Simmer Advances to Full Boil

Assignment to a Primary Care Doctor in my Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plan seems to be carried out my some low-chance lottery. My particular assigned doctor is near my zip code, , then but a hundred dollar cab ride to his office round trip. My PCP doctor's specific goal seems to be arranging for expensive medical tests, gathering results, a,d then filing away said paperwork without reporting results to the patient.

"If you are going to withdraw my bodily fluids, or insert medical contraptions into my body for probing or retrieval, I believe I have a right to know the results or impact of any information gained."

I was not told my cholesterol levels. Such information might have eased my mind. as I have been prescribed Lipitor in the past. I agree with the doctor's assistant over the phone of my need for generic atorvastatin. I was told that a fasting blood test would be administered during my next visit.

I had not requested cholesterol work. However, if you have an appointment with an Internal Medicine doctor, one of the first things he will do is test your cholesterol levels, an begin a prescription that is intended to lower these levels.

So before we begin to deal with the problems I need the doctor's help with, he has made his list of priorities for me: blood work, mammogram, and within the last week I received a call from a doctor who was new to me. but indicated I had been referred by my doctor to their office. Is this the way you would want to receive your information? It was a shock. The method of communication annoyed me. The more I mulled over why the doctor was too busy to have his staff inform me of an appointment, the more angry I became.

I told the colonoscopy office that I was expecting the doctor to deal with present health matters that were causing me concern, before my PCP goes looking for problems where no symptomology exists.

I could use a mammogram. Ten years have passed since my previous colonoscopy. I acknowledge I would probably benefit from surgery because some pre-cancerous polyps were snipped and removed during my first colonoscopy. But there is no indication of any unusual, undiagnosed malady. I have a feeling this PCP is going to keep testing me, and charging me for the tests as well as the reading of results. until he finds something seriously wrong for him to treat.

We may have a proverbial Mexican standoff, because I'm not taking any more of his costly medical exams until he has dealt with my original reason for visiting his office. I need a referral to a pain management specialist to help alleviate my lumbar back pain until I can have surgery on it. The neck surgery I had about a year ago has kept the pain out of my neck as I never would have imagined. Of course, with an appropriate period of time for mending that has passed, I am ready for a neurosurgeon, and to get on with the surgery to ease pain that leaves me flat in my bed, and too often in tears because of the intensity of my pain. I'd rate my pain as 7 out of 10. Currently, the doctor is allowing me no prescription medication. After many years of Talwin for pain, I am now reduced to the aid of asprin and acetaminophen. Neither does much good toward decreasing my pain.