Hey everyone, apologies in advance if this is in the wrong forum but I'm not too familiar with Bluelight and couldn't figure out where to post this.
Anyway, a couple of years ago I was in a bad car accident and broke my back. I was lucky and had very good health care coverage at the time and eventually ended up in my HMO's Pain Management program. I was put on a heavy daily dose of Morphine ER as well as Dilaudid for breakthrough pain. Well...fast forward and my husband ended up losing his job, so I lost my health care. With really no money to speak of and no way to continue getting prescriptions until I got on health care assistance (Thanks Obama!) I told my doctors what was up and they weened me off of opiates over a three month period.
That was eight months ago and I finally just got on Medi-Cal and can now choose from two different managed health care plans. There are so many doctors and clinics in each plan, it's overwhelming to someone who was on one HMO that handled everything for them their whole life. At any rate, for the last six months I have been in essentially debilitating pain and can't really do anything to get away from it. I know I need at least physical therapy and probably an expensive exoskeleton type back brace (I forgot what they were called) that I could never afford before because they were individually custom made and costed thousands of dollars. Ironically my insurance now is probably going to be better and cover more than what I had through my husband's employer.
On to my question - how can I look for and choose a doctor that is going to be sympathetic to my condition without seeming like a "doctor shopper" or "drug seeker"? I realize there may not be an answer to this, but my back pain is so bad it's pretty much all I think about. Since I have been without coverage and no way to get medical help I have become severely depressed as well and am just trying to get through each day living with the pain. I can't sleep or stand or sit for any length of time before it just drives me crazy. On one hand I want to establish a good relationship with my new doctor, whoever that may be, on the other hand I just need help and can't take much more of this pain. Should I just keep changing doctors if I can't find one that will put me back on some kind of opiod therapy right away? Or let the new doc work through his steps, whatever they might be (probably physical therapy, exercise, and motrin or something) and see how that goes?
Thanks in advance for any advice you all may have. I'm just scared and the state-run medical care system is a bit of a nightmare to navigate (it took me 11 months to get covered and the state mandate for getting new applicants covered is within 45 days...yeah.)
Anyway, a couple of years ago I was in a bad car accident and broke my back. I was lucky and had very good health care coverage at the time and eventually ended up in my HMO's Pain Management program. I was put on a heavy daily dose of Morphine ER as well as Dilaudid for breakthrough pain. Well...fast forward and my husband ended up losing his job, so I lost my health care. With really no money to speak of and no way to continue getting prescriptions until I got on health care assistance (Thanks Obama!) I told my doctors what was up and they weened me off of opiates over a three month period.
That was eight months ago and I finally just got on Medi-Cal and can now choose from two different managed health care plans. There are so many doctors and clinics in each plan, it's overwhelming to someone who was on one HMO that handled everything for them their whole life. At any rate, for the last six months I have been in essentially debilitating pain and can't really do anything to get away from it. I know I need at least physical therapy and probably an expensive exoskeleton type back brace (I forgot what they were called) that I could never afford before because they were individually custom made and costed thousands of dollars. Ironically my insurance now is probably going to be better and cover more than what I had through my husband's employer.
On to my question - how can I look for and choose a doctor that is going to be sympathetic to my condition without seeming like a "doctor shopper" or "drug seeker"? I realize there may not be an answer to this, but my back pain is so bad it's pretty much all I think about. Since I have been without coverage and no way to get medical help I have become severely depressed as well and am just trying to get through each day living with the pain. I can't sleep or stand or sit for any length of time before it just drives me crazy. On one hand I want to establish a good relationship with my new doctor, whoever that may be, on the other hand I just need help and can't take much more of this pain. Should I just keep changing doctors if I can't find one that will put me back on some kind of opiod therapy right away? Or let the new doc work through his steps, whatever they might be (probably physical therapy, exercise, and motrin or something) and see how that goes?
Thanks in advance for any advice you all may have. I'm just scared and the state-run medical care system is a bit of a nightmare to navigate (it took me 11 months to get covered and the state mandate for getting new applicants covered is within 45 days...yeah.)
