 Wrongly Labeled by New Doctor
I recently had to move from California to a small town in Oregon, and the doctors up here are awful. In California, I was always basically treated with respect, but up here, the doctors seem to think that EVERYONE is a drug addict.
I previously had chronic migraines for years, for which I was prescribed daily opioids. I’m very lucky that my chronic migraine finally ended around the time I moved to Oregon.
By the time I moved up here, I no longer needed daily opioids. I just hope and pray that I remain pain-free. I do also have endometriosis, which causes severe menstual cramps. For a few days out of the month, I need to take codeine for my cramps. I have enough left-over codeine to last me for a long time.
I do have occasional insomnia, and I took Dalmane for that. (I’d be happy with anything that helped me sleep.)
I went to a G.P. up here and brought in all my medical records and pill bottles, as requested. I was only requesting a sleep aid.
Well, this G.P. insisted on drug testing me. Since I’d been totally honest, I saw no problem with that. Well, he interrogated me, asking me what I thought it was positive for. I said benzos, and possibly opiods, as I’d had my period a week or so ago. He said, “Anything else?” and I said, “no.” (Indeed, it was NOT positive for anything else.) I felt like I was being interrogated by a cop!
Still, he seemed to think that me testing positive for opiods was a big deal, even though I said I took them occasionally. He made a big deal out of the fact that there were no opiod prescriptions under my name in the Oregon database. His assistant had to remind him that I’d recently moved up from California!
I later got my records, and here’s what the doctor wrote about me: “Benzodiazepine dependency” and “Opiods: chronic, continuous use.” Neither one of those things is true, and I don’t know how to correct it.
In any other place, you could just go to another doctor. But this smalll town is set up so that all of the other doctors and specialists have access to those records. (I had to see a different G.P. and a specialist for an unrelated medical problem, and I was shocked to see those inaccurate notes from the first doctor!)
I found out that doctors up here simply don’t prescribe opioids. Also, apparently there’s an opioid epidemic up here, so they automatically think the worst of anyone taking opioids for any reason.
I no longer take any benzos or sleeping pills, and I rarely take opioids, so that info simply isn’t true. I was asked about it when I had surgery; that’s how I knew the info was being shared and was a permanent part of my records.
How can I get my medical records corrected? I find this inaccurate information very embarrassing. Especially with this info going into a central database, I have no idea how to correct it. I’m almost afraid that other medical professionals are going to think “the doctor is always right” and that I won’t be believed.
Thanks for any advice.
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