After trying anti-inflammatory and pain medication for 7 - 10 days with no relief, my doctor refereed me to TOA. I saw Dr. Ledbetter, explained what had happen, symptoms, meds and my doc suggested an MRI. What I got was an x-ray of my shoulder and muscle relaxers and told to come back in 7 - 10 days. cha-ching! Came back was told I had sprang my shoulder and now I was getting an x-ray on my neck. I ask about doing the MRI, I was told that was considered invasive Cha-ching!. Came back was told I needed an MRI! So now I have had 3 visits with the orthopedic doctor to now be refereed to the specialist. When I tell him this happen at work, he looks at my chart and tells me I have excellent insurance that will pay and while I could prove it was work related it would be hard and I had nothing to worry about because I had insurance. Later found out by a receptionist that doctors don't like to change things from private insurance to workers comp because of all the red tape and hassle they have to go through from refunding the monies back to the insurance and waiting on comp to pay, thats nice for them, but what about the human being they swore an oath too! So he sees me tells me I need therapy. Come back in 2 weeks as instructed. He explains now I am going for an epidural injection in my neck. I am told by him and the coordinator that I will be put to sleep and given instructions. I arrive (by the way its in the same building) wait an hour and a half past my scheduled time, and was told I would be under a local because this was dangerous and Dr. Ladoux would need me to tell him what I was feeling! This was a horrible experience. I return to Dr. Shimbayama, who by the way prescribes a lower dose pain med, which is his standard dose. MRI had shown I had a herniated disc that had calcified (told was about 6 months old) and another below it that was impending on the nerves in my spinal cord, which Dr. Shimbayama said my symptoms I had described were classic. So why all the other test, well, cha-ching! I explained after the injection the headaches had gotten worse and at first I attributed to stress but had been waking up with them, he explained that the injection or the disc could be causing them. I told him I had taking more of the pain med and in between doses had taken excedrin to try and get relief. He explained that with the increase in muscle weakness and the pain he recommended surgery. My husbands work requires a form to be filled out in order for him to use time if requested in an emergency. When the coordinator calls I explain I am waiting on this form. I call the nurse asking for refill and I had explained to Shimbayama about taking more because of headaches and pain but once the topic of surgery came up, I was focused on what this meant to my situation and to my family. She tells me my headaches are stress related from work, I explain to her I am off work. She then reads my chart and says she will ask and call me back. This is the second time in over 3 months of dealing with this that I have ever called for a refill on my meds early. When she calls back I am told that because I haven't scheduled my surgery, the doctor would not refill my meds early. I explain to her the situation with the form and I had explained it to the coordinator. Either I could see pain management or schedule surgery. I argued,( that was a mistake), I wanted to get the form filled out before I scheduled the surgery and I didn't want to go to pain management! Next day was discharged for not taking meds properly. Pain med was 4 days to early! Wonder how much was due to the fact was going to turn into work comp & he needed a reason to get out?
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