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To: EBH
But truly, if they are writing a 7-10 script for pain meds that is way too much to be walking out the ER door with. If one is still in that much pain post 3 days, one needs to be seen by a regular doctor for further treatment or should be admitted for further diagnostic care.

I agree to some extent but then I wonder if an ER doc proscribes you only a few day supply of an opiate pain killer and then you go to your primary care doctor a few days later and he writes you another partial or full scrip for the same pain killer, that you won’t end up in some data base as a “doctor shopper”.

And I would add it may not always be necessary to follow up with a primary care doctor after a visit to the ER for some types of injury if it doesn’t require follow up or further treatment and it can sometimes take a week or more to be seen by a lot of primary care docs and even more by some specialists.

Back in around 2003, I a relative took me to the ER one evening because my back pain and back muscle spasms were so bad that I couldn’t stand up straight without severe pain – I initially didn’t want to go BTW, but she convinced me. The ER doc did an examination, asked a lot of questions and determined I had a “slipped disc” and a pinched nerve and the pain was causing the muscle spasms which in turn were exasperating the inflammation. He sent me home with an Rx for muscle relaxers (1 every 4 hours), Percocet (1 every 6 hours), enough for about 7 days and a steroid for the inflammation and at the ER gave me a shot of an anti-inflammatory drug. Boy those drugs knocked me out but they also worked. I ended up not taking all the muscle relaxers and Percocet, only took them for about 4 days and I did follow up with an orthopedic (I had to wait two weeks to be seen BTW). By the time I saw him I wasn’t in eructating pain anymore and didn’t need pain meds but he did write a new Rx for the muscle relaxers with instructions on when and how to take them and only if necessary and wrote a script for what he called “Back School”, i.e. physical therapy. If the ER doc had only wrote a script for a day or two worth of pain meds, considering how long it took to be seen by the ortho, I might have likely ended up back at the ER, missed more than 4 days of work and would have suffered needlessly. Just saying.

19 posted on 01/11/2013 4:46:34 AM PST by MD Expat in PA
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To: MD Expat in PA

If the ER doc had only wrote a script for a day or two worth of pain meds, considering how long it took to be seen by the ortho, I might have likely ended up back at the ER, missed more than 4 days of work and would have suffered needlessly. Just saying.

**
Problem is, there is a MILE WIDE difference between you and the type of patients who seek drugs everyday at our hospitals. As a new RN, as i was shocked — many of them literally just focus their lives on getting admitted and getting a hit of dilaudid or whatever the drug is they seek. It’s unreal.

I’m for this, as our nation’s true drug seekers need to find another way to keep themselves occupied. Once Obamacare hits, there will be no funds for their habits. OR, he’ll give them what they want and deny painkillers to those who truly need them ...esp old white guys who need them.


26 posted on 01/11/2013 5:12:26 AM PST by LibsRJerks
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To: MD Expat in PA

I can empathize with your sceanrio as I have spent 9 weeks flat out on my back and literally unable to even walk to the bathroom on my own. In my case I too went through an ER visit and it was determined I had literally sprained my back.

When I followed up with the ortho to make an appt. a few days later I told them my situation via the ER. The doctor saw me the next day. Sometimes, you have to tell the appt. maker the crisis level. If I would have had to wait? Yeah...it would have been another trip to the ER for more pain meds. or a demand from my doctor’s office to at least review the ER records and refill the script until our appointment time.

Now, with the new electronic records their supposed to have access too, some of this kind off stuff should be able to be eliminated.


32 posted on 01/11/2013 5:49:54 AM PST by EBH (0bama is guilty of willful neglect of duty.)
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