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Back Pain And Went To Urgent Care......told Back Pain Due To Constipation

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yelloownumber5

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Hello,

1. We just returned from the VAMC Urgent care and I have a few questions and maybe crazy or have high expectations.

The first question. The room I was put in at urgent care had a lot of ants. I did not see them until the doctor told me but they were on the side of me as in not in the corner at the wall or under a deck. I was not in a r00m with a bed but in a chair and literally like 6 inches from my foot were a darn tribe of ants and then a line of ants toward the front of the chair. The person that put me in the room did not see them, I did not see them, the nurse did not see them but the doctor when he came in made a comment but nobody came to clean them up. My wife and twenty month old daughter came to the room after about 1 1/2 hours later after I had xrays and my wife said OMG ants on your feet, so they were killed, lol.

I asked if we could change rooms b/c of the ants, the guy put us in the next room over on the same side and he went in the room with a yellow bottow which I assume is "raid" and talked about needing to call the exterminator in the morning.

I did take pics and videos of this because it was like a lot of ants and they started running over my feet not that I could feel them but my wife told me, To me that is just nasty to me, the ants looked to be eating something on the floor that was stepped on.

Anyhow, who can I forward this info to outside of the local and regional VA here and would that be acceptable or just too much?

2. My back (lumbar or PGP) I went to UC because I could not get out of bed, could not walk, have fallen probably 20 times in the last two days as this just came out of no where but I have reported lumbar issues and use a tens, meds tramadol and muscle relaxer flexural.I have never hugged the wall in my life but being unable to stand up I learned. My pain to me feels like PGP (pelvic girdle pain) or maybe an annular tear.

My UC Doctor seemed really good but even though I told him of my past back historyand the current issues like my left nut felt like it was going to explode he felt I had kidney stones or something else so Xrays, blood work and urine test went on.

All came back negative but as I told him, no bowel movement in the last 48 hours and the xray showed me backed up which he gave me something to release the bowels. He did not want to give me a pain med because I am constipated and it will make it "worse", so I did not get any pain relief even as he acknowledged my pain level and my attempts to walk and get up.

The kicker and insult to me was my "Diagnosis: Constipation" The doctor said he felt the constipation is causing my back pain. Constipation was not what I came in for, this can be a symptom of what is wrong but they did not do a MRI or Xray on my spine. I do know that Saddle anesthesia or cauda equina syndrome can cause constipation but constipation is a symptom of something not a cause or I might really be crazy can someone help me with this. Also, is there something I can file in my record about my severe lumbar pain vs. constipation.

Oh but look. My nurse went looking for me and this was actually ONE room next to the ant room, nothing closed but she went back up to the front with my script and said "he already left, there's nobody in room XX, he must not have had back pain after all, my wife just shook her head as I could not even drive. Someone even put in morphine for me but I never received it b/c it can constipate me even more and I know this but my back pain is still my first problem as I cannot even get out of bed by myself the the flexerall and tramadol my pcp prescribes for me.

I'm unsure if this site will let you upload videos but I can try in the AM

Thanks and sorry for a dumb post but I appreciate any insight.

YelloowNumber 5

Edited by yelloownumber5
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Both Tramadol and Flexerall have constipation as a known side-effect. This does not diminish the fact that your urgent care visit, really did not address your accute pain and temporary debilitation. However, it is entirely possible that the physician thought the present constipation was creating the problem. He/They also had a reasonable set of medical facts to explain the constipation (two medicines that are known to cause constipation). Do you have a scheduled follow up with your primary care physician?

I understand your frustration with getting the VA to do helpful diagnostic tests, you would think that MRI's are prohibatively expensive. What is even more troubling is we are considering lobbing hundreds of cruise missles into Syria at a million point five a pop, it is viewed as a reasonable expense, but practicing the BEST medicine for veterans is a non-starter.

I think all politicians and thier appointees in the federal government should be required to use VA care. The clinics for that care will be populated with staff doctors from all VAMC's on rotating TDY orders. If it is good enough for us, it should be good enough for them!

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Do you have other insurance? ER medical care is pretty bad everywhere but VA on a holiday weekend must the worst. I got admitted to mental health unit on a Friday one time via the ER, and I did not see a doctor until Monday. I was really climbing the walls. I had an anxiety attack. I don't go to ER now unless I am bleeding.

John

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I would think the urgent care doctor was not a specialist. I would expect they scheduled a follow up with primary or a back specialist. If they schedule a follow up with the primary then the primary should schedule a rehab or ortho or pain clinic appt. I have been through this several time for both upper and lower back flares. If no follow up was scheduled I would contact the primary doc and ask to come in ASAP. If problems continue with getting treatment talk to the patient advocate.

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Hoppy is right, see the PT Advocate and if that doesn't help, see the director of the VA there, if that doesn't help tell the IG about the ants (to get their attention) and tell them about the results of whatever the UC did do for you......I put IG contact info here and it is found under a search. At least it will

provide documentation of what happened to you.But I dont know what the IG will do about this at all.

But has the constipation been resolved by now?

THIS concerns me:

"Someone even put in morphine for me but I never received it b/c it can constipate me even more"

Do you mean someone wrote a script for it, and the pharmacy prepared it, but you have not picked it up? Is that why you didnt "receive" it?

Mention that to the IG too if you need to contact them.

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