This doc does not care a whit about his patients. In late 2018, he put EVERY SINGLE PATIENT who is taking over 50MME on a medication reduction program. First told us he would be reducing our meds by 10%, next month (as you have to see this joker monthly), as I pointed out he was cutting more than 15% a month of my breakthrough meds per month, he admitted to him wanting to cut 10% OF THE TOTAL per month, and that was it. The following month I confronted him about 10% of my total would be here soon, and he advised that he would be lowering patients to 50mme I learned to question him directly. Then I got a copy of my records, and found out he is taking all of my meds away, but apparently he did not see that I got a copy of my records, because it said he was taking me off all of my opioids. I mention this because this month, he explained more lies that were the direct opposite of those said in my record.
Something else new, he sends every urine screen out for testing (and if you… have good insurance he takes your urine every single month, has nothing to do with your risk assessment from what I have seen, and per my own experience). I had a lapse of insurance taking over from another insurance, and had to pay for 3 months cash, and suddenly, I was not drug tested every time! Then, back on insurance, back to every month!
Read the state of MN's HHS document on chronic pain treatment, so you know what you are talking about (like I did), he changed his story 4 times in 5 minutes about why things were done the way they were. Expect to lose your breakthrough meds first, then your long acting. The level of meds (under 50mme can be filled by a GP, so know once he takes you to that level, you do not have to see him any more. The problem is any good docs are not accepting new patients. This doc is NOT accepting any cash patients anymore. I have direct knowledge of 3 patients being "fired" for positive drug tests. Please know that in a normal practice, unexplained positives are few and far between. If you are fired, look up what meds they say they found, and see if any of your current OTC or prescription meds could have caused a false positive. I had that happen to me, my Antidepressant cause a false positive for PCP. I did not even know what that was or how it is taken! Print up any info you fine and take it in. You get fired by one doctor and you will never find another. I promise!
Please, I beg you to find ANY other doctor, this one cannot be trusted. I am sure his whole clinic is in self preservation mode, so your pain is if no importance to him, or to anyone working there. I would never normally refer people to Twin Cities Pain, but anything has to be better than this guy! DO NOT got to MAPS (Medical Advanced Pain Specialists), if they cannot do procedures on you (blocks and such), they will discharge you. HFA (Hennepin Faculty Associates) will not prescribe you anything for pain unless you agree to blocks, it is blackmail, have to do them even if they do not help, or cause more pain. As pain patients we are screwed. Let us hope the national versions of treating pain are adopted soon, because the people that put the pain document together for MN had one person on there who lost a child due to narcotics, and the rest were drug hating idiots, who have never had real pain in their life. Luckily the national version of this department in MN is coming out with a much more balanced version of this document,
If you have a false negative test for a drug you KNOW you took, get in with a specialist to check for metabolic issues, it can make people burn thru pain meds in hours rather than days. It is very rare, but if your pain meds last for less than 2 hours (oral), you might have an issue.
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