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Any advice on getting drivers license back after medical suspension?

Posted by tatiana987 @tatiana987, Jul 23, 2025

A neurologist took my drivers license away, claiming he is legally required to do so because I had seizure-like episodes. The term used is “loss of awareness”. No question, this is a misdiagnosis. This has caused and is causing terrible harm. My healthy, happy life style has been attacked to save this doctor’s medical license, it appears.

My advice to everyone, especially old women, is not to go to a doctor for summer dizziness or temperature related light-headedness. Perhaps some doctors actually listen to old women, but I have not found them. I have no traffic tickets, no accidents, no medical studies showing seizures, no diabetes. I only have my badly expressed attempt to get help for falls caused by Repatha shots, high ambient temperatures and perhaps some dehydration and sensitivities or allergies. (Multi-factorial causation for my falls.) End result is no medical help is available to me and although I understand what causes my problem now, I am not permitted to use normal driving to seek solutions. Various folks have advised me to drive anyway without a license or to leave the USA.

This nasty experience has induced a sort of guilt-ridden PTSD. Previous extreme situations involving loss of freedom keep flashing in my mind: I was a runaway kid in jail, cavity search before several guards, getting shot at, being unable to get a visa that I needed to go home to my family, friend in Russian prison who had a “heart attack” there, as so many dissidents did…and more. I feel like a whining child because I am privileged really. I did not have my leg blown off in a war. My trauma is minor compared to real victims of violence with PTSD. That’s why I say guilty feeling.

Any advice for me?

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Profile picture for tatiana987
tatiana987 | @tatiana987 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @jakedduck1 "@hraka13 if you live in California, don't expect the DMV to be in your corner. They..." + (show)
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@hraka13
if you live in California, don't expect the DMV to be in your corner. They are impossible to work with. When I told my attorney that he readily agreed telling me several different incidents where people who never should be allowed to drive again were given their license back and others that did something so significant it never should've been taken away had their license revoked.
Take care,
Jake

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I live in Nevada. Here the big issue so far has been the doctors who refuse to sign the DMV form. They use no science, no knowledge and they have no pity or interest in helping me.

Does the idea of not harming patients even exist any more? Once I get somebody to sign, I will find out how the Nevada DMV acts.

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hraka13 | @hraka13 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @tatiana987 "Thanks for the good laugh at the doctor who needed help understanding the birds and bees...." + (show)
Profile picture for tatiana987 @tatiana987

Thanks for the good laugh at the doctor who needed help understanding the birds and bees.

I have been to two second opinion docs, ( my PCP and a neurologist in the same office as the jerk who is ruining my summer). Both refused to sign my DMV paperwork. Both said I needed to get release from the neurologist who did this to me. All three docs work for Renown in Reno and that might be my problem. These doctors seem to view helping me as going against a fellow doctor, I think. And the original jerk doc does not answer my messages. Both of these two second opinion docs are female. The jerk doc is male.

The DMV form asks how long I have been their patient, so a completely new doctor from a different organization might be rejected by the DMV. Arg! I never thought medical care could be so harmful. Silly me!

I am really getting down over this insane control of my life. My mental health is suffering. Insomnia, anxiety, plain old sadness at my loss of freedom. I was kidnapped once and that was a similar feeling.

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Hmm, what about contacting your representative, either state or fed?

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1 reply
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hraka13 | @hraka13 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @jakedduck1 "@hraka13 if you live in California, don't expect the DMV to be in your corner. They..." + (show)
Profile picture for Jake @jakedduck1

@hraka13
if you live in California, don't expect the DMV to be in your corner. They are impossible to work with. When I told my attorney that he readily agreed telling me several different incidents where people who never should be allowed to drive again were given their license back and others that did something so significant it never should've been taken away had their license revoked.
Take care,
Jake

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Unfortunately, a lot of those people who shouldn’t be driving are due to alcohol abuse. My dad was one of them.
Sorry, not to stand on a soap box here. I live in Oregon and for several reasons never have had a license.

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2 replies
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tatiana987 | @tatiana987 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @hraka13 "Hmm, what about contacting your representative, either state or fed?" + (show)
Profile picture for hraka13 @hraka13

Hmm, what about contacting your representative, either state or fed?

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Hmm. I will have to think about that. I don’t immediately see the connection between the political figure and my situation. I believe (correctly?) that the difficult neurologist is following either Renown “protocols” or perhaps the “protocols” of neurologists in general. He used the word “protocols” in refusing to help me now. He said he would wait 3 months to consider. 3 months from what is unclear. Would it be from when I wrote my own diagnosis and gave it to the DMV? (mandatory volunteering to suspend license) Or from my last fainting in the heat? Or from when he told me he was taking my license?

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2 replies
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tatiana987 | @tatiana987 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @hraka13 "Unfortunately, a lot of those people who shouldn’t be driving are due to alcohol abuse. My..." + (show)
Profile picture for hraka13 @hraka13

Unfortunately, a lot of those people who shouldn’t be driving are due to alcohol abuse. My dad was one of them.
Sorry, not to stand on a soap box here. I live in Oregon and for several reasons never have had a license.

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How do you function without driving in this society? Or do you drive without a license?

I know Oregon a little bit. Two of my kids went to Oregon for college. (from Germany) We thought it would be a safe, beautiful way to gently get used to living in the USA. It was way more complicated than that.

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Jake | @jakedduck1 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @hraka13 "Unfortunately, a lot of those people who shouldn’t be driving are due to alcohol abuse. My..." + (show)
Profile picture for hraka13 @hraka13

Unfortunately, a lot of those people who shouldn’t be driving are due to alcohol abuse. My dad was one of them.
Sorry, not to stand on a soap box here. I live in Oregon and for several reasons never have had a license.

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@hraka13
My father was victim of a hit-and-run drunk driver.
My dad became a
C-5 complete quadraplegic (paralyzed from the neck down.) These people don't realize nor do I think care of the havoc/calamity they cause that lasts many years if their victims are fortunate enough to survive. I will never understand the stupidity of people who drink & drive.
Take care,
Jake

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1 reply
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tatiana987 | @tatiana987 | Jul 27, 2025
In reply to @jakedduck1 "@hraka13 My father was victim of a hit-and-run drunk driver. My dad became a C-5 complete..." + (show)
Profile picture for Jake @jakedduck1

@hraka13
My father was victim of a hit-and-run drunk driver.
My dad became a
C-5 complete quadraplegic (paralyzed from the neck down.) These people don't realize nor do I think care of the havoc/calamity they cause that lasts many years if their victims are fortunate enough to survive. I will never understand the stupidity of people who drink & drive.
Take care,
Jake

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That’s a sad story about yr Dad. It makes me think about our spiritual tasks during our lifetimes. Did he live a long time and become very wise?

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hraka13 | @hraka13 | Aug 5, 2025
In reply to @tatiana987 "How do you function without driving in this society? Or do you drive without a license?..." + (show)
Profile picture for tatiana987 @tatiana987

How do you function without driving in this society? Or do you drive without a license?

I know Oregon a little bit. Two of my kids went to Oregon for college. (from Germany) We thought it would be a safe, beautiful way to gently get used to living in the USA. It was way more complicated than that.

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I use public transportation, bicycle (less as I get older), carpool, walk, and take a taxi. I live close to work and shopping (on purpose). There’s bus service between counties that allows me to see my sister 90+ miles away for under $5 (each leg is 50 cents to $1). If I want to go to Portland for a show, the Amtrak bus is $17 each way.

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hraka13 | @hraka13 | Aug 5, 2025
In reply to @tatiana987 "Hmm. I will have to think about that. I don’t immediately see the connection between the..." + (show)
Profile picture for tatiana987 @tatiana987

Hmm. I will have to think about that. I don’t immediately see the connection between the political figure and my situation. I believe (correctly?) that the difficult neurologist is following either Renown “protocols” or perhaps the “protocols” of neurologists in general. He used the word “protocols” in refusing to help me now. He said he would wait 3 months to consider. 3 months from what is unclear. Would it be from when I wrote my own diagnosis and gave it to the DMV? (mandatory volunteering to suspend license) Or from my last fainting in the heat? Or from when he told me he was taking my license?

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Your representative might be able to help you navigate the DMV, but your doctor.
As far as your doctor is concerned, you may want a 2nd opinion, or even go to a diff clinic/hospital.

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methel | @methel | Aug 5, 2025
In reply to @tatiana987 "Hmm. I will have to think about that. I don’t immediately see the connection between the..." + (show)
Profile picture for tatiana987 @tatiana987

Hmm. I will have to think about that. I don’t immediately see the connection between the political figure and my situation. I believe (correctly?) that the difficult neurologist is following either Renown “protocols” or perhaps the “protocols” of neurologists in general. He used the word “protocols” in refusing to help me now. He said he would wait 3 months to consider. 3 months from what is unclear. Would it be from when I wrote my own diagnosis and gave it to the DMV? (mandatory volunteering to suspend license) Or from my last fainting in the heat? Or from when he told me he was taking my license?

Jump to this post

State laws vary on how they treat epilepsy. Some states relay on self-report. Others make it mandatory for the doctor to report you. Your doctor is probably following your state’s law.

How are you being treated? If the treatment is successful no matter what the eventual diagnosis, you will be able to drive again.

Driving without a license is a bad idea. I know someone who at 6 months pregnant had jail-time for driving without a license, no accident, no other crime, but the judge had had it.

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