Mr. Skip: "My pain is better, but I still have bad days, about once a week. I don't know why."
Dr. Grumpy: "Any side effects on the medication?"
Mr. Skip: "No, but I just don't like taking pills."
Dr. Grumpy: "They seem to be helping you, though."
Mr. Skip: "Yeah, but I'm just not a pill person. I skip taking them every 5 days to see if the pain comes back. It does."
Did you explain why he had a bad day once a week?
ReplyDeletecause meet effect ...
ReplyDeleteJust like the parents I see who stop giving their kids antipyretics prior to the appt to "show me" their child has a fever. Or stop giving albuterol nebs so I can "hear the wheezing".
ReplyDeleteYou may think they're completely crazy, but people who do stuff like this do it because some idjit medical person in the past insisted that a problem didn't exist because it wasn't presented in front of them.
ReplyDeleteI know better than to pull these stunts, but I've been called a drug seeker because the painkillers worked (and I could function while using them) because I could clearly move without any so-called pain; called a faker because "99F isn't really a fever" after taking something to bring it down (and wound up quite sick from an untreated UTI that went to visit mr kidneys); and, most memorably, called a liar because there was no way I could have the symptoms I had because "you're already taking a broad spectrum antibiotic, that's not possible". Yes, it was MRSA.
Bad apples go in both directions. Just as some doctors have to stop assuming that patients are liars, some patients have to stop assuming that doctors are going to call them liars.
It is a vicious cycle that we ride.
This is me. Don't judge.
ReplyDeleteMoose, I understand what you're saying. I have contemplated not taking my thyroid pill for about 2 weeks before my next blood test. Why? Because I felt fine, better than I had in years, when I went in for a thyroid test after having been on a certain medication level for about a year. Seriously, I hadn't felt that good in probably 20 years. So what did they do? Yeah, they lowered my dose. I told them that I felt great and I didn't want it lowered, but they insisted that I had to have it lowered because I was getting too much medication. The outcome? Despite limiting my calories to under 1500 a day (yes, I do keep track) doing weight training and running 70 miles a week (at a very reduced speed - what took me an hour and 10 minutes to run a year ago now takes me an hour and a half) I have gained 10 pounds in 4 months. I have to have at least 8 hours of sleep to function, more if I actually want to function well. My hair is falling out, I'm always freezing even if everyone else is hot and my skin is so dry that it bleeds. It's very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYep. Recalling that "normal" is an AVERAGE (I am skipping lots of fancy statistical stuff Grumpy would say.)and "normal" for the individual may be different.
ReplyDeleteBUT if the textbook normal differs from the individual "nermal," chaos (for the pt.) erupts.
And yes, it's no fun for the M.D., etc.
That whole "just because the lab values fall into the "normal" range, doesn't mean it's my normal" has been my bane for years.
ReplyDeleteI'm finally got in to see the endocrinologist, because something has finally gone very wrong, and I've put on nearly 50 pounds in the last year, I can't remember anything or think clearly, I'm losing my hair and eyebrows, growing facial hair, retaining more water in my lower legs than I did both pregnancies combined, and the fat is going in weird places like my middle (although I'm a classic pear), giving me a double chin and a bit of a buffalo hump.
The memory and hair issues have been around for about a decade, but since both my TSH and my T4 came in just above the lowest normal level, I was fine. Right.
And I've had too many doctors not believe that the kid had a fever, or whatever too. It can take a few appointments with a new doc to figure out whether you have to continue (or start) these subterfuges to actually get treatment.
Moose, I was referred to psychologist, by a chronic pain pharmD, because my isolated systolic BP would not go down.
ReplyDeleteShe did nothing for my constant headache pain (NDPH type).
As has been said, there rotten patients and rotten doctors.
Maybe I'm in the minority, who knows.
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the doctor seeking help for your ailment, yet you know damn well you're not going to do what they recommend, then why go at all? That would be like getting hired to do a job at a company but showing up and doing a completely different job than what you were contracted to do, yet being completely dumbfounded as to why you're not getting paid.
As this post presents: if you have bad days about once a week and you don't understand why yet you make the conscious decision to not take the course of treatment provided, well then uh durrrr!
*facepalm*
ReplyDeleteBut, but, I was expecting a CURE, not all this pill-taking business. I want the CURE. Pain all gone. I've taken enough of these silly, silly pills and the pain should be all gone, by now. Black and white, I want it to be. No pain at all at all. Why, if the silly thing won't stop hurting, I want you to lop it off. And, don't even mention phantom pain. That's for sissies.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame him for wanting to get off pain meds. I was on pain meds for awhile and wanted to get off them. Then, when I had reason to, I stopped them for a time and learned that the pain had become tolerable. I stayed off them. I don't understand why he would say "I don't know why," however, unless he means he doesn't know why his need for pain meds isn't lessening.
ReplyDelete"My mother wasn't a pill person either. And here I am."
ReplyDeleteI'm in the opposite boat. Pain pills never work on me, but occasionally I get desperate enough to think "Okay, let's see if this time is different."
ReplyDeleteAnd still, nothing.
If they DID work, I wouldn't be skipping them like this guy.