1 knee surgery 2 arthroscopic knee scopes 3 mri's and STILL IN PAIN!!!! Complete History Very Long Sorry

     Well this all started in May of 2008.  I went to see an Orthopedic Surgeon due to severe pain in my right knee.  I have known for about 8 years that I had an Osteochondroma (Bone Tumor/Spur) that was on the side of my leg just below the knee joint.  So at my appointment the Dr. suggests that we just chissle off the bone tumor to make the surface of the bone flat like it should be.  He thinks this is where my pain is coming from.  I was not really sure that was the problem.  I have had this for a long time, so I was not really sure, but what else could it have been?  He then told me that I should get an MRI so they can have all those neat little pictures of my knee joint.  I ended up having to get the MRI twice because the person that read the MRI did not get good enough pictures of the bone tumor on the first report.  My surgeon had to point it out to him, so he wanted me to go back the next day to do it all over again.  They reviewed the MRI and they found no other problems, so I went forth with the surgery.

     The Dr. told me they chisseled off the bone tumor, and did an arthroscopic knee scope.  He found that there was a nerve that was wrapped around the bone tumor, so he had to move that out of the way.  He also found that my ACL was partially torne, but did not do anything about it.  After the knee surgery I was sitting in the recovery room and my knee hurt like ???$*!  So the nurse gave me a 5mg Vicodin to try and calm the pain.  This did not work for &??$!  I am 6'1" and weigh about 290 pounds.  The Dr. ended up writing me a script for 90 5mg percocet.

     So i went through all of my percocet in about 4 or 5 days.  My leg hurt really really bad, and the pain medication that they prescribed was just not really giving me much relief.  So when I went in for my follow up appointment I explained to my Dr. that the medication was not really working that well.  He then proceded to tell me that I was on the strongest pain medication that was out there, and that he could not do anything else for me.  So I asked him if he had another suggestion other than going to the hospital and getting on an IV and being given medication that way.  So he told me about a Pain Management Dr.  He explained that it could be a lengthy and complicated process, but he would give me a referall.

     I went to the pain management Dr. and he prescribed me 7.5mg vicodin with 200mg of ibuprofen.  This did not work that well either.  I told the Dr. that the medication was not very helpfull, and he said it's either this or morphine.  Morphine sounded a little serious to me so I said why don't we just stick with this.  So that worked out for about a month and a half.  I went to the Dr. about 4 times total.  On my last visit I explained to him that my pain was still there.  He did not believe me.  So I had about a 20 minute conversation with this Dr. and he pretty much told me that I was there just to "get high".  That I was just a drug seeker, looking for pain medication.  At this point I was pretty !#*?%? off.  I could not believe what just came out of the Dr.'s mouth.  He proceded to tell me that if I just went around from Dr. to Dr. that eventually I would find a Dr. that would just write a prescription for whtatever I wanted.  I really did not know what to say at this point.  The Dr. refused to give me any more medication and I pretty much just quit going to see him.

     So 3-4 months later I am still experiencing very sharp pain in my right knee.  My girlfriend works at one of the top 100 hospitals in the Nation, so she asked one of the Dr.'s that was on her floor to recommend me to another Orthopedic Surgeon for a second opinion.  So I went to this Dr.'s office for the first appointment.  I brought my coppies of the MRI's, the pictures the previous surgeon took of my knee when he did the knee scope, and the x rays that were taken, to my consult with the new Dr.  He suggested that I get another MRI.  He said that the previous Dr.'s equipment was out of date, and he could not see what the previous Dr. was trying to accomplish by the pictures from my knee scope.

     At this point I had some faith in this Dr.  He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.  He told me that he would "for sure give me an answer as to why I am having so much pain in my knee."  Well I did not have the surgery untill 3 weeks ago.  My place of employment switched insurance companies half way through the year.  So I had to do a bunch of insurance bull &??$.  This was quite time consuming and extremely annoying.  So that is why I had to wait so long between my consult with this Dr. and the actual surgery. 

     I had the knee scope done 3 weeks ago from yesterday.  The Dr. prescribed 30 5mg vicodin to me for the pain.  I had asked the Dr. ahead of time to see if I could get something that was a little bit stronger, due to what happened to me durring my previous knee surgery.  The Dr. said he would not prescribe me anything stronger.  My girlfriend stated to him just before the surgery that the kind of medication that was prescribed to me was the same medication they gave me when I had my previous knee surgery, and that it did not work very well for me.  The Dr. told her that I was pretty big so I should just take 2 of them at a time.  I could tell that this was going no where so I just left and went home.

     I was at home 4 or 5 days after the knee scope, and I was out of the pain medication.  I made the medication last longer than what time frame it was written for.  So I called the Dr.'s office and asked for a refill, because I was still in pain.  The nurse called me back and told me they called in a prescription for me.  So I got my refill.  This time there was 10 5mg vicodin.  So at this point I could pretty much tell this Dr. was not going to do anything for my pain at all.  A week later I was still feeling severe pain in my knee, so I called the office and asked the Dr. if he could referr me to a Pain Management Dr.  He said no problem just give me 2-3 days. 

     So I waited patiently, and the nurse finally called me 5 days later to tell me they recieved a fax back from the Pain Management Dr.'s office that said they did not treat people that had my kind of problem.  I asked the nurse what kind of problem are you talking about?  She said "Pain Medication Abuse/Addiction."  At this point I was pretty !#*?%? off, and kind of let the nurse know how upset I was.  She proceded to tell me that it was not her that wrote that, and that I would have to take it up with the Dr.  She told me she would talk to the Dr. and let me know what his reasoning was behind all of this.

     What I did not really understand is how this Dr. came to that conclusion?  I never took a drug test for this Dr., and the only pain medication that was prescribed to me in the last 6 months for my knee was from him.  All I asked for from this Dr. was to referr me to a Pain Management Dr. simply because he would not treat my pain.

      I just do not understand what I did wrong, or what I am doing wrong.  I can not believe I have been treated like this, by someone who says they are a professional.  I just do not know what to do now.  My knee hurts like ???$* every day, and no one has figured out what the problem is.  How many times am I supposed to let different Dr.'s just open me up, because they think they know what the problem is?

     My true feelings on this situation, is that this Dr. could not find anything wrong with me, so he had to blame me feeling pain on an addiction, simply because he could not find anything wrong with my knee.

     Sorry this is so long, but I just want to let everyone know what kind of Bull &??$ I have been dealing with.  I am just very upset.  I called my family Dr. to try and shecule an appointment to see him so he can referr me to a Pain Management Dr. but he is going to be out of town all of next week.  If I would have known that this Dr. was going to be the way he is, I would have made the appointment with my family Dr. frist and not even asked the Surgeon.