I have been a chronic pain sufferer for the last 10 years. After dealing with it for almost 2 years i finally went to a doctor and found out my telanovicular joint in my left foot had separated 10 years prior judging by the amount of arthritis in between the joint. My doctor told me I needed a joint fusion because joints in your feet can not be replaced like a knee or hip. I had the surgery and it ended up being a non-union biggest mistake of my life the pain is completely unbearable without medication. My doctor suggested pain management do to the amount of medication i was going through. Jump ahead 4 years of being a lab rat for the pharmaceutical companies I finally found the right combination to get through the day. 50mg methadone and 50mg percacet daily. After the surgery i started walking with a bad limp which was causing more pain in other parts of my body mainly my lower back. My doctor sent me for an mri and found out I had stage 2 spondylolisthesis and refered me to Duke Neurosurgery where I had one of the best doctors in the country he told me we'll monitor it for progression if it got any worse i was gonna need surgery because it could cause paralysis and I would end up in a wheelchair at that time i was 33 and had been doing manual labor which he told he i should stop asap. With two babys 14 months apart and my wife not working it was not an option. A year ago today i moved the wrong way and everything below my waist went numb. (Im almost to the point and youll understand way im giving my whole history ) so in January of this year I had a spinal fusion, vertebrae removed and spacer added,2 rods and 4 screws. At my first follow up my doctor told me he was leaving the practice and by my next follow up i would be seen by his replacement jump ahead 6 months no appointment was told to basiclly find a new doctor in may. Well that has proven impossible because no one will look at me cause it hasn't been a year yet. Now hears my problem with doctors. Last month i had to change pm doctors because the one I was going to was 2 hours away from my house and I lost my license so now I am out of all meds for the first time in on almost 8 years i have a new one lined up but my appointment is still a week away the last week and a half i have been bed ridden so I called duke and explained what was going on and that I needed to get a prescription to get me through a week i was treated very nice and was told i would have to see a doctor before they could perscribe anything but i would be seen within 2 days. 5 min after hanging up i got a call from the head of neurosurgery and was pretty much called a drug seeker and no one there had time for that and my primary was capable of ordering an xray and reading it. After making a full sentence only using one word (starts with F) i hung up and went to see my primary who treated me the same way next to the er that was the biggest joke. I could understand if i was trying to get over on someone but in 8 years never once falled a drug test or missed a pill count. The thing that really pisses me off is all the doctor shoppers that were arrested for the week and the amount of medication they got in a year long investigation. Meanwhile i have to see my kids cry because they don't understand why i cant take them to the park anymore. Thanks
