Dr. Howard Martin Strickler, MD

I suffer from a chronic neurological condition that causes me to be in power wheelchair. This condition causes a great deal of pain. I have always been blessed in that pain medications have been effective in treating a great deal of this pain. I had this misfortune to come into contact with Dr. Strickler during a hospitalization. Within just a few minutes he had diagnosed me as being a opiate addict in need of detoxification. He spoke with my pain specialist who I had been seeing for quite a while and convinced this doctor of the same. I was transferred to the detoxification unit where I was immediately removed from ALL of my medication INCLUDING non-controlled substances such as Lyrica and baclofen (yes, there are some nuts who abuse these drugs but on the whole they area considered to have very low potentials for addiction) which are critical to treating the severe Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and spasms that I suffer from. I was NOT "better" as he promised would be when the… fog of addiction and opiate dependence was lifted. On the converse, I was much worse and lost the ability to do simple ADL's. After an extended period I was finally able to get another doctor to take me seriously - which was quite difficult with his scathing report. I even had to travel out of state to do this. After resuming my meds, and MONTHS of hard work I was finally able to get near my "pre-Strickler" level of function. Bear in mind that I had never exhibited signs of addiction, drug seeking etc, and had always been blessed to have the full trust of my healthcare providers.