Posted by AnneL on October 28, 2003, at 14:50:05
Hi P-Babblers,
Supposedly I am seeing a "top" psychopharmacologist. This was confirmed by several other professionals in the field. Here is my situation which I would appreciate any feedback or thoughts on. Pdoc gave me 3 options for treatment of BPII which I mentioned in an earlier post. 1. Do nothing and stay on Effexor and Klonopin 2. Try Depakote 3. Try Lamictal.
He had me get a blood panel first, which is reasonable and I did. I made my decision and told him I did not want to try Depakote, but wanted to try Lamictal. (He gave me full disclosure of all side effects of both Depakote and Lamictal). At conversation #1, I said I did not want to try Depakote, however, wanted to try Lamictal and he said he would speak with me on Monday (stalling?). On Monday, he said OK you want to start Depakote. I then had to remind him of my decision to try Lamictal. He said that was "not a problem" and to start it in the evening and call him in one week or sooner if I get a rash. What was phoned into the pharmacy on the very same day?!! Depakote!
Called his secretary today to get this straightend out and she said he is out of town for one week, no pager, no physician on-call and now I find out he is actually "retired" and only sees a few "old" patients. I feel unnerved by this whole screw-up and don't feel confident at all. My guess is that I a)Don't start the drug until he gets back and/or b) find a new pdoc who
can remember things and at least has someone on call. I work as a health care professional and I know we all make mistakes. My real concern is that between the two drugs, depakote or lamictal,
he feels more comfortable with depakote and this is why he kept consciously or sub-consciously going back to depakote. I want a pdoc who cares enough to remember our conversation at least to remember what we talked about within the last 5 minutes! Any experiences, suggestions? I am already scared to death to try another medication.
Now I have to worry whether this guy is competent!
Thanks for reading :) AnneL
poster:AnneL
thread:274354
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031025/msgs/274354.html