Tell your insurance carrier that your Dr. is refusing to give you a referral
to a specialist that your condition requires. Tell your Dr. that you are going to write a letter to the medical board that he refuses to provide you with a referral to a specialist that could assist you with your condition. A referral does not mean the DOCTOR is giving you drugs - the referral simply says from one Dr. to another - "please assess my patient and recommend treatment based upon your area/level of expertise". He does not have the RIGHT to refuse to give you referral to pain management.
If that doesn't work - find the pain management clinic in your area with a good reputation and ask to make an appointment to speak with a counselor or clinician. Don't go into the whole business with them - just try to get an appointment for a second opinion.
Do not give up. You have rights. The last thing that you can do is go to the emergency room when you are at the worst pain level and have the ER Doc give you a referral to the pain management center at the hospital.
-- DT
>----- Original Message ----- Sender: Melody020156@hotmail.com (Melody) Subject: Re: At my wits end > > Thanks to everyone that replied to my post. It's nice to know I am not > alone but it is also rather frightening to know that there are hardly > any doctor's out there familiar with this issue. My doctor won't refer > me to pain management like some of you suggested. He said they don't > treat people with "my kind" of pain. My gastro spends all of 30 seconds > with me and said, FIBER, ANTI-SPASMODICS AND PAIN PILLS should do the > trick but didn't volunteer either of the latter two. I am taking Lorcet > for pain and it doesn't really work but makes me doped up enough so that > I don't mind the pain so much. If anyone knows of a doctor in the Los > Angeles area that is good with this subject, please post their > information. > > Again, thanks to all for the support!! >