My Complaint About Dr. [Rock]

I decided I needed to have [Majik Bean Treatment] for my back and leg pain.  It was crippling me and had been building up over the past 20 years. I’m under 40 years-old.

I had met with a friendly, personable and helpful PA at [Pinetree], per their process, and I was told I could schedule my consultation mid-August with the surgeon.  Regardless, I wanted a second opinion, this is spinal [Majik Bean Treatment].  I called [P.O.] and they got me in right away and scheduled me to meet with the surgeon first.  When I was there Dr. [Rock] told me he recommended [Majik Bean Treatment].  He, like the PA from the other office, said it was a simple procedure that they do many a day of.  He recommended a more involved procedure that sounded good to me, thinking it might offer greater improvement if I did. He said he could get me in for surgery in 2 weeks.  This was mid-July, I couldn’t even have a consultation until mid-August and they said a 4-6 week wait on surgery.

I did research on the [Majik Bean Treatment] and asked my other providers for their advice. Most referred me back to Dr. [Rock], citing that he is the surgeon and it is his job to answer my questions.  I scheduled another appointment with Dr. [Rock] himself, again I got in right away.  I started asking questions and he addressed them.  He was confident, proud and sure of himself.  I had read reviews.  I trusted his skill but his answers to some questions troubled me.

He told me that with [Majik Bean Treatment] I could expect to feel results immediately, I would feel relief when I woke up after [Majik Bean Treatment].  For medication he said, “We’ll write you something.  A lot of people just use Tylenol.”  I could expect to recover quickly and should only need care the day of and after.  My next question was suggested by my health insurance company and I was unsure of how to bring the subject up so I said, “My insurance says I need to ask about a Living Will and Advance Directive. I don’t really know what that is.”  I did, however, somewhat understand Living Will, but I didn’t have one, so I had a few questions. He responded by saying, “That’s weird, you don’t need that. An Advance Directive is just for like old people who have Do Not Resuscitate orders and a Living Will show who you want to give your stuff.” (paraphrased/click quote for link). I stopped questions there.

[Majik Bean Treatment] day came and I met the whole team.  I liked everyone.  They were personable and accommodating.  I had spoken with the nurse and Anesthesiologist telling them that I deal with nausea from the pain all the time.  I had a prescription for anti-nausea medicine at home; they did offer to write one for me though.  I brought this up because the night before, my husband told me that someone from his work says she always asks for a dot that goes behind your ear because people often throw up from anesthesia when having [Majik Bean Treatment].  They accommodated and provided me with the dot and everything I had asked for. I did not ask for additional accommodations.

We moved into the [Majik Bean Treatment] room.  Dr. [Rock] said, “See, we have a whole team working on you.  We’ll take great care of you.”  I smiled and replied, “It’s like a clown car in here.”  Someone started humming circus music and, I was out.

I woke up to Dr. [Rock] by my side.  He asked me how I was feeling and I replied, “Actually, I really hurt.  I have more pain than when I came in.”  I had rated my Pre [Majik Bean Treatment] pain level at 6 and it was mostly just my back.  Post [Majik Bean Treatment] pain was 8, like early labor pains (I had delivered twice) and it was going down my legs and in my back, up slightly further than before (above).

Dr. [Rock] assured me that this was fine and normal because there is new irritation and inflammation, but it will subside.  He had told me it could happen before [Majik Bean Treatment].  It was not completely new pain; it was all in areas that I already had regular pain in, that just wasn’t acting up before.  I was taken to recovery and a nurse asked me how I was doing.  I similarly told her, “Not well. I hurt more than before.”  She responded by explaining that, due to my concern over nausea, they withheld all pain medication during [Majik Bean Treatment].  I explained back that I was not generally nauseated by pain medication, but actually from pain and it was bad.  She told me she’d go get something and came back quickly with something.  Whatever it was, didn’t really help.  Shortly thereafter, my husband arrived.  As we loaded in the car, she assured him, “We got her feeling better than when she got here.”

The story ends here, but I will summarize the details.  My pain remained at level 8 for 3 weeks before I started noticing improvement.  My husband needed to miss work for a week due to the level of care I needed to function and take medicine.  Dr. [Rock] prescribed me the same pain medication I had gotten from my general physician which I knew, and explained, to be almost completely ineffective.  Upon my insistence and scheduling in, Dr. [Rock] wrote me a different prescription that turned out to be not much better.  I have side effects from both of the medications he prescribed that include itching all over, especially my face, I cannot hear the volume at which I speak, digestive issues, and when combined with OTC medication only brought the pain down to 6.  At this appointment he tried to convince me to cancel my 2-week visit, yet this was 3 days after [Majik Bean Treatment] I showed up for 3 appointments that I was told no provider was available. When I was released they told my husband to refer to the “Preparing for Surgery Guide“, that never even once been mentioned to me. His team directly lied to me about getting me another medication to get me to go away.