I'm getting frustrated and impatient with my dang doctor.

[Robbo]

My GP doctor finally called me last night, and since I was a little bit skittish about trying the Ritalin, I wanted to start at a very low dosage, just 5 mg one time in the morning. Now my doctor wants me to just move up to 5mg 2 times a day, And after a month the 5 mg dose is barely helping at all, and only for about 2 hours, not 3 to 5 hours like it says on the FIRST READ THIS post. I asked him about letting me try 10 mg 3 times a day and he started talking to me as if I was some kind of idiot. Of course I know it’s addictive. If I run into any kind of problem, like not being able to sleep, or craving more of it because it makes me high I’ll just stop. He should trust me after being my doctor so so dang long.

I’m sick and tired of being treated like a drug addict. I get my pain medications from a pain specialist. They even do drug testing for all their patients. So even if I was an addict I wouldn’t be able to get away with it. I’ve had the same pain specialist doctors office for at least 10 years. And my GP knows exactly how much I take. always has. He’s been my doctor for more than 10 dang years. I can’t understand why he doesn’t trust me still. If he doesn’t why does he even continue to be my doctor?

Am I being too sensitive about this? I’ve always been very involved in my own health care, I get copies of all the blood work, lab work, and I understand what all the information on the lab results mean too. Is 5 mg two times a day being too dang cautious? At this rate it could be 6 months before I finally get to a therapeutic dosage. If I could handle this problem without medication I never would have agreed to start taking it in the first place. I’m fed up with fighting for my right to decent health care.

Someone please tell me what your experience is with Ritalin. I also take wellbutrin, 150 mg two times a day. The problem with not being able to sleep has been with me as long as I can remember, it’s not the wellbutrin. The Ritalin does not make me wired! my dang doctor doesn’t seem to be able to hear me let alone trust me. No freakin respect!!!!! All my dang life I’ve had to fight like crazy to stay awake at school and I’ve never been able to handle a desk job. I just want a chance to life a normal life, as normal can be expected. And I’ve been in the chair long enough to know how to cope with that, even with ADHD.

Our health care system is a broken down freaking nightmare. If I could move to Canada I would! California is a great place to live, unless you use a wheelchair, and have severe chronic pain. It’s easy for me to understand why so may people in wheelchairs end up stuffed into that bitter, angry, mad at the world stereotype. People are way too quick to assume we can’t cope because they’re overwhelmed when they see how much we have to tolerate. It’s the worst kind of catch 22 I can think of. Damned if I do, Damned if I don’t, damned no matter what.

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[JimC.]

Everyone’s different and a meds recommendation on the internet is not appropriate. Can you find another doc? Are you aware of similar meds that are time-release, like Adderall RX? (I use it, 1 capsule upon rising then that’s it).

Only you knows what works/doesn’t. Keep searching. And FYI I’m in Canada and while MD visits are covered, ADHD meds are not, and there’s no generic available here for Adderall or Adderall RX. I cannot comment how Welbutrin reacts with Adderall or what’s right for you, but you need to keep working and looking until you get to the right place.

Hope that helps a bit, Jim

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[billd]

Yeah, don’t think you want to believe the grass is always greener, I know a few folks jumping the fence the other direction, too.

We each have our medical system issues…….. good and bad.

I would never rely on a GP for ADHD. Not after all the digging, research (the equiv of probably several weeks non-stop) and personal experiences this past 14 months. No way. Specialist only. (example, my doc wouldn’t prescribe ANYTHING but stratterra for ADHD in a middle-aged adult stating anything else was just way too dangerous and “not worth it”. HA, guess what – I’ve read the independent studies, and spoke with the specialists later, if I was a vindictive person I think I could have him for malpractice the way things went)

Anyway, the specialists I’ve seen, one the neuro-psyc person, the other works in a behavioral clinic/center AND the sleep specialist all agreed, I needed the stimulants.

The stratterra gave me bad side effects, and did pretty much nothing for me.

I started on adderall xr 20mg and for about 3 weeks it kept me awake through the day like I hoped, and did a bit for my ADHD – no “ahah moment” but it did a little. Then the effect waned. Now I’m on 40mg adderall xr, and it worked for guess what – yeah, about 3 weeks, now I get sleepy in the afternoon again, and feel the effects waning for the ADHD part as well. Back to the drawing board.

For one thing, too bad there’s not a really easy search here – I’d lead you to the posts where it shows that not all meds work for all people, some meds work for some and not others. some will control a, b and d, but not c, then in Jane over there, the same med, same dose works on c, d and l but not a and b. Then for some folks meds don’t do a lot, and for others, it does for a while………

http://www.womenwithadhd.com/forum/topics/medication-always-works-at

ADHD has different impacts on different people, and even slightly different causes it might appear, and like the specialists told me – each drug will have a different effect on each different person, there’s no one right drug, no one right dose, and when or if you do happen to get lucky and find a drug and dose that works, given time, weeks, months, maybe years, it will stop working in a lot of cases.

LOL – my prior family doctor knew that I was so good and knowledgeable on medical issues, at times he asked ME what was wrong. I often knew the problem when I walked in the door. Many times I saved him a bunch of time.

However, back in the 1990s, I had some very severe almost disastrous symptoms that landed me in the hospital multiple times – and baffled every doctor, and every specialist that examined me. I carried several “orders” and prescriptions around with me so that if the symptoms struck again, there were standing orders for certain tests. To this day, no one knew or knows what it was, it just suddenly stopped after a year or so. It was scary for me and for my wife.

Anyway, the doctor plain told me if I got any info, had any ideas, any clues, or found anything to let him know right away. He was in effect asking for my help I guess.

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[Robbo]

Thanks Jim,

I can see your point. I’m hoping someone can just do what you did and share their own experience. I agree about getting or giving medication advice over the Internet. I was thinking about looking for another doctor before I logged on. But that means starting a whole new set of hoops to jump through.

Fortunately we do have a generic for Ritalin, that is covered. It’s methylphenadate. (sp?) At least I did get another call today, but that was just to see another social worker who has to refer me to the psychologist who is only in that office for a few hours once a week. I’m all for healthcare being available to everyone, regardless of income, (Obama care). But our schools haven’t been keeping standards up for so many years there just are not enough doctors to help all the people with health problems, low income, seniors and disabled folks get the short end of the stick, my skin’s tough enough, but some of my neighbors are going through real hell, so getting out of my apt. and hanging around with them, especially the me shutting up and listening part of the visit, will be the best medicine for me today.

My real problem is plain old impatience, a bit too much self importance and of UNTREATED ADHD! whoops, a little more steam puffed out… I’m okay now… honest! If I just follow some of my own advice and meditate some more I’ll be fine. I’ve survived this far, and I actually have been making some progress with the ADHD symptoms.

Guess I need to grow up a little. I sorta want to be like Rick (in this particular video that is) and just show up at the doctors office to give them a good long dose of raspberries! or just email them the last half of this video http://totallyadd.com/immature Thanks for making that Rick. You helped me feel a little more grown up after watching that one. Someone tell Rick he’s awesome for me in case he doesn’t see this, ukay? thanks a bunch.

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[Robbo]

Thanks bill, I was writing the above reply when you were writing the one above it that I just read. I needed to be reminded all that stuff you said. In fact you talked about most of the fears that have been causing my stress. I too have a tendency to build up a tolerance to medications. I’ve already noticed the 5 mg of Ritalin not quite working as much already only after one month!

I thave a good organized set of folders with lot’s of medical records. And I too keep myself educated about my own health care, I’m still alive because of nutrition studies and research, n lot’s of books I’ve got about food as medicine. When I move to Utah where the health care is rumored to be much better, I’ll have a good big stack of medical records to get the new army of doctors informed about my complicated cornucopia of health care issues. The spinal cord injury really baffles even spinal cord injury specialists. There’s real data out there about people with disabilities, and ADHD that do turn to substance abuse. So I have to be honest and give my GP doc some credit for being prudent and actually protective towards me even though my child like thinking (not childish!) doesn’t want to see him as a wise n prudent doctor. Authority and me have had some real disastrous communications problems and plain old human error. I’m sure a good 4 or 5% emergency room doctors especially are high functioning ADDer’s. General practice might be the next best adrenaline junkie/never boring choice for doctors.

My daughter is almost done with her Internship and will be starting her career as a dietician very soon. When she gets settled that’s when I hope to make my trek east, to one of the more beautiful states I know of. Utah has 5 awesome national parks. I’ve survived a lot of the spinal cord injury complications by eating very healthy, protein shakes, whole food, raw green vegetables, fresh juice from my trusty juiceman Jr. and the right combinations of supplements when I had pressure sores that normally kill people with spinal cord injuries. Most people with SCI die from infection due to pressure sores, kidney failure, and of course plain old apathy!, possibly the biggest Killer of all. I wonder how many ADHDer’s let apathy slowly defeat them and end up drunks and drug addicts because they destroy one too many successful businesses. Ever wonder why so many skid row bums are still in their last 1200 dollar suit when they hit skid row?

I love that Neil Young song that Pearl Jam does, it’s called “why do I keep Fu*&in up” hehe. Maybe he’s got this thing we struggle with too.

I give credit to God most of all, and the prayers of people with more faith than myself, people from my church praying for me most of all. That faith gave me the strength to put away the 120 grams of protein a day plus enough “roughage” to be able to digest it all.

Anywayz, thanks for watchen my back some more, have a great day.

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