Finding a doctor

[Ne/Neva Eva]

I have to admit I'm way past the point of caring about whether it's on my medical records. I have what I have. Though I completely understand the decision to do otherwise.
I am on a mission to find a doctor. Just on principle. The situation surrounding baclofen, and possibly other life saving treatments is beyond absurd. I won't preach to the choir, but I refuse to let bull keep me from the medical help I, and others, need. Absurd.

Without going into all the details, I have interviewed a doc via phone, interviewed one via his receptionist, talked to several nurses, been told repeatedly that I need to see a shrink in addiction. Been there. Not paying $250 for an intake I can't follow up on.
Finally thought I'd found The One. (cue chorus of angels) Unconventional treatments, bright guy, right credentials...
I sent his name to a friend in the field in another state to check out. Guess what? He was fired and his license suspended in '97 for not caring for his patients in his old folk's hospital. And (cue the scary music) treated for alcohol and cocaine. Okay, bygones, I can't blame the guy for suffering from the same disease. Fast forward 13 years. He was just removed from probation in July for not following up with his drug addicted patients... That's just evil. (Not that the other isn't, but he was in a hospital with other physicians.)And, get this, stockpiling class III and IV meds at his community service drug treatment facility. And after he quit they found some locked in a file drawer in his office. And to top it off? He has no certification or education in addiction treatment or management. Again, not a deal breaker, except that he EXPLICITLY promotes himself as an addiction specialist. Which I suppose he is. It's the specializing in treatment that he's missing. Poor bastard.:upset:

[Topsy-Turvy-Tracy]

Finding a doctor

Neva,

Bravo! I think the only way to get this into mainstream medicine is to present it to mainstream medicine. Who was your doctor before? Have you approached that person? I went to the nurse practitioner that I?ve been seeing for years and just spilled the beans. I told her how much I drank, for how long, how many things I?ve tried, and then told her that I saw hope in this. I brought a typed up sheet of my proposal for dosage, the title of the book and the author, plus Levin?s numbers and credentials, and told her that a Nobel laureate was also actively supporting this method (see Ameisen?s site for details: Olivier Ameisen, MD).

My nurse practitioner already knew a lot about baclofen, and she did not hesitate at all, except to suggest that I start even lower and titrate even slower so that the side effects would not be a deterent. She?s into it, and if it works for me, she?s enthusiastic about sharing it with her peers at what is, by far, the largest medical clinic around. When I thanked her for being so open-minded, she said, ?There is no reason not to be. This is a very low-risk drug.?

If you can go legit, I think it?s the very best way to get the baclofen and also get the message out there to the people who can help (and I understand that people choose not to for very good reasons).

Barring all that ? Dr. Levin has an open offer to people here. He doesn?t work for free either, but there are people here who rely on him for their scripts. He told me that, after an advisory session, he would write a script to my local Walgreens (he said they carry high quality product), and we?d go from there. I don?t know what he charges, but there are people here who could help out with that info.

Again, kudos! It's a brave and fearless approach (which may backfire on us both someday - but que sera, sera).