It sort of depends on what you want to do… I’ve been in this situation and I agree, it’s beyond frustrating. I’m the kind of person that does not like to leave loose ends.

It’s not clear from your post if you’re dealing with an independent/smaller clinic or a larger medical system. A larger medical system would be more likely to use an online portal, and as others have said, it’s worth it to make an account if you haven’t yet because any organization that uses Epic/MyChart usually automatically releases test results there.

Even so, you’ll need a physician to interpret the results. Especially if you have imaging, the level of “degenerative” changes or damage in imaging is not always in direct relation to pain and vice versa. Two people can have the same level of damage and one can have no pain, while another person can have a lot of pain, and orthopedic surgeons or some physicians aren’t always great at explaining this in my experience.

But, if you can obtain your medical records, you can take them elsewhere.

When this happened to me before, I got really upset and when I wasn’t getting an appointment or response, I asked if I could schedule with her NP or PA if she had one, or if I could see one of her colleagues if she wasn’t available. I still didn’t get a satisfactory answer; I ended up calling and leaving a message from her team and asking if I could speak to someone. When no one responded, I asked to speak to the practice manager and eventually I did get an explanation.

If this is a large medical center, most hospitals also have an ombudsmen or “Patient Experience” office—basically a line you can call to complain. I have had luck in those cases with getting communication opened up, but the outcome in almost all cases wasn’t what I wanted… I’ve done this maybe 4 or 5 times? (I swear, I’m resourceful and a patient, patient. I just think changing chronic illness or pain in this medical system…it’s a broken system and it’s sadly common for stuff like this to happen). In all but two cases, it turned out I decided the provider wasn’t a good fit for me. I didn’t feel comfortable working with providers who either thought it was acceptable to treat me that way and/or if the structure of the office is set up in such a way that there’s not enough coverage for some to even tell me what was going on.

This is a long way of me saying, I’d try to get the records myself, escalate your concern somehow, and if you’re not satisfied or don’t want to do any of the above…move on.

It sucks and it’s not fair, but to your point, you’re the one in pain =(. The sad part is we have to advocate for each other and ourselves. But I guess the good thing is we have the right to “fire” a provider if they’re not meeting our expectations.

I’m not sure where in your chronic pain journey you are, but for what it’s worth, I’ve gotten the most traction from seeing a physiatrist (physical medicine and rehab specialist; they can make referrals if needed but look at things holistically) and working with PT (they’re also both way easier to get ahold of and look at more than just the x-rays). Conventional medications, treatments, etc. have helped once we had clarity on diagnosis but something that helped me immediately is a pain neuroscience approach to treatment such as using the app, Curable (I’m not saying the pain is in our heads, but science shows that calming the nervous system can improve pain perception over time). But I agree it’s important to make sure you’re clear on the biomedical potential causes of pain before focusing mainly on psychosocial interventions (if we’re talking “biopsychosocial” model of pain).