TTSOML #147: Doctors Refuse X-Ray; Pressure Me To Take Narcotics Instead

After 3 months of having Dr. Butler tell me to just take narcotic painkillers for my pelvic pain, I finally spoke to his nurse about it. I told her I felt that instead of giving me painkillers, something needed to be done to find out what was wrong. I told her I didn't want to take narcotics, I wanted to find out what the problem was. She agreed with me. She KNEW I had been asking for diagnostics for awhile but Butler kept putting it off. So I finally talked to him again, and he said okay, that he'd order a CT scan. I felt MRI was more appropriate because it would show everything and there was no radioactive material (since I was breastfeeding) that had to be injected, but he wanted to do a CT.

Oh, I should add, I only stayed with Butler after what happened in the hospital, because when I asked him about what the other doctor told me, who said Butler was badmouthing me, Butler totally denied it and claimed it was a "misunderstanding". He looked me straight in the eye when he said this. I realized later that Butler is just a very practiced liar and that the other doctor had been telling me the straight truth. He told me Dr. Butler told him I was addicted to narcotics and that I had I was very "unstable". Butler claimed, to me, that he never said this or thought this, and that he meant I was "unstable" in a medical sense because of the bladder problems. So I chose to believe him, because I wanted to believe him. I was too tired to switch doctors after the delivery. Now, I know everything the other doctor told me was accurate and that it was Butler who lied, and also lied about his colleague.

So Butler scheduled the CT and I had to be injected with a substance so the images would show up. What came back from the radiologist (which I read myself, having obtained the report before meeting with Butler) was almost normal findings, except he noted there was some abnormal fluid in my pelvis, the etiology of which was uncertain. He also noted several phleboliths which indicated I'd had a kidney infection. Otherwise it was normal. When I met with Butler, however, he just said, "Everything's normal!" No mention about the abnormal fluid and what this might be. Of course, no admission that I had really had a kidney infection too. The CT ordered didn't pick up anything regarding my bones really. I'm not sure why, but it didn't. Which may be the form of diagnostic because it was later that I went to Seattle for an X-ray they wouldn't give me in Wenatchee, and they found pelvic fractures and a broken tailbone, which they said, was about a year old and from childbirth. I don't think the CT went down to my tailbone either.

I was told not to breastfeed for a little while, and then that the radioactive elements would be gone and it was fine to breastfeed. So that's what I did.

I was weaning myself off of the narcotics and when I had done this, on my own, even though I still required 800 mg. Advil and occasional narcotics, that's when I really noticed the excruciating pain in my tailbone. It hurt so bad and I hadn't noticed how bad it was when I was jacked up on painkillers. The doctors asked me why I was noticing my tailbone then, and I told them, it was because this was the first time since delivery that I had been practically off of the painkillers. I didn't have a "fall" at any time. I simply started noticing the pain. So then, I noticed my pelvic and pubic bone pain AND the tailbone pain was very noticeable, or just getting worse because I was sitting more and before I'd been reclined with my baby most of the time, if I wasn't out walking him in the stroller.

So I asked for an X-ray.

My insurance, provided by "the Department" and "the state", much of which is available through plans managed by Catholic insurance companies, COVERED a simple X-ray. But for some reason, no one in the entire town of Wenatchee--not ONE doctor, would do an X-ray to confirm my tailbone pain. It was so bad that I told them I either wanted light narcotics (becaue OTCs didn't work) as I was using formula for my son then, or I wanted a diagnostic that would prove I DID have severe pain to my tailbone. I told them I knew I had broken it in childbirth and that it would show up on an X-ray. I didn't want people saying I was "drug seeking" as they were trying to write me up THEN (which happened after I left Butlers offices), I wanted evidence to show I had a legitimate problem.

When I left Butler's office, it was after he said my CT was "totally normal" and after he refused to give me copies of my son's vaccination records. It was also after I had been told I was given two shots for morphine, and I found out, from the medical record, there was only one shot of morphine ordered and the other shot, which I had told them hadn't worked at all, had been used as a placebo. I was lied to, when I went to Columbia Valley for migraine, when I began questioning Butler. I went in for a morphine shot and it didn't do anything at ALL. So I told him this and he said I must have developed a higher tolerance. I told him my migraine hadn't changed at all, so finally he gave me a second shot and tht one worked like it usually did. I questioned whether the first one was really morphine, and when I saw the bill, it was only billed for one unit of morphine, not two. I asked some questions about this, and my son and I were kicked out. Not just me, but my son as well. Well, I sent Butler an email telling him I was LEAVING and that I needed time to find a new doctor, but I was giving him my notice, and then Butler shot of a letter telling me my son and I were kicked out of the clinic immediately, and that he was withdrawing my pain contract for migraine treatment from the hospital. He then, I found out, told everybody in Wenatchee that I was "drug seeking" and this was part of his reason for kicking me and my son out.

I had tried to leave Butler's offices somewhat professionally, and told him I was going elsewhere, and why, and had to find a new PCP first. He and his lawyers, who I know always included Abbey attorney assistance, decided to try to "kick" us out after I had already "quit" and then he tried to tell everyone I was drug seeking besides. That's when I knew for sure this other doctor from Wenatchee hospital hadn't been lying to me when he told me Dr. Butler was bad-mouthing me.

I had a pain contract in place for treatment of my migraines, at the hospital, and Dr. Butler knew I suffered with serious migraine. In retaliation for my "quitting", he ordered the hospital to pull this, and red flagged me as drug seeking again. So I went from having a need for migraines, to being denied treatment again.

Also, they told everyone I was using ER too much and needed a "PCP", as if I'd been all over the place, and it was my choice. They claimed I didn't have consistent care but this was only because at first in Wenatchee, I already had a PCP in Oregon while I was commuting and didn't have access to other insurance for Wenatchee, and then secondly, because Dr. Butler pulled a fast one and kicked me and my son out without giving us time to find a new PCP. After he did this, and then after I started having problems getting a simple X-ray for my tailbone, I pretty much gave up. We were forced out. Not just me, but my son as well.

At the same time this was happening with me, my son's problems were ongoing, which I'll write about in my next post.

I'll finish with the extremes I had to go to, to try to get an X-ray from medical clinics in Wenatchee first:

I had tried to get an X-ray from Butler and he refused. That was before we were "kicked out after we quit". Next, I tried to go to the ER because I didn't have a new PCP lined up that fast and I was in a lot of pain. The ER doctor refused to do one. He said he'd do an exam but no X-ray. So he noted my back was swayed (from the displacement of the pregnancy) and he pressed on my tailbone lightly and said I didn't have a broken tailbone because it didn't move and if it was broken, it would have a little bit of a give. I knew he was wrong. I could feel it "give" and move myself, when I pressed it, so why couldn't HE?
I couldn't believe it. So let me tell you how many clinics and hospitals there are in the town of Wenatchee: 3. I went to all of them and was refused an X-ray by all three. Columbia Valley, CWH (the hospital), and Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. My next stop was Wenatchee Valley Medical. They also refused, telling me to get a PCP. So I thought I'd just take anyone, and see if it made a difference. It didn't. I asked that guy for an X-ray and he refused as well, saying if it was broken, there was nothing to do about it anyway.

I was refused a reasonable request for an X-ray and I knew the only reason was to do a favor for others because everybody in town knew I wanted to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Every single time I tried to get medical care, someone went ahead of us, and slandered us in the record. I found out Wenatchee doctors contacted the "Boards" of two different managed healthcare plans and slandered me there as well. I had a guy tell me there were a ton of notes written about me as Wenatchee doctors had either called or written in about me.

I was being refused a basic X-ray. I was also being refused treatment for my migraines again. And my son's problems, are far more shocking, and he was refused treatment as well, which I find aggregious.

These doctors cared more about avoiding a lawsuit than they did about the welfare of my son, a baby.

I decided to "sneak" over to Seattle, in the middle of the night, without telling anyone ahead of time, to get that X-ray. I told no one where I was going. They did an X-ray, and it completely validated me.

The radiology report for the X-ray of my tailbone states there is sclerosis of one side of my pelvis (and you can see it on the X-ray, because if I can, you can) and not just a "fractured" tailbone, but a tailbone that is totally broken off at a weird angle. It is not just broken, it is displaced. The doctor told me it looked like it was from childbirth.

The scleroris etiology was undetermined, but from my research, I found out there are only two possible causes for the extreme sclerosis I had: it's either degenerative, or it's from the healing and calcification of multiple fractures of the pelvis, which may explain why I had such horrid shooting pains and bad ache too. It's not degenerative, because I'd had full X-rays done only a couple years earlier, and there was nothing wrong with me then and it doesn't develop that quickly if it's degenerative.

The other confirmation I got, was that I was prolapsed when I shouldn't be, for my health and age, and the fact I've only had one baby. I was told I would need surgery for it. That was first heard from an OBGYN at Wenatchee Valley Medical who I went to for evaluation of internal prolapse injuries and problems I was having. I was symptomatic and she said if it didn't repair itself, I would need surgery, but, she said, if I was going to have more children, not to do it first. I asked her if I could have more children and she said that it was questionable. She said I would be very high risk, not just for delivery, which she said was a clear cut C-section at this point, but, she said, just carrying the weight of the baby would be very risky. She said I would need further evaluation.

Wenatchee CPS claimed, in the fact finding hearing, not to have a copy of the radiology report of the X-ray of my broken tailbone. They claimed they don't have it. They said they just went by doctor chart notes. But they didn't read the radiology report, or purposefully omitted it, and they stood by their claim that there is "nothing wrong" with me and that it's all in my head.

I asked the OBGYN who first diagnosed my prolapses, if this was normal and she hesitated. She said it was very unusual for a woman my age, who had only one child. She said it was seen, and wasn't abnormal, in women who had multiple children, who were past the age of menopause, because she said then there isn't enough estrogen to give their skin and tissue the strength it needs, especially after having many children.

In other words, for someone like ME, it's normal. But I knew what happened wasn't normal from the start, from the time I and my son were isolated into Stacey Stubbliefield and CWH's torture chambers.