Uh-oh...
My precious kitty (who wakes me up every morning to feed him) accidently pounced right on top of my tkr knee around 7am.
I was still sleeping, startled when I felt him on my knee and then executed some involuntary knee-jerk (pun intended) reactions in order to "shake" him off the knee. Those involuntary movements of my knee included bending WAY too far back and up in the air...I didn't know what I was doing, but whatever it was it really kinda messed my knee up.
By 10:30am knee is really starting to hurt, stabbing pain right above knee cap, knee throbbing and more swollen than usual.
I had a script for tramadol to get refill today but my insurance company says NO, no cover on the refill (fought with them for 45 minutes on the phone) b/c I've reached my 4 narcotic prescriptions for a "rolling" 30 day period (what the heck does "rolling" mean?).
I try explaining that this is BECAUSE I'm tapering DOWN on the narcotic strength of the scripts after tkr (from Delaudid to Oxycodone to Hydrocodone and now to Tramadol( - which is why there were four scripts.,.and that they already filled the Tramadol once about 5 days ago, and No...I wasn't early on the script either. Insurance company rep says I need to make my doctors write bigger scripts for more than 30 days. I reminded her that this insurance ONLY COVERS 30 day scripts on narcotics, nothing more. The problem was that I was tirating down on the meds before I finished the 30 day scripts.
So...I said fine, no big deal, I'll pay for Tramadol out of pocket ($13) but pharmacy won't fill the script b/c they say if insurance won't cover the script it's a BIG red flag...we're talking TRAMADOL here which has no opoids or narcotic in it. It just fools the brain into thinking it's not in pain-heck! It wasn't even a Scheduled drug here in PA until 2014! It's the weakest of pain killers.
Pharmacy says have doctor call in and say it's okay for me to pay out of pocket. Doctor that wrote the script, his office closed for 3 days due to death in the family (one doctor operation-no answering service).
So far, have spent about 2 hours between insurance and pharmacy. So I (in dire need of pain relief), reluctantly head towards my last option. The ER. Was seen
immediarely (after seeing numerous signs stating that "We no longer provide narcotic prescriptions to ER patients"..
Whaaaaa???
Very nice doctor there in ER, _same hospital I had my surgery done) says sorry, can't help you-go see your family doctor. I explain that my PCP has the same signs in their office (no narcotics) that the ER does and that they will not treat me for pain b/c I screwed up on a contract with a pain management clinic I was going to (another long story but won't go into now).
ER doc says she'll call my PCP for me and I was very grateful. She called them, had to leave message for my doctor so I waited 2 more hours in ER for my PCP to call back.
Bottom line, I DID get to see my PCP who wrote me another script (had the first one shredded( and also called the pharmacy to allow me to pay out of pocket.
All of this today took a total of five hours!
Not upset with the doctor's but quite frusterated with healthcare and insurance companies...
They're really cracking down here in PA on dispensing opoids because of the astronomical upswing in the abuse of these narcotics. I get that.
But really, it's made it difficult for those people who genuinely need the meds. I DON'T get that. Am home now and am never stepping foot outside my house again. Cat miraculously still alive...
United States
