanity doesn’t this apply to people who claim to be in pain, whether they are or not? Would it not be better to also have 1,000 people who faked their pain for the scrapings from your pharmaceutical tables than to have 1 person suffer the indescribable torment or severe, unrelievable pain year in and year out? Believe me I know whereof I speak. Lastly I leave you frightened little childrent with this:

It is not the critic who counts. Not he who points out where the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. No the credite lies with the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face if marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly. Who errs and comes short again and again. Who knows the great enthusiams, the devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. And, who at the best, if he wins, knows the triumph 0f high achievement. And, at the worst, if he loses, at least loses while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor deafeat.

This for you doctor Whitelabcoad or whatever ever your handle is. Shame on you. Busting some poor women and making her suffer the hell of withdrawal. You didn’t have to do that. She probably goes through it once a month on her own anyway.

In closing, I have a great respect for ER personnel and also for all paramedics. But what I have read here is exactly how petty little organizations come to great power — WHEN GOOD MEN FAIL TO ACT!

]]> By: John http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-247 John Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:40:20 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-247 WhiteCoat

I can give you the names of at least six doctors I have seen (I have a well documented severely painful illness) that chuckle and said they “don’t do pain”. They “don’t prescribe pain meds in any case.” I will send them to whatever e-mail you ask.

John

You may need to visit a pain clinic/pain specialist. Do a Google search for docs in your area.
You can’t force a doc to treat conditions with which they are not comfortable.

]]> By: "Drug seeker" http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-246 "Drug seeker" Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:31:35 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-246 I am a young female and I have pretty severe endometriosis. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it doesn’t hurt. I’ve had surgery and I am currently on hormone injections and while that might keep the endo in check for a little while, there are still times when I am in severe pain.
My doctor has me on percocet, but I am not in constant pain. So, sometimes I don’t have any medication on hand. Besides, if I am in severe pain, my doctor WANTS me to go see a doctor face to face to get checked out.
I went to a local urgent care clinic a few weeks after my lap because I was in a lot of pain and although it was wednesday, my doctor’s office was closed. I saw a compasionate doctor who ran some tests, talked to me and prescribed me a few days worth of vicodin and toradol.
About two months later I went to the ER where I had my lap for pain. I had already called my doctor’s answering service and was advised to go. After being told that the wait would be about 8 hours, my husband took me to that same urgent care clinic. It just so happened that I had been there about six months earlier for a pretty bad cold and had been prescribed some cough syrup that I never even took. I didn’t really think about that in the state I was in.
A nurse brings me in the room and takes my vitals and asks about my complaints. I give her a brief summary of my medical history and explain that I am in severe pain.
She leaves the room only to pop back in after two minutes to inform me that the doctor working that day had lost his license to write narcotics. I said “Ok, but my doctor still wants me to get checked out. Besides, there are other methods of pain relief right?” She said ok, and that she just wanted to inform me in case I wanted to leave now.
I had already caught a glimpse of the doc and he happened to be the same man who had prescribed vicodin a few weeks before so I had to wonder. I did suspect that they had mistakenly put me on their “list” but I wasn’t really in a state to be too offended.
The doctor came in and we talked. He told me that he needed me to calm down because my pulse and blood pressure were too high. Like, waaay elevated. It didn’t go down even though he spent 20 minutes chatting with me. He said it was because of the pain I was in. He told me the nurse was going to give me a demorol injection and xanax. I said I hate xanax, I don’t want it. Well, he said he wouldn’t discharge me until I was calm. When he was leaving the room I asked him if he could prescribe something for pain, something non-narcotic. He stepped back into the room and told me that the nurse had lied because she thought I was a doctor hopper. He apologized for their mistake and prescribed percocet. But still, I am pretty freakin’ offended.
And I suspect that I would still be on “The List” at this clinic if this doctor’s mother hadn’t suffered from severe endo (he told me so.)
Most of you doctors and nurses need to start out by assuming that we (the patients) are telling the truth. Just imagine that we were someone you care about, and maybe then your attitude would change.
But I hope you can agree that it is better for a doctor to assume that all his patients have real medical problems. If not, you risk labelling a sick person as a “doctor hopper” and if one person leaves your ER/clinic without proper care and has serious complications, that is all ON YOU.

]]> By: new nurse http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-245 new nurse Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:14:47 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-245 “The List” what is the list? Is it in a patients file saying that the patient is drug seeking? How I wonder are all of the Doctors being treated for addictions-but not treating the patients they see?? Ha Ha, so thats why my husband doesn’t get any pain control when he is diagnosed for Pleurisy?! So this is why I don’t get any pain control when nerve damage is found in my neck, I went to the ER needing pain relief for….I guess we are both on the list….What does a person do? Buy it off the street instead of seeing the doctor I suppose. I am thinking of leaving the medical field if I cannont give meds to people in pain! Good God give them 10 or 20 Vicoden is this really gonna create addiction? OH never mind you would say yes.

]]> By: Marilyn http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-244 Marilyn Sun, 25 May 2008 03:37:07 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-244 I can’t figure out why anyone would take Vicodin on purpose. It gives me a nightmares and a headache and doesn’t work on pain. Guess I’ll never be a junkie!

]]> By: Mellee http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-243 Mellee Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:00:27 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-243 Iuse to be on “the list”. It took me getting just that type of note from my doctor, for them to know I am NOT messing around. I have been a recovering addict for 2 years and have had the same doc 2 1/2 years. I only use one hospital, and 2 pharmacies. It’s kinda funny in a strange way, when I was addicted I loved those ER visits, now I won’t go near one unless I am truely sick. The last time I went was for one of the “worst migraines I have ever had” got the whole work up (ouch!!) had meningitis. Got all the narcs I could handle

]]> By: Honesty http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2007/09/the-list/#comment-242 Honesty Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:50:15 +0000 http://whitecoatrants.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/the-list/#comment-242 Some people have pain clinics that see them every 3 months, so that can cause an issue with remembering refills. Granted I’ve only ever had a problem once when they switched me to a new pain medecine. I saw I only had six left, tried to call in a refill friday and forgot the clinic was closed on fridays.

There are legit reasons, but I’m sure more often than not they aren’t legit.

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