Just a quick post… “on the fly” as they say… I’ve never done one of these before… I guess it is true what they say though… anger is an excellent motivator!
As I have been a Chronic Pain patient for twenty some-odd years… and as I also have Severe Depression (Major Depressive Disorder), Type II Diabetes, Severe Tinnitus, Sleep Apnea, and Restless Limb Syndrome just to hit the highlights, as well as a number of other conditions, I have to see a rather large number of doctors and specialists on a regular basis… I don’t know why it surprises me every time but I am ceaselessly amazed at the lack of concern for their patients’ well-being many doctors display, and even more so that lack of concern on the part of their office staff…
Last Monday I saw one of my many docs… in discretion, I will not specify which doc or speciality… In the course of our discussion, I mentioned a recent nightmarish episode I had with my neuropathy jumping into overdrive and the completely incapacitating pain I experienced for about two weeks (details will be forthcoming in the post I intend to release next but it is still being written)… He gave me a prescription for Lyrica to see if that might help with the neuropathy… My wife dropped it off at the pharmacy for me and I expected to discover whether it would be helpful at all or not within the next few days… Silly me…
On Wednesday I called the pharmacy to find out why the script hadn’t been filled yet… I was informed that the Lyrica required a pre-authorization and that they had sent the request to the doc’s office already but that they would send another request that day… On Friday I made the same call and was told the same thing so I called the doc’s office myself right away… I called at about 9:30 Friday morning and was told that they hadn’t received any pre-auth requests regarding my Lyrica… I told them the pharmacy had sent at least three of them… They checked and, big surprise, they found the request and they would have the doc return my call regarding the pre-auth ASAP…
There was no call from the doc all day, so I called back at 3:30 Friday afternoon… The staff person I spoke with put me on hold… twice… and then said she would give the message to the doc’s assistants and they would take care of the pre-auth… When I asked when that might be done she said, “Most likely Tuesday or Wednesday next week…” I told her I had been waiting all week for this medication to see if it would actually help my very painful neuropathy… Unbelievably, she asked me, “Did it help?” I replied, “I have no friggin’ idea… I’ve been waiting for it to be pre-authorized!”
I guess that, at least in this instance, the only thing more maddening than a dismissive or unresponsive doctor is an idiotic or brain-dead staff member… Maybe sometime next week I might be able to find out if Lyrica will actually help me find some relief from my painful neuropathy… or I might just need to keep making phone calls to the land of the brain-dead in the hopes that someone there might actually have “making a phone call” or “following up on a task” included in the scope of their abilities… I guess I can hope, but unfortunately I’ve learned not to expect much…
Peace,
Dave
Enduring Pain With Patience 