Pain Management Doctors Selling Drugs

I have had a very bad lower back for over 5 years. I tried everything to help with it. I tried physical therapy and going to my primary doctor who gave me a medication called tramadol that is supposedly a pain killer. It is debatable. He used to give me a bottle of over 360 of them and tell me to take one every four hours. I did that and still had a lot of pain. I took them for over a year to no avail.

I went to a pain management doctor who didn't believe in opoids and she gave me a nerve block and I was so afraid of it. It only killed my back pain for about a month. I had anesthesia during the nerve block and she talked while I was under about her old dog having accidents all over her house. I went back to her after the procedure and told her that it didn't work. She said it was against her practice to prescribe opioids.

I called my primary doctor and he prescribed lidocaine cream to numb my lower back. It gave hardly any relief. I went to a top surgeon in NYC at a medical center and had CAT scans and mylegrams and all kinds of tests. He told me that surgery wouln't help my back. I didn't know where to turn.

I went to one woman pain doctor and she turned me away and said she couldn't help me and I should go somewhere else and charged me $250 for doing nothing at all.

My friend told me there was a pain doctor 40 minutes south of me who prescribed pain pills for your back. I called his practice and they told me they didn't take my insurance but I could be a self pay patients and get receipts and maybe submit them to my insurance. They said the first visit would be $250 cash and every month after that would be $100 cash.

I was desperate and decided to try him and his pain management practice. I went to his office at the time they gave me and there were over 100 patients in the room all over the place in chairs and getting called in every ten minutes. They had a desk where you register and give your name and address and pay the $250 cash for the first visit if you are a cash patient. I never heard of paying a doctor cash before. I had good insurance but he didn't take it and I needed pain meds to help with my pain.

I got called back and they had three nurse practitioners trained in pain management writing scripts for opiates and other pain meds and the pain doctor back there too. They looked at my CT scan and x rays and said I had a real bad back and I told them how much pain I was in. They gave me a script for a strong opitate pain killer and then had me wait on another line to make another appointment for a month later to get another refill script. They said to bring $100 cash next month and you will get your script since we don't take your insurance and you are a cash patient. They had given me a receipt with no name of the pain doctor on it like a bingo slip with a scibbled signature that said $250 cash. Then every week after that I had to wait over 2 and a half hours to get in and get my pain pills for my bad back. They all had degrees and the scripts were legal. The pharmacy filled them. i don't know if it is legal to charge that much cash every month and give you a phony receipt month after month and have 100 patients waiting over 2 and a half hours to get opiate scripts.

A lot of the patients in there looked like drug addicts and derelicts. I went to him for over a year and a half. I had heard there were some shady doctors and people in the pain managment field. People are desperate to get rid of their pain. They will do anything to get pain meds. I didn't like the whole set up.

The last time I went there they made me give a urine sample in a cup and they told me there was no trace of pain pills in the sample. I told them I had taken some a few days earlier. I said they should show up. They seemed like they were getting scared of the cash patients. I was told to leave and find a new pain management doctor. I told them I did nothing wrong. They told me to pay one last $100 in cash and gave me another script, my last for pain pills. They just seemed money hungry. Someone had told me the feds were coming down on them for illegal activities with selling too many opiate scrips and running these drug clinics so called all over the place. Who knows if they were real doctors and nurse practioners? i wonder now.

I had to leave and never go back. They dumped me. I heard they were shut down by the authorities. They just packed up and moved. Maybe they are in another state or another country. I just wanted to make readers aware that these scams go on even today in the medical profession with pain medication. Opiates are a big business in the usa. I was witness to it for over a year.