The second doctor

Well, today was my appointment with the pain management doctor I was referred to. The good news is, he gave me refills on two of my prescriptions, so I'll be able to continue with those. The bad news is, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth because of his demeanor.

Right off the bat, when I was taken into the room where he was sitting, he didn't even look at me or say hi or anything. The nurse told me to have a seat, so I sat there and waited for the doctor to seemingly notice me. Maybe it's petty of me, but stuff like that makes me feel uncomfortable and gets things off on the wrong foot for me.

When he finally deigned to speak to me, he then asked me about what medications I'm taking, what they're for, how often and how much. He poked and prodded me, asking if it hurt, then said it seems I probably do have fibromyalgia (duh). He said something about me needing to exercise, and I tried to tell him what exercises I'm already doing, but he moved on to something else. Then he said I needed physical therapy and I explained that I've already had physical therapy (he said this while looking at a piece of paper where I had specifically written "had physical therapy"). Then he wanted to squabble about why I'm taking two different painkillers. I explained that one is for normal pain and one is for breakthrough pain - something I figured a pain management doctor would be familiar with - and he said he wouldn't prescribe both; just one or the other, so which would it be? I was at a loss for words for a moment, then I asked what I would do if I took the first painkiller and that wasn't enough to take care of my pain? Then suddenly he changed his mind and told me he'd give me prescriptions for both. I just said OK at that point. As you can imagine, by then I was feeling upset and defensive and really, really uncomfortable.

He told me he wanted to get some x-rays and handed me a slip of paper to give to some woman outside the door, then he basically said goodbye. I was told by some other woman that I'd need to come back in a month, so I made an appointment for July 1. Oh, I also tried to talk to him about my worsening fatigue and he more or less blew it off, saying "that's just part of fibromyalgia." WTF? I guess I'll go back in a month and see how it goes, but if this second appointment leaves me feeling just as crappy as the first one, then screw him. I'll find someone else.

In other news, B and I are going back to Vegas in June to see George Michael at the MGM Grand!! I don't know if I've even mentioned it, but I'm a huge fan and when I saw him perform on the AI finale, I was really excited. Then when he announced that he's on tour in the US, I immediately wondered if he'd be coming to Vegas. Sure enough, he's performing one night on June 21st, so I got us a couple tickets! It's been a long time since I've been to a concert, so that will be really cool, plus we get to go back to Vegas. Whoo hoo! We still haven't decided if we're going to spend the night there after the concert or just drive home. If I could find a place where we could stay for less $100, there'd be no question, but for some reason every place has their prices jacked way up. I'm still planning to research this some more and see if we can find some place off the strip that's not so pricey. Part of me wants to spend the night at the MGM Grand hotel because that's where the concert is, so after the concert we'd already be at our hotel, plus we've never stayed there and it looks really nice. But it's one of the more expensive places and if we're only going to be there for one night we won't get to really enjoy it much. Maybe that stimulus money is just burning a hole in my pocket. :)