Here's your clue Kim and grab it hard cause its hard to get ones mind around it.. You are on a "rare Disease site" worse yet you have it. Psoriatic arthritis affects an estimated 24 in 10,000 people Rheumatoid arthritis effect 1 in 100. Now you can make any assumption going forward you want but the rheumatologist sees 50- 75 patients a week. Chances are more than good that he NEVER sees a PsA patient. During his fellowship (about 2 years) he may see a dozen or fewer. Just exactly how great are the chances he is going to be really good at treating PsA????
Tramadol is cheap. if your doc prescribed another pain med say some of the XR products at 500.00+/month they would have plenty to say.
You're right. As a society we depend on way too much what comes out of a pill bottle. One of the constant battles we see here is people moving from med to med and ultimatly doctor to doctor because they just know the cure is out there and someone is keeping it from them. We do depend on medication that is the only proven way to stop the disease, but stopping the disease is only PART of the equation. That doesn't mean the pain stops. Trust me and I have said it multiple times if painting myself purple and dancing naked under a full moon would stop this thing, I'd do it. medication is but 1/3 of the equation movement and exercise is the next third simply put what doesn't move rusts and hurts. The third part is healthy living. that means appropriate diet (you can't fix this with some special diet) avoid trigger foods (things that make you feel bad like brussel sprouts) Eat things that make you feel good (like beer, broasted chicken and pizza) lose weight - lots of it and of course quit smoking. Fail in any ONE of these things and things are likley to go horseshit.
There is just no way around ANY of it. If you find a doc who concentrates on only one or two of these and not the others, he's likely not very good at his job. And not to be overly negative Rheumatology pays like crap both the docs and the facility. You are going to have to work hard to find a good one of either. medicine is procedure driven (read that as profit) Rheumatolgy is detective work and deductive reasoning.
Hi all, just got off the phone with the Pharmacist. He's a young guy; said the Tramadol/Ultracet was absolutely no problem, that there are a lot of people out there on it long term with no complications or anything and that I don't need to worry about that. He said that you have to watch out with drug interactions, but just call them to check up on this if I should get another prescription.
He knew a lot about Psoriatic Arthritis and was a little surprised that I said it was in my hips and said I should check on this. I said I knew its often in the hands and feet and back, knees, and maybe its my lower back, really and just feels like the hips. He said it isn't that it can't be in the pelvis area and agreed it might be the lower back, and the fact that I'm not seeing much going on in my hands and feet may be that my PsA isn't that severe and the doc is waiting to see what pops up in my extremities for further action on that. I said it was bothering my hips and he said he'd probably start some extra treatment.
He said my arthritis is probably a slow progress-er but said that it will progress to the point where I'll probably need the x-rays and drugs, etc BUT he didn't see anything wrong with what the doctor has been doing. He said if the doctor can't really see any signs of arthritis visually that an x-ray may not show much, either. Plus there are blood markers but they may or may not show up, so that can't always be relied upon.
That's about it from him.
Kim
Post from Titanmom: That’s what I’m thinking, tntlamb; the Pharmacist should be able to clue me in on this. Plus, that describes my doctor (edited) to a “t”. He really is a nice guy, frankly. I have hopes that when I do talk to him in June he’ll work in an x-ray and prob more medication. I don’t think he’s trying to be a moron or anything, altho you have to wonder of course. Time will tell. My mom’s doctor who gave her vitamins was a nice guy, too; she liked him. Nothing worse than a dumb but nice doctor–which again, begs the question: Why isn’t there a watchdog/oversite board for these people to check or re-test these people? Someone is not doing their job, somewhere…
I worked in the tech field and its a nightmare. You are constantly in school trying to keep up with the latest technology and its a real drag, but you have to. There’s no way today that I could keep up with that any more. I feel for these doctors, with their heavy loads, etc and no time to get caught up on the latest and greatest, but someone has to do it. If I didn’t keep up, I might lose a job but no one would die, you know what I mean?? (I’m retired, now, and at home and the hubster is the working tech head these days. Glad I don’t work full time at that pace–60 hr weeks–any more.)
And people love drugs, don’t they? That’s the problem, we’re so over-medicated its a nightmare. I just finished watching Frontline’s scoop on the superbug, and the fact that we’re so over medicated with antibiotics that they can’t stop the bug with what they have out now, and all the pharmaceutical cos are dropping out of antibiotic research. SCARY. We could end up back in the middle ages if we have a pandemic of this super bug that’s already in our country, BTW. Now I’m scaring you guys, LOL. Seriously tho, had me alarmed when I watched it. (You can see it on Frontline’s PBS website, I believe its still out there.)
nym, That’s my biggest concern even more than the Tramadol thing : I’ve never had an x-ray. That has always bugged me but like I said, they all never seemed to think it was necessary.
Listening to myself even, I wonder if they all think I’m faking it or something. But that can’t be; they all saw that I could barely walk and get around those first 6 mths trying to figure this out. That was no faking, believe me…
That’s the mystery. If in fact I’m not being treated for this properly…why?? Doesn’t make a bit of sense. And so many know I’m on what I’m on (and not on). Not a peep from anyone…
Just thought of another thing, concerning Tramadol: If anyone is a watchdog on drugs, its the Insurance companies. We’ve been on Fed Blue Cross the entire time and they keep paying for my meds and even allow me to pick up the prescription early! They obviously have no problem with it. But when my primary care physician gave us a prescription of antibiodics once, the insurance co said no. I guess Tramadol isn’t on their radar??
Kim
(original post edited by GrumpyCat)
tntlamb said:
The pharmacist has a doctorate and many more years of training in pharmacology than the doc. Pharm D is 6 years opposed to 4 for MD. We just don’t call them Doctor.
Not much of a mystery. People like docs for a lot of reasons. Medical skill isn’t always at the top of the list. Being a good listener is. One of the most popular docs in the valley here is doing a Hard 10 in a Colorado Federal Pen for over-prescribing. (He apparently didn’t get the memo) he was great listener and super sympathetic. There was honest to god people picketing the state board when they yanked his license after several local pharmacy refused to fill his scripts. people tend to not only like each other but professionals as well if they hear what they want to.
Post by Titanmom:
(Content edited by GrumpyCat on behalf of the ModSquad)
My hubby gave me a few ideas to try. He said i could try going to my Primary Care physician and ask about the Tramadol and get a referral from him, possibly to the one in Maryland that said he needs a referral. That might work.
Also, he said I should corner the pharmacist and find out what he thinks about my being on Tramadol, at least. He may not have anything to add about whether or not I should have been taking something for the actual disease these past couple of years, since he’s not a doctor, though.
This entire thing is just gettin’ weirder and weirder, IMO.
Kim
Jules said:
Hi Kim, it just occurred to me that when a few of us in the UK were looking for specialist PsA rheumies in case we needed second opinions we got a thread going on here listing the people we found … so I’ve had a look through the discussions under the ‘Recommend a doctor’ section and found a great post about a rheumy in Martinsburg WV.
Google maps tells me that Martinsburg to Hedgesville is 8 miles. I’m sure you’ve maybe already looked him up but I thought I’d post just in case you hadn’t found these discussions.
This disease is a thief and a robber and as others have indicated you don’t always see what its stealing until its gone, never to return. So even if you do have to make a longer journey than to Martinsburg to see some one, do it before its too late.