HEDKASE
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2016
- Messages
- 1
I recently moved to Dallas from Long Island. In June of 2014 I severely injured my back resulting in excruciating sciatica down the left half of my body, radiating from my buttocks & lower back to my big to on my left foot. It all started from lifting something heavy and twisting to my left. At first it wasn't bad but as I began to drive the pain grew worse & worse. Eventually I left work & went to the hospital where they did an x-ray & confirmed sciatica. They prescribed vicodin (I believe 325/7.5) which basically did nothing. I immediately made a follow-up appointment with my PCP who prescribed an MRI, Percocet 10mg & zanaflex. The MRI confirmed herniated disks from L4, L5 & S1. The percoset was making me nauseous as all hell & I felt terrible. About 2 weeks of suffering I went back & he prescribed Roxycodone 15mg & zofran for the nausea. When I went to fill the prescription the pharmacist gave me a dirty look & basically treated me as an addict. After filling the prescription I did finally get relief after about 45 minutes of taking the pill. I was surprised that the oxycodone didn't have the same nauseating effects as the percoset, it did have a slight buzz for about 15 min, but after that I was pain free & filled with energy. A one month script of 150 was lasting me 6-7 weeks. I really only needed it in the morning to get up & moving as well as late afternoon while sitting in the relentless traffic. During that time I tried several therapies including the chiropractor, acupuncture, TENS unit & Physical Therapy. Most of this didn't help. When work slowed somewhat in the fall I consulted a pain management doctor who suggested a series of epidurals of Kenalog 10, 3 injection over 4wks. 1 every two weeks starting in January of 2015. At first I was amazed at the fact that all my pain had disappeared & discontinued the oxycodone, weaning off as my Dr. suggested but eventually flushed them as, I will admit, it was nice to come home, pop two & relax on the couch to unwind. Around mid March, about 5 weeks of being of the oxycodone, I just lost interest in almost everything. I became glued to the couch, called in sick for about ten days & from lack of mobility basically reinjured my back. No one had informed me of that depression was a side effect of Kenalog, possibly the result of discontinuing the oxycodone & a winter that was miserably cold, dark & snowy for 6 months. I returned to the Dr. & told him what was going on, he refilled a script for oxycodone, explained that epidural injections were sometimes temporary at best & gave me 10mg Lexipro to help get over the hump. After getting pain free again & back to work, I just still didn't feel right, I was working 70-90 hrs a week, anxiety attacks were becoming frequent & my mental health was deteriorating. My dr prescribed xanax for the panic attacks. In fact it got so bad that one morning I got out of bed, went to the couch & laid there under a down bkanket. When my wife returned from work she found me drenched in sweat & still asleep from the morning. This went on for about a week, even my operations manager from work stopped by to check on me as I wasn't calling or answering emails. He saw how bad my condition was & relayed the info to my boss who was rather unsympathetic but I had been with him 15yrs & knew I was in obvious trouble. He too was in trouble because his lead technician/service manager was becoming agoraphobic & withdrawing from reality. I reached out to my best friend & pastor, speaking with him face to face. He suffered from panic attacks & severe anxiety as well & understood how crazy it feels to realize that you're being completely irrational & crazy but can't control it. Eventually one morning I woke up with a resolve to get up & out, I showered, took a drive to the country club overlooking Long Island sound, walked around, watched the sun rise & felt recharged. From there I sat in my truck & fell asleep for 2hrs. I was awakened by couples arriving to play tennis & sent a text message to my friend/pastor "that I can't do this anymore, I need to find a way out of this darkness." I turned the ignition & drove to my Dr's office who's actually next to my old apartment complex. I l knew I needed to increase the dosage of the anti depressant or change it up. Had to do something. Unfortunately it was still early & the office not open yet & again I fell asleep in my truck. (Just to be clear, I was still taking oxy but only 2 to 3 a day, I was prescribed 5 a day) At this time, unbeknownst to me, my friend had interpreted the text as a suicide note & notified the police. In fact, when I awoke to the Nurse arriving at the office, I started walking in & noticed my apartment surrounded by police. Think I no something horrible had happened to my wife I ran over to find my friend there saying "thank God you're alive!!" At that point the police had broken into my apartment & confiscated all of my hunting rifles, target rifles, etc. Oddly enough they left my bow, arrows, kitchen knife & 50' of climbing rope that I could've easily used to hang myself as well as the bulk of my medication which I could've od'D on. Since my friend called in a suicide threat the police were required to take me to a mental ward for a psych evaluation. I didn't think this was an issue, I wasn't suicidal & I thought they could hold me for 72 hrs max. Well, that's not the case. After staying there for almost 35hrs I started to detox from the oxycodone & the staff refused to contact my DR to get my medical records. I was in pure shock after being told I was in a virtual limbo awaiting transfer to another psych ward where I was to be held indefinitely. By the time the ambulance came to transfer me to the new facility I was in full withdrawal. The paramedic recognized it, he'd been sober 7yr after a 60-70 vicodin a day habit. Luckily I explained my situation and he immediately alerted the nurses on staff at the new facility. They contacted my dr immediately & within ten minutes they'd given me a dose of oxy, my lisinopril for blood pressure & a valium cause I was scared shit less. The only knowledge I had of mental wards was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" & "Twelve Monkeys". Mind you this was the Friday afternoon before memorial day weekend and most of the regular psychiatric doctors were off or on vacation. It took until Tuesday for me to get evaluated. The shrink was sure I had tried to commit suicide & it wasn't until she met with my friend that she realized this was all a huge misunderstanding. By Friday morning she asked me if I was ready to go home & yes I was....... then she asked me if I had a dr's appointment. I said actually I do, next Saturday with my PCP. She said no, you need an outpatient psychiatrist & psychologist. The social workers supposed to set that up. She told me if I couldn't get that done by noon I was staying until at least Monday. I ran down to the social worker and tried to remain calm under the circumstances, begging her to please get me an appointment & also asking why I wasn't given this information before?? In between mouthfuls of food she told me she'd try her best. Needless to say, I spent an extra 36hrs in a facility that I really didn't need to be in. The one good thing that did come out of it was that through speaking with one of the social worker/counselors there, he pretty much made the connection. 80-90 hrs a week, being threatened with firing because of a work injury or retaliation if I filed workers comp, the stress of dealing with incompetent employees & a boss who refused to bend on training was the source of my depression. After I was released I went into my office & spoke with my boss, telling him flat out, we need better technicians or I need to start a training program. His answer was this "I don't need better techs, I need a face until you can get there & fix it." That's when I realized that my 16yrs career was over there. I worked a few more weeks, saved as much cash as possible & then called in sick for 3 weeks. Aroumd this time my dr. Switched me to 30mg oxycontin which I HATED. I literally have it 9 days before I went back to him & told him to get me off this crap. It's not like oxycodone, that has a slight buzz but then the pain & buzz disappears, OXYCONTIN left me stoned all day & night.
Eventually my company sent me an email terminating me due to my excessive medical leave, but since this is illegal in NY it was agreed they wouldn't fight if I didn't fight so I could collect unemployment while I packed up my life & made plans to move to Texas. At this point my spirits were high, i was off lexipro & feeling better than ever, exceot for my back. I moved down in the beginning of December & my doctor was kind enough to write two 180 pill scrips at the end of October & November knowing I might have a hard time in Texas finding a good doctor. He also gave me valium as a muscle relaxer & sleep aid.
After moving into my new & gorgeous apartment I got started setting everything up. It wasn't until I got down to about a week & half left of oxy that I started looking for Dr.s. At this point I brought my medications & medical history to a Dr & he flat out told me his company wouldn't allow him to wrote oxy or even vicodin. He was kind enough to wrote tylenol codeine#4 & tramadol to get me through withdrawal. He suggested I seek a pain management doctor. Then had me do a drug test because he knew the pain management Dr would need it. Mind you, I'm unemployed and uninsured at this point.
I found one, & before I even made the appointment I had his office send me medical releases so they could get my info. Well, the minute I walked into his office he suggested we go in the back & do an epidural. I asked him if he had my medical records & he said no "it was my responsibility to carry my records with me" something I've never heard of before in my life as I could forge them. He ordered another drug test even though I'd had one 3 days prior. He prescribed me 900 mg of neuronton a day, saying start with one the first night, then two, then 3 by the 3rd day. By the second day I was a fucking zombie. I lost 24 lbs in the 8 days to my follow up. When I arrived I told him I was nuked out of my mind, still in pain & getting a little annoyed at the mounting medical costs. Again he suggested an epidural. I told him again, no insurance, I need a pain killer to get me through until I can have surgery & finally fix this thing. He tells me "I don't prescribe pain killers" to which I reply, then why did you charge me $175 for a drug test if you weren't going to prescribe pain killers. I said look at my medical records & you'll read about the degenerative spine disease & herniation in L4,L5 &S1 which are killing me. I told him the neuronton made me wasted which was not what I was after & then he said "I only told you to take one at night." I pulled out my phone's memo & showed him the .pdf file he wrote up describing the course of treatment, plus he wrote me a script for 90 pills, 3 a day. When I mentioned that the neuronton left me in a zombie like state with no energy, he wrote me a script for Cymbalta in the morning, neuronton in the afternoon & Lyrica in the evening. He wrote me three scrips for 180 pills each & told me to take 1 a day of each. When I asked about pain relief he stated that he still hadn't had my medical records. That's 6 months of meds. When I went to Target pharmacy, the guy told me this was like $2250 worth of medication. I immediately called the doctor & asked for a script of 10 pills each. I still had neuronton which I had to wean off because of its central nervous properties. After taking the Cymbalta I started getting quite jittery in the morning, then I would take the neuronton & pass out for a couple of hours & then the Lyrica at night. After 6 days my right leg had swelled considerably. I went back to the original Dr who helped me out & ran the list of drugs by him. He was shocked & asked for this dr's info so he could never refer him & gave me the Texas board of health so I could report him. The Dr couldn't prescribe me the tylenol codeine #4 anymore (clinic policy) so he wrote me tylenol codeine #3. After I left him I found another urgent care facility & got a script for tramadol so I cold be in some relief. (I think I forgot to mention in mid December I booked an appointment with a well respected DO but he couldn't see me until February 8th) The codeine#3 & tramadol got me through till I could see the DO who checked me out & understood my insurance situation. He gave me a script for 120 Norco (325/10) & 120 valium 10mg. The norco worked at first but by the end of week one I was taking two at a time & relying on the valium after work & to sleep through the night. He too is still waiting on my medical records.
My question is, why is oxycodone so restricted in Texas?? With my medical history & NYS drug registry they could see I wasn't abusing it although 7 weeks, turned to 6 then to 5, but it was a 4 week script. I've taken myself off oxy when I haven't had pain & the only discomfort is I'm chilly & slight diarrhea which is easily controlled with anti-diarrhea meds & a sweater.
Now I'm worried that when I go back to the DO on March 7th, how do I bring up the fact that the NORCO doesn't do shit for me?? I'm not exactly looking to get oxy again, but possibly raise the pill count from 120 to 180. I guess I should also mention I was in a medically induced coma from H1N1 in 2009 & during that time they flooded my body with propyfyl, versit, fentanyl & dilauded. The doctors even thought I was a heavy heroin user until the bloodwork & hair samples came back negative. I was on a whole bottle of propyfyl an hour for 7weeks plus the other drugs. Did this somehow boost my tolerance towards opiates or can I have a natural resistance or tolerance?? Are there any suggestions people can give me in the short term until I can have the surgery this winter in terms of painkillers?? I've never tried Opana, which I heard is like OXYCONTIN, so if anyone's familiar with that, I do not like or tolerate that high feeling.
I continue to do PT & Core strengthening as well as keep my weight down. I'm 6'4" and about 240lbs but pretty muscular. So it's not like I can lose too much more weight. While on the neuronton I dropped to 2.5lbs & felt like crap but that was probably water weight & lack of food.
Sorry for the novel but I'm desperate for any help or suggestions of Dr's in the Plano or Dallas area of Texas. Dr. Lieberman will be doing my surgery.
Eventually my company sent me an email terminating me due to my excessive medical leave, but since this is illegal in NY it was agreed they wouldn't fight if I didn't fight so I could collect unemployment while I packed up my life & made plans to move to Texas. At this point my spirits were high, i was off lexipro & feeling better than ever, exceot for my back. I moved down in the beginning of December & my doctor was kind enough to write two 180 pill scrips at the end of October & November knowing I might have a hard time in Texas finding a good doctor. He also gave me valium as a muscle relaxer & sleep aid.
After moving into my new & gorgeous apartment I got started setting everything up. It wasn't until I got down to about a week & half left of oxy that I started looking for Dr.s. At this point I brought my medications & medical history to a Dr & he flat out told me his company wouldn't allow him to wrote oxy or even vicodin. He was kind enough to wrote tylenol codeine#4 & tramadol to get me through withdrawal. He suggested I seek a pain management doctor. Then had me do a drug test because he knew the pain management Dr would need it. Mind you, I'm unemployed and uninsured at this point.
I found one, & before I even made the appointment I had his office send me medical releases so they could get my info. Well, the minute I walked into his office he suggested we go in the back & do an epidural. I asked him if he had my medical records & he said no "it was my responsibility to carry my records with me" something I've never heard of before in my life as I could forge them. He ordered another drug test even though I'd had one 3 days prior. He prescribed me 900 mg of neuronton a day, saying start with one the first night, then two, then 3 by the 3rd day. By the second day I was a fucking zombie. I lost 24 lbs in the 8 days to my follow up. When I arrived I told him I was nuked out of my mind, still in pain & getting a little annoyed at the mounting medical costs. Again he suggested an epidural. I told him again, no insurance, I need a pain killer to get me through until I can have surgery & finally fix this thing. He tells me "I don't prescribe pain killers" to which I reply, then why did you charge me $175 for a drug test if you weren't going to prescribe pain killers. I said look at my medical records & you'll read about the degenerative spine disease & herniation in L4,L5 &S1 which are killing me. I told him the neuronton made me wasted which was not what I was after & then he said "I only told you to take one at night." I pulled out my phone's memo & showed him the .pdf file he wrote up describing the course of treatment, plus he wrote me a script for 90 pills, 3 a day. When I mentioned that the neuronton left me in a zombie like state with no energy, he wrote me a script for Cymbalta in the morning, neuronton in the afternoon & Lyrica in the evening. He wrote me three scrips for 180 pills each & told me to take 1 a day of each. When I asked about pain relief he stated that he still hadn't had my medical records. That's 6 months of meds. When I went to Target pharmacy, the guy told me this was like $2250 worth of medication. I immediately called the doctor & asked for a script of 10 pills each. I still had neuronton which I had to wean off because of its central nervous properties. After taking the Cymbalta I started getting quite jittery in the morning, then I would take the neuronton & pass out for a couple of hours & then the Lyrica at night. After 6 days my right leg had swelled considerably. I went back to the original Dr who helped me out & ran the list of drugs by him. He was shocked & asked for this dr's info so he could never refer him & gave me the Texas board of health so I could report him. The Dr couldn't prescribe me the tylenol codeine #4 anymore (clinic policy) so he wrote me tylenol codeine #3. After I left him I found another urgent care facility & got a script for tramadol so I cold be in some relief. (I think I forgot to mention in mid December I booked an appointment with a well respected DO but he couldn't see me until February 8th) The codeine#3 & tramadol got me through till I could see the DO who checked me out & understood my insurance situation. He gave me a script for 120 Norco (325/10) & 120 valium 10mg. The norco worked at first but by the end of week one I was taking two at a time & relying on the valium after work & to sleep through the night. He too is still waiting on my medical records.
My question is, why is oxycodone so restricted in Texas?? With my medical history & NYS drug registry they could see I wasn't abusing it although 7 weeks, turned to 6 then to 5, but it was a 4 week script. I've taken myself off oxy when I haven't had pain & the only discomfort is I'm chilly & slight diarrhea which is easily controlled with anti-diarrhea meds & a sweater.
Now I'm worried that when I go back to the DO on March 7th, how do I bring up the fact that the NORCO doesn't do shit for me?? I'm not exactly looking to get oxy again, but possibly raise the pill count from 120 to 180. I guess I should also mention I was in a medically induced coma from H1N1 in 2009 & during that time they flooded my body with propyfyl, versit, fentanyl & dilauded. The doctors even thought I was a heavy heroin user until the bloodwork & hair samples came back negative. I was on a whole bottle of propyfyl an hour for 7weeks plus the other drugs. Did this somehow boost my tolerance towards opiates or can I have a natural resistance or tolerance?? Are there any suggestions people can give me in the short term until I can have the surgery this winter in terms of painkillers?? I've never tried Opana, which I heard is like OXYCONTIN, so if anyone's familiar with that, I do not like or tolerate that high feeling.
I continue to do PT & Core strengthening as well as keep my weight down. I'm 6'4" and about 240lbs but pretty muscular. So it's not like I can lose too much more weight. While on the neuronton I dropped to 2.5lbs & felt like crap but that was probably water weight & lack of food.
Sorry for the novel but I'm desperate for any help or suggestions of Dr's in the Plano or Dallas area of Texas. Dr. Lieberman will be doing my surgery.