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Not because I carry. He doesn't know I carry all time at his office. But he's pushing me to take a statin. I did for awhile but got really bad back aches. So i asked him for an alternative medication. He said no, use what I'm telling you to use. Then he said should find another doctor.

Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

Texas_Blaze wrote:Not because I carry. He doesn't know I carry all time at his office. But he's pushing me to take a statin. I did for awhile but got really bad back aches. So i asked him for an alternative medication. He said no, use what I'm telling you to use. Then he said should find another doctor.

Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

I had a very negative reaction to a statin a few years back. Something called Rhabdomyolisis (sp?). Switched docs after moving and the new doc basically didn't believe me, or my charts. Said he had never heard of that before and that he didn't know what else to prescribe. He ended up doing some research and has me on a cocktail of fish oil and some other things. Apparently there really isn't much in the way of decent alternatives to statins, hence the reluctance.

I have heard of that. A doctor I know has told at least one of her patients she was not going to see him any more if he was not going to take his medicine. Basically throwing down the gauntlet. "If you are not going to do what I say how can I help you"

It sounds like your situation is different though and you are merely asking for advice and maybe a different prescription. It sounds like it might be time to change doctors if he is not willing to work with and listen to you.

Smokey wrote:I have heard of that. A doctor I know has told at least one of her patients she was not going to see him any more if he was not going to take his medicine. Basically throwing down the gauntlet. "If you are not going to do what I say how can I help you"

It sounds like your situation is different though and you are merely asking for advice and maybe a different prescription. It sounds like it might be time to change doctors if he is not willing to work with and listen to you.

Or at least explain why the alternatives are worse than the side effects from the current medication.

Texas_Blaze wrote:Not because I carry. He doesn't know I carry all time at his office. But he's pushing me to take a statin. I did for awhile but got really bad back aches. So i asked him for an alternative medication. He said no, use what I'm telling you to use. Then he said should find another doctor.

Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

As soon as he said no i would be looking elsewhere.

also you have the right to make a complaint to the medical examiners board, he has to keep you as a patient until you are able to find another MD. I wouldn't want to but its the law

Texas_Blaze wrote:Not because I carry. He doesn't know I carry all time at his office. But he's pushing me to take a statin. I did for awhile but got really bad back aches. So i asked him for an alternative medication. He said no, use what I'm telling you to use. Then he said should find another doctor.

Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

There are pills for everything. From what you're saying, it sounds like your former doctor should take some ego pills?

Texas_Blaze wrote:...Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

Yep. During the earliest days of his symptoms of Alzheimers, when he was still fairly self-functional, my father refused to take a medicine that his doctor prescribed, and the doc gave him a choice of either being compliant with his meds Rx or finding another physician to treat him.

I had known and worked with the doc for almost 10 years while he was an ER doc and the medical control for an EMS agency I worked with, and knew that he wouldn't do something like that without good reason. Dad never said a word to me, but after my mother spilled the beans, I went with him to his next appointment. Dad complied, but wasn't happy about it. He hated the aftertaste more than any reactions - something about the taste of the med stayed with him for quite a while afterwards.

Nowadays, I'd think that unless you have a long-term and exceptional relationship with your physician, you're likely to find the "my way or the highway" attitude comes about from their liability if they knowingly let you be uncompliant with your meds - that's malpractice.

Smokey wrote:I have heard of that. A doctor I know has told at least one of her patients she was not going to see him any more if he was not going to take his medicine. Basically throwing down the gauntlet. "If you are not going to do what I say how can I help you"

It sounds like your situation is different though and you are merely asking for advice and maybe a different prescription. It sounds like it might be time to change doctors if he is not willing to work with and listen to you.

I've known someone on the patient side of this, kept ignoring doctors instructions despite impact to their health that was serious and Doctor finally told them to find a new physician

I can't imagine a doctor reacting that way when you have a bad reaction to a drug. I had shoulder and neck pain after taking statins. My doctor switched me to Simvastatin and I know longer have pain. My cholesterol is good too.

Doctors fire patients (especially noncompliant ones) all the time. Patient's also fire doctors all the time. God bless capitalism.

Patients believe their doctors are following rigorous scientific principles. The hallmark of science is to be skeptical of what it is you believe is true and always try to falsify that belief. Reality is, most docs don't spend the time. They have a hectic scheduled as it is. So they defer to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and it's National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines (NCEP)...not knowing how those guidelines came about. IOW he follows a script that was conveyed to him by drug companies and the NIH.

I wonder if your doctor even knows about the following petition to the NIH. Email it to him. Note who the university medical professionals are that signed it (page 9) wanting a re-review of those guideline:

PETITION TO THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
SEEKING AN INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL TO RE-EVALUATE
THE NATIONAL CHOLESTEROL EDUCATION PROGRAM GUIDELINES
https://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/finalnihltr.pdf

Dr David Diamond PhD, neurologist, USF talks about this petition in this lecture that he gives to cardiology conventions. He rips into the NCEP guidelines as being financially bias.
http://www.cas.usf.edu/news/s/169/#VIDE ... 20epidemic
Here's the link to the Power Point Presentation. See pages 43-45. Especially see page 45 because it's the response the NCEP sent back to these petitioners. Pretty much a short and sweet PC version of go fly a kite.
http://www.cas.usf.edu/news/Diamond_USF.pdf

Drugs have an NNT (number needed to treat) and an NNH (number needed to harm)
http://www.thennt.com/?s=statins
Statins: http://www.thennt.com/nnt/statins-for-h ... t-disease/

Benefits in NNT
1 in 83 were helped (life saved)
1 in 39 were helped (preventing non-fatal heart attack)
1 in 125 were helped (preventing stroke)
Harms in NNH
1 in 100 were harmed (develop diabetes*)
1 in 10 were harmed (muscle damage)

And that's why your muscles were hurting.

Dr Diamond points out this Lipitor Ad. See the "*" after the %. It refers to the blue font on blue background in the lower left corner. If you were in this study and your doctor gave you Lipitor you had a 98% chance of not having a heart attack. But if you were given the sugar pill you had a 97% chance of not having a heart attack...and that's with having side effects. Now which would you choose? The difference between the sugar pill and Lipitor was actually 1.1%. To get a 36% reduction they divide 1.1% by 3%.


In addition to Diamonds lecture I also like this talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGOpjPNtjes

And then this: http://m.openheart.bmj.com/content/2/1/ ... ign=buffer

I had a small town opthamologist drop me like a hot potato when I went to Houston to see a big city opthamologist for a second opinion. Worked out ok. The Houston opthamologist had much more sophisticated equipment and expertise for the same ding dang $40 copay.

Statins don't like me either.
I'm waiting for a generic Lovalo. Can't afford the brand stuff that's not covered by my insurance.

My Dr told me if I didn't get my cholesterol down, she was going to give me a prescription. I told her she could but I wouldn't take them because of the side effects. She looked at me funny but I dropped my cholesterol 50 points in 6 months by eating raw spinach leaf salads a few time a week. Now I actually prefer them every other day. I will find out in 2 weeks if it's still working. Last visit she was surprised that it dropped that much without changing very much besides that. There are alternatives if you haven't tried them yet but it takes some will power. If you have, sounds like you might need a new Dr.