Connect
Denied app to Mayo due to doctor-prescribed opioid pain medication??
Thank you in advance for your attention.
My best friend was referred to Mayo Clinic Division of Gastroenterology in Rochester, MN by her doctor, who received a letter today from Mayo stating that they are unable to offer her an appointment. It says that, at this time, they do not feel that they would offer additional care.
This letter came today, just 3 weeks after Mayo Clinic actually called to schedule her. During the phone call, the scheduler asked her what medications she was on & she told them. One of her medications is Oxycodone - an opioid that she is prescribed for the chronic pain that she suffers. Upon hearing that, the scheduler regretfully informed her that she could not schedule her until she was off of the Oxycodone for 3 months. I completely understand the reason behind it. They need an accurate baseline of her symptoms.
That being said, that steady dose of pain medication every 4-6 hours is the only thing that keeps her out of the hospital on fentanyl for the pain. Also, the entire reason that she needs to go to Mayo Clinic so desperately is to figure out the source of the pain and stop it so that she can get off of the pain meds and go back to her regular life - she can no longer work or drive at all due to the pain and/or confusion from the pain medication, and the basic functions of daily life are difficult and time consuming for her for the same reason.
Her doctor said that she would speak to someone and see if there was anything they could do, but now 3 weeks after they were ready to schedule her, she got a denial letter. Pretty safe to assume that if the doc did talk to Mayo, it didn't help. I'm guessing that they must've determined that she wasn't willing to come off of the Oxycodone and completely denied her.
Now I'm wondering where we go from here as she's pretty upset by the news. She's convinced that she will die from this pain if she were to try to go without the medication for 3 months and she's convinced that she will die soon without help. I don't want to lose my friend.
I read on another thread that we could try applying to a different division of Mayo Clinic but they will likely still require her to be off of the opioid for 3 months and I don't guess her doc can put her on a non-opioid pain medication strong enough without damaging her liver & kidneys or she would have done that 3 weeks ago.
I'm curious if anyone has any advice.
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Visiting Mayo Clinic Support Group.
Connect
Sorry it’s taking me a little bit of time to respond. This is my busy week before the holiday week.
I can’t fathom living half of that let alone all of it nor can I even imagine the pain of feeling helpless and not being able to help your friend. I know that feeling somewhat, but my friend was aware of what he was dealing with, up until the unknown whammy of the apparently slow growing mass in his brain that was missed because of other symptoms that were written off in conjunction with the things that were tangible and known that had going on with him.
I think a diagnostic hospital sounds perfect for her situation and would encourage you to do so ASAP. My father was diagnosed with and died from pancreatic cancer back in 2005. By the time we found out that he had it, it was only because he Turned jaundice in his eyes. I would say a good maybe a year year and a half before that he had different symptoms that he was writing off to other things including probably I would say he figured it was from alcohol addiction but I kept encouraging him to go see a doctor for sugar thinking that maybe a diabetes. Yes pancreatic cancer is one of those that are often fatal but they’re doing a lot of research and well by the time they found his, they thought everything was good to go that he could get the procedure called the Whipple, but when he got into that surgery to remove the part of the pancreas that was affected, they found that it had indeed, and in fact spread, which they thought it hadn’t originally through the scans. Anyway, he was given 68 months and he made eight months a day in true dad fashion 🙂 for all you know, she could be dealing with a layered situation like my friend who passed. He had liver issues and because of how your body can go out of whack, nobody really paid attention to some of the symptoms or I can’t say they didn’t pay attention, but rather attributed them to Side effects and or things related to the liver disease and totally missed that there was the mass growing in his brain. My husband‘s father died of colon cancer and like I said the Neighbor that I have that I shared her story. I think it was years that she was dealing with that stuff so I would absolutely encourage her to be tested for pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer. I’d be shocked if given the symptoms you’ve described that she hasn’t already received a colonoscopy, but just in case I am thrown that one out there. If all of that comes up nothing for all we know she has some kind of really wonky thing going on in her G.I. and I know this sounds so trait and maybe she’s tried everything but I keep hearing about gut health and there’s so many different things to take. I don’t think it would hurt for her to start at least trying to focus on instead of figuring out what’s wrong, focusing on like how she could help her micro biome and what preniotic/ probiotic kind of things… i’ve often heard of lupus and fibromyalgia being misdiagnosed, but there’s so many different things. Also, have you ever looked into mold? I don’t know why these things are coming to mind but I’m just sharing them as they do. I’ve also heard of numerous stories where people have been simulate at death store only to find out that they have been living with a unknown mold toxicity, and it’s the cause of all of their health issues. Just throwing everything out there that is coming to mind.
Praying for answers and for some relief from all of this for both her and you.