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Monday, September 27, 2010

Doctors Are Bitches

So everyone knows that I get migraines. Severe, debilitating, makes me want to die migraines. Its not new to anyone who knows me. For the past two plus years I've had FMLA for them, because I miss more work than is allowed by my company's attendance policy. But that's the ONLY reason I ever miss work. And when I am at work, I work my ass off to make sure that I get everything I need done.

Its also not new that I've had my fair share of neurologists, because I felt they weren't doing enough to help me, or they told me they couldn't help me, or they were just a dick that left me in tears every time I went to see him. I finally found a neurologist that has promise. He's already had some tests run to try to rule out a reason or trigger for my migraines. I've been seeing him since April or May I guess. Every visit I bring my color coded calendar, so he can see how my migraines have been behaving, we saw some improvement the last time, so I graduated from going every month, to going every two months. That's huge! But its still a significant problem for me.

So time came for me to recertify my FMLA paperwork. I faxed over the forms, and an explanation, and all my info about time missed the past few months so he would have something to go by. His nurse called me to tell me that he would like me to have my primary care physician fill out the paperwork.

Wait, what?

Why would my primary care physician fill out FMLA paperwork about a condition he doesn't treat?

And that's basically what he told me in his letter he mailed to me. He said have your neurologist fill this out, I've only ever seen you twice for migraines, and those were for referrals.

I called the neuro's office this morning, spoke to his nurse, told her that my primary care physician wouldn't fill it out. She said that she would leave a note for my doctor, but if he didn't think that I was at the point where I needed to miss work because of them, he wouldn't fill them out. And if he does fill them out, its a $25 charge.

Why does he get to say whether or not I can miss work because of MY pain? He's seen my calendar and knows how often I get the really bad ones that make me unable to function. Why would he even question my need to miss work when they are like that?

Why do doctor's think its okay to make our lives more stressful than they already are? If it wasn't for us being sick and having to go see them, they wouldn't be able to drive around in their fancy cars or live in their fancy houses. I said before, and I'll say it again, THEY work for US. Yet we're the ones who have to do all the hard work and stress about everything.
I want to fucking scream.

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3 comments:

  1. Ooooh something's fishy here.

    I wonder if it's a nurse problem? Gotta get past those nurses before the doc will ever see paperwork like FMLA.

    I can't remember what the Federal rules were when I was educating my own Federal agency about FMLA. All I had was a letter with my diagnosis but the rules might be different now.

    Here's the US Government's disability website: http://www.disability.gov/

    It might have more information about FMLA. Migraine is covered so maybe just a letter with diagnosis is required?

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  2. I bet she is just in a bad mood. and i bet that the doctor will fill out the paperwork because if he doesn't, he isnt a good doctor!

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  3. i think you should go into his office and remind him why you need those papers signed.

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