I am in tears. I live in Colorado. Medicaid is a mess. Thy want all pain meds to go through a pain clinic. This is fine but none of them take Medicaid. Anyways went to one today and gave them my tearful story. Exhaustarting to say the least. I am 240 percs a month. I have tried almost everything natural, from diet to a ton of supplements. The Dr heard my story and told me that Fibromyalgia was a junk diagnosis and nothing was going to get better unless I changed from the inside. I lost it. Does anyone know of an understanding Dr. In Colorado that takes Medicaid and will not make me feel at fault or like an addict?
Oh Dear Rherhebee
I am so sorry that you were treated so badly by a doctor! The way you were treated today just elevates your pain level because of the stress he put you under. Let this doctor spend one week..........one day........in your shoes and I am sure he would change his mind. And with the sorry state of Medicaid no wonder you are in tears........tears of frustration and stress and pain. You will be exhausted from telling him your story only to be treated so badly.
I hope someone will be able to help you with finding a doctor in Colorado who takes Medicaid. I cannot do that because I live in Canada. But I certainly can support you and hope and pray that you will soon find a doctor who will treat you with respect, one who will listen to you and prescribe the proper medication for you so that you can function
Please keep us updated..
Gentle hugs
Rachel
Rachel, thank you so much. This is the second doctor in another that has been awful. The other one called me an addict. Then when he did the examination he used the medal thing to check my reflexes. He was beyond rough. Talking about struggling with this is an emotional rollercoaster
Anyways bcoz as a child I was told I was lazy and faking it constantly. I am drained. Thank you again. I will keep everyone updated.
most states over the next couple of years will be sending people with chronic pain to pain clinics according to the doctors I no. Finding a good doctor can be hard and troubling and the insurance issues are horrible. Have you tried to google doctors in your area? I will be thinking of you.
I have tried google. I am going to try to call a Fibromyalgia support group here. Thank you for your thoughts.
Oh my goodness, it makes me cringe to think that he used the metal device to check your reflexes!!! Ouch, ouch. He doesn't know much about fibromyalgia. Did he think he was checking for the fibro tender places. That alone, his use of the metal, could be enough to cause pain all over your body. Oh, I am so sorry.
Rachel
He did use it on my tender point, elbows and hips. I shut down. Then he said I needed psychiatry bcoz it’s mental and then asked me in front of my child if I had been sexually abused. I am just done.
Hi Rheherhebee, I’m sorry that you are running into such arrogant doctors, I hope you find a doctor soon that has had some understanding of fibromyalgia. I’m Canadian so I don’t understand Medicaid, but if they expect you to go to a pain clinic shouldn’t they be identifying some pain doctors that take Medicaid. My understanding is that even the AMA in the US has identified Fibromyalgia as a Disability. I’m glad you have found a fibro support group I’m sure they can help.
Things are not a lot better here as at least in a large portion of BC once you are referred it takes two to five years to get into a pain clinic. As my doctor mumbled under her breath when she told me (not actually referring to me) a person could be dead by then. I had a kinesiologist tell me this week some doctors don’t believe in fibro, when I looked at him, he said he had a number of patients with fibro from car accidents and there was no way they could fake that pain.
Don’t give up hope you will find a good one who will understand and support you through this.
Gentle Hugs
Rherhebee-
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/HCPF/HCPF/1251567070354
Here is a site where you can search for Doctors that take medicaid in Denver. While I don't know them personally, a search on PCPs brought up 218, and on regular rheumatology brought up 30 in Denver alone. A quick websearch on fibro docs in denver brought up Dr Joel Hirsch, who's on the medicaid list several times. (he may have more than one location.) It brought up most of the rheumatologists at Jewish National just off Colfax in their Rheumatology depart, some names cross-referenced to the medicaid list. (I used to live in Denver and work at St. Joseph's downtown.) Although I'd dump that doctor, you might want to tell him that the American College of Rheumatology and the American Society of Clinical Rheumatologists OFFICIALLY recognize fibro as a valid diagnosis, so he needs to improve his continuing education credits for his license. I hope this helps.
Meg
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and as for the comment he made in front of your child, I'd send a complaint letter to the AMA for inappropriate behavior.
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Oh my goodness, this doctor doesn't seem to have any discretion whatsoever........to ask you in front of your child if you have ever been sexually abused!!!
Gentle hugs
Rachel
How very kind and generous of you Meg to do these computer searches for Rherhebee.... Now she can go ahead on her own and spend time searching for a doctor that she thinks she might try.
Thank you Meg.
Gentle hugs
Rachel
Thank u Meg!!! I went pcp today crying my eyes out. Originally he did not want to manage the issue. He had a change of heart. I will continue to search though bcoz I believe that the best for me is pain meds and physical therapy. Thank u all for your kind words. Yesterday was just too much.
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<<gentle hugs>> glad I could help.
Dear Rherhebee,
Dump that doctor like a ton of bricks!!! He is wrong, wrong, wrong! We just read a recent medical research paper that states that we fibro people have many more nerves in our hands than other people. The nerves help to regulate blood flow and the blood flow isn't being properly regulated in us. Thus, low blood flow could cause lactic acid build up in the muscles, which translates into that icky, crampy pain we get!
How awful that your other doc. asked you if you'd been sexually abused in front of your child. And how poorly educated are those doctors who don't know anything about fibro. If they can't be bothered to read the most recent research on it, then they should stop treating fibro patients.
Here is a list of doctors that the National Fibromyalgia Association provides for Colorado: http://fmaware.org/site/News2ba40.html?page=NewsArticle&id=7183 I don't know if any take medicaid or not but you could go to their website to find out or else call them. And hopefully those docs are up to date on fibro, since the National Fibro Association provided their names.
Finally, you are not an addict simply because you want to stop being in pain! What kind of an idiot would want to stay in pain? No one with half of a brain. Have you tried anything like Lyrica or Cymbalta? They both do help with fibro pain. Help is the key word as they don't get rid of it. Nothing does, as far as I know. But we can at least manage the pain.
Please come again and talk to us! You need a good shoulder to cry on and a good hug. Don't listen to those ill-educated doctors and try to find one who is compassionate.
Gentle hugs,
Petunia
Petunia,
Thank you so so much for the support. Thank you all for the support. I am currently on cymbalta. I feel like it is making my anxiety from the pain worse. I have tried lyrica. I felt like I was gonna have an orgasm in my legs randomly. Please laugh it was hysterical. I gave it the full six weeks. And all the sudden I was driving and had to pull over. I take nerotin but I am gonna discontinue that soon. The percs work enough.
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You're welcome, Rherhbee! And hey, if Cymbalta's making your anxiety worse, I think you should contact your doctor ASAP. It sounds like it may not be the right med for you (but I'm not a doctor.)
Well, I did LOL over your Lyrica experience! I wish it would work that way for me - I'm just the opposite with it and anti-depressants. I'd LOVE to have your problem with it, heh heh. But seriously, you can't go around in life constantly feeling that way so I reluctantly agree that it was time for Lyrica to go. Boom, out the door you go, Lyrica!
I'm glad the percs work well enough for you. Do they make you tired at all? Do you take them regularly or just as you need them? Well, at least there's something out there that does help you, so that's good.
I do hope you can find someone to help you with pain management. Sometimes it takes a team of people. Like I have someone for my knees, someone for my back and my PCP for general pain. You may find it helpful to have more than one doctor working on you, if you can afford it.
Thank you for joining us. I think you'll find the site very helpful. You're no longer alone; you have friends to talk to here. :-)
Hugs,
Petunia
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Yay!!! I figured out how to work the mobile version. The orgasmic sensation was like that sneeze that won’t come out. Not satisfying in the least and never going away. Yes the cymbalta needs to be altered. I agree that I need a team. However I am taking a month off. Finding a new Dr is the most stressful task ever. I put off something that brings on the crazy. I have neuropathy in my intestines, oh the fun. Anyways I was bleeding severely from a very private area. I sheepishly went to E.R. After explaining the intimate situation it was time for an exam. The Dr was my age and decided that the best light to use was his cell phone. Please laugh. And then proceeded to ask me on date. I am used to the crazy, but the mean and insensitive is where I just feel so low.
Nothing really takes the pain away. The percs allow some relief. And I over switching around.
The support from this site let me see that there is hope and helped me ask my pcp for what I needed. I will definitely use the links and resources. I am just so thankful.
Love all,
Rherhebee
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I am in Colorado and I have medicaid. I now go to kaiser and found a really good doctor now. So far she has explained every thing to me . I have seen her once and she did listen to what I had to say. Now I just hope she don't get irritated with all the times I will have to see her. Now with losing weight i am fighting that. My weight is always going up and down. I stop drinking soda and now I am drinking flavored water. She told me to try to walk more on my good days and with drinking just water I should lose weight. I have lost 5 lbs but I am stuck again. I really wish I had he money to go to the fibro clinic in Colorado springs I do believe that where it is.