Getting fired from your pain doctor may or may not be your fault. What I mean by that is that it could be that you were out of town and were in a car accident that required an emergency room visit with narcotics involved. Your medication may have been stolen by a family member, and you are not the type of person to involve the police with the police report required under your pain management agreement.
Or it may be entirely your fault and you “cheated” by getting pain meds from two different doctors and got caught. Whatever the reason, now you still have chronic pain and there is no one to help you, right?
Here are some tips for finding and keeping a new pain doctor.
1) Get your complete medical records. You’re entitled to them, but it may take a bit of legwork and persistence to get them since you’re leaving with a bad grade. You will need these records to make things easier for your new doctor. You won’t exactly be in the driver’s seat after being fired.
2) Try to find a pain doctor who works in a comprehensive center. Which means their surgery center is on site and they offer additional services like chiropractic and physical therapy. The goal is to reduce the dose of your medications so that these additional treatments can help.
3) Don’t lie to the new doctor when you meet with him or her. You just got out of a bad experience, why start immediately with a bad career that is dishonest? With pain management doctors under the microscope of state medical boards and the DEA, there is minimal patience for someone who lies about their medications.
4) Do not use illicit drugs. I’m not talking about medical marijuana, although that may be a factor in whether or not a new pain doctor will accept you (and also perhaps why you got fired in the first place). I’m talking about heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, etc. To understand? Your new pain doctor will test you for drugs as is the norm these days. It would be a waste of time for you and the doctor to test positive for one of these substances on the first visit.
5) If you have insurance, use it. One of the factors of distrust in patients with pain arises when they use insurance from one doctor and cash from another. It’s a red flag and it’s one of the top drug-seeking behaviors.
6) Be flexible about your pain medication needs. What I mean by this is when you see your new doctor, don’t be too insistent on a specific medication at a specific dosage. This can be another red flag for drug-seeking behavior. If you’re seeing a board-certified, fellowship-trained pain management doctor, do you really want to question too much the wisdom of that doctor’s experience?
7) The last and most important piece of advice is to simply be very very kind and respectful at all times to the doctor and staff. Pain management patients can be very difficult to work with due to the complexities of the individual’s condition. Complicating things for the doctor is one thing, that’s what he normally likes is mental stimulation and helping people. Being downright rude will ruin trust and relationship development. You will be fired again, and that includes being mean and disrespectful to the office staff.
8) Show up for your appointments. Too many missed appointments will get you fired (again). It is disrespectful, especially without notice to the office. Put yourself in their shoes, they are setting aside time to help. Show up to your doctor visits, procedures, and therapy, and get better!
