What the hell is wrong with doctors these days??? My mom is 92 and three weeks ago she began having bad back pain in the lower back/kidney area so I took her to a family doctor. He tested for a urinary/bladder infection but his office lost the first sample. So....three days later they tell us that, and we go back for her to give another and this time it confirms an infection. She asks about her back pain and he blows it off as likely a pulled muscle. Well, forward two weeks and the pain is getting worse so I mange to get her in to see a urologist who says there is still some infection there, but does send her for an ultra sound to check for stones/blockages which was negative. This one also gives her nothing for pain but suggests (like the first) just take tylenol or advil. Now three weeks later she is in extreme pain and unable to sit/stand or even lie down comfortably to sleep and gets 2-3 hours rest in a chair every night. I now have got her a third appointment with a orthopedic doctor for Monday but this absolutely outrageous! I'm ready to go cuss somebody out royally over not even trying to ease the pain while trying to find out the root cause. They have just blown it off so far as "just muscle strain" and today I fired off a very angry email to the patient relations dept. of the WFU Baptist Health System which all these quacks are part of. I also mentioned my attorney and the idea that maybe the local news media might like to hear about why an elderly lady is being blown off and left to suffer.
Sorry for the long rant, but I am pissed off and disgusted with these people. If anyone knows a good over the counter pain reliever that may help I would love suggestions. Thanks!

Approximately three weeks ago tomorrow (Saturday) the other half took me to the ER for pain that was about 8.5-9 out of 10. I have had pain in the past, surgery, broken bones etc.. BUT I have never experienced pain like this before

Well it was for a kidney stone.
What did they give me? 6oo MG Ibuprofen
They did give me some oxycodone but it was 5mg and it did not do squat for pain.

Ever since i have moved to NC, I have had to visit with various doctors/specialist and I truly believe they all have been too preoccupied to give a darn during the evaluation.

The only DR I enjoy seeing is the one at the VA, and yesterday I received a phone call to tell me she took a new position and I would need to get a new quack.

We have a new hospital here. Also new: A sign in the lobby that says profanity directed at staff wont be tolerated.
Wonder why they need that? Maybe because your health care experience is not unique.

quote:

I think they have all been too preoccupied to give a darn during the evaluation.

Yep, that is the other problem. They had better hope it does not turn out to be anything really serious that could have been addressed earlier, because there will be a law suit coming down the tracks at them if it is.

^^^^^^^ Hoping for a good outcome for your mother. My personal story. In the state of Louisiana to go after a doctor you have to notify the doctor of said action. Then your team / his team / and review board team meets to determine if "The Standard Of Care" was given . Only after review board rules against the doctor for not giving the standard of care then and only then can you proceede. If they rule that standard care was given then that is as far as you can go. In our case it took 9 yrs to get that _ _ _ _ into a court room and by the way our side won. ........................................ drill sgt.

Several years ago, my mother was hospitalized for a urinary tract infection. A day or so later we went to visit her in the hospital, and the infection had affected her mind to the point she was having hallucinations, and talking to unseen people. When all was said and done, turns out this sort of thing is seen rather commonly in elderly women (mom was in her late 80's at the time) with urinary infections. As the infection cleared, she came back to normal, but to this day there seem to be parts of missing memory.
Just posting this as something to be aware of. Hopefully, your mother will have no such problems. (The hospital first thought she was an Alzheimer's patient!)

None of the Doctors want to prescribe pain medicine due to lawsuits and Govt interference. Like many, the ability to practice is governed by checklists. And, I suspect, at the top of these medical practices sits lawyer(s). You are probably bound by arbitration rules that prevent lawsuits.
Not a solution, but, we eventually had to buy urine test strips that test for UTI.

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
None of the Doctors want to prescribe pain medicine due to lawsuits and Govt interference. Like many, the ability to practice is governed by checklists. And, I suspect, at the top of these medical practices sits lawyer(s). You are probably bound by arbitration rules that prevent lawsuits.
Not a solution, but, we eventually had to buy urine test strips that test for UTI.

My buddy's wife is a doctor in rural North Carolina. She's had days where every single patient she saw had notes in their chart about being drug seekers, and sure enough, they were.

Let's face it, due to all the tweekers out there, unless you're in verifiable desperate pain, you're going to get ibuprofen or something similar.

Prescribing opiates these days is tantamount to being a pusher. The review boards and licensing boards look at EVERYTHING.

Glad to be done with that shit!

RMD

UTIs in elderly women are common. They can also be chronic and hard to treat. The infection can migrate to the kidneys. I believe there's also a connection between UTIs and dementia in the elderly.

I hope the OP's mom is doing better.

I know all about drug abusers etc having spent 40 yrs in law enforcement and dealt with my fair share of them. All she or I want, is something stronger than tylenol and for them to actually put forth due effort in finding the problem rather than some generic "oh its just a muscle" crap. The infection is supposedly cleared up now thankfully but the pain has been worse every day. If these morons honestly think she is an abuser they are bigger idiots than I thought. This woman has never, never complained about illness or pain all these years so I know that when she does, it is real and so should her family doctor that has seen her for years.

quote:

Originally posted by oldbill123:
None of the Doctors want to prescribe pain medicine due to lawsuits and Govt interference.

Yep, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.

Back in the day, doctors were handing out opiates like candy. Jam your finger? 30 days worth of Oxy. Sprained ankle? 60 days worth of Hydros. Pulled a tooth? Better prescribe some morphine. Unspecified back pain with no apparent cause? Ima give you something for the pain, just in case.

Then the opiate abuse got out of control, the drug-seeking liars and fakers got out of control, the government stepped in, and now it takes an act of God to get a serious painkiller prescribed.

Right when this pendulum shift was going into effect ~6-8 years ago, I dealt with a guy who (after unsuccessfully trying repeatedly to fake his way into some Rx painkillers to feed his habit) purposely threw himself off his roof in order to actually injure himself and get a fix. He broke his back, and will likely deal with chronic issues for the rest of his life. But he got himself some opiates.

OP, maybe try the Novant system rather than WFU/Baptist. Academic medicine is not the same as the community. High likelihood if an MD (not PA or NP) saw her that she was seen by residents/fellows, rather than attending physicians.

My personal Dr. closed his office in April??
I am not sure if he is open yet. I got a call from them saying I could do a virtual appt.
If I had a virtual problem, I might.
I have gone to my natural doctor though.
It is like getting 1,000 tests done in 8 minutes time. Of course the AMA have blocked natural Drs. from giving you a diagnosis. They have to refer you to a specialist or your family doctor to take a certain test depending on what the natural Dr. finds.

That’s beyond ridiculous that a 92 year old woman can’t get something for pain. How about a little common sense jeebuz.

My dad had a bad UTI after a surgery about 10 years ago and we thought he was losing his mind because he was talking about all kinds of crazy stuff and definitely having hallucinations.


Hope all works out for your mom.

Half the Doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.

So we get government even more involved in health care and look what happens. Between lawyers and listless clerks, things look bleak. How about using the street corner pharmacies so prevalent in the inner cities?

Thanks Barak you incompetent chump.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
Half the Doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.

What do you call the one finishes in last place in medical school?


Doctor.

One of the biggest problems patients face today is that, because of ever decreasing reimbursements by the insurance companies and ever increasing overhead due to government mandates, such as electronic medical records, doctors are giving up their independence to become employees of the various hospital chains. Their decision making and their treatments often are now influenced by their bureaucrat employers, not by what's best for the patient. Others try to cope by joining together in ever larger groups, creating a maze that patients have more and more trouble navigating. I am a retired physician and my doctors are people I've known and worked with for years. Even I can't get through to them. Once I called shortly after the office opened and left a message and was called back at 4:30 not by the doctor, not by the nurse practitioner but by a nursing assistant. Trying to get a prescription refilled can take 2-3 days of calling by both the patient and the pharmacy. My office for thirty years consisted of me, a nurse and a receptionist. When a patient's phone call needed returning, more times than not it was me making the call. I couldn't do that today and afford to keep the office open. Most of my colleagues , who practiced the way I did have retired early, long before they should have but they just got tired of the conflicts, the compromises and administrators telling them how to practice medicine. In a way, I admire the doctors coming out today, who are willing to deal with what's going on because, like those of us, who came before, they want to ease people's suffering but I feel sorry for them because they'll never know how much better it used to be.