After trying anti-inflammatory and pain medication for 7 - 10 days with no relief, my doctor refereed me to TOA and the meat market nightmare began! I f saw Dr. Ledbetter. I explained what had happen and the symptoms I had been having and what medications I was given and he suggested an MRI and refereed me to TOA. What I got was an x-ray of my shoulder and a different anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxers and told to come back in 7 - 10 days. cha-ching! Came back was told I had sprang my shoulder and now I was getting an x-ray on my neck and told this would not show the muscle or the nerves just the bone. I ask about doing the MRI, I was told that was considered invasive and they preferred to do the x-rays, Cha-ching! Send away again with more prescriptions and waited. Came back, the x-ray didn't show everything and now I needed an MRI! So I was went down stairs with my referral paper and scheduled the MRI. So now I have had 3 visits with the orthopedic doctor to now be refereed to the specialist. When He ask the same questions I begin to tell him what happen to me. When I tell him this happens after a night at work, he looks at my chart and tells me I have excellent private insurance that will pay and while I could prove it was work related it would be hard and I had nothing to worry about because I had insurance. Later found out by a receptionist that doctors don't like to change things from private insurance to workers comp because of all the red tape and hassle they have to go through from refunding the monies back to the insurance and waiting on comp to pay, thats nice for them, but what about the human being they swore an oath too! Screw that, they get paid! Cha-ching! So he sees me and tells me I need therapy, guess what else they offer in the building, therapy. I end up picking therapy close to home and the staff was great, no problem at all. I do the therapy and come back in 2 weeks as instructed by the doctor. I return and he explains now I am going for an epidural injection in my neck. I am told by him and the coordinator that I will be put to sleep and given instructions. I arrive (by the way its in the same building) wait an hour and a half past my scheduled time, and was told I would be under a local because this was dangerous and Dr. Ladoux would need me to tell him what I was feeling! This was a horrible experience. patients are lined up like cattle! Dr. Ladoux actually passed me up and the nurse had to tell him he was with the wrong patient. So I wait the 2 weeks and return to Dr. Shimbayama, who by the way prescribes a lower dose pain medication, which is his standard dose than I was originally taking. The only relief I got from the injection was the numbness in my thumb had gone and pain in my arm wasn't as intense as originally I had experienced. The MRI had shown I had a herniated disc that had calcified (told was about 6 months old) and another below it that was impending on the nerves in my spinal cord, which Dr. Shimbayama said my symptoms I had described were classic. So why all the other test, well, cha-ching! I explained to him that the next week after the injection the headaches had gotten worse and at first I attributed them to stress but had been waking up with them, he explained that the injection or the disc could be causing them. I told him I had taking more of the pain medication and in between doses had taken excedrin to try and get relief. He explained that with the increase in muscle weakness and the pain I was still having he recommended surgery. My husbands work requires a form to be filled out in order for him to use time if requested in an emergency. My income isn't coming in and we have a child and normal financial responsibilities that everyone else has now days. When the coordinator calls 3 days later, I explain I am waiting on this form. I call the nurse asking for refill on pain med and I had explained to Shimbayama about taking more because of headaches and pain but once the topic of surgery came up, I was narrow focused on what this meant to my situation personally and to my family. She tells me that maybe my headaches are stress related from work, I explain to her I am off work and what the doctor said. She then reads my chart and says she will ask and call me back. This is the second time in over 3 months of dealing with this that I have ever called for a refill on my medication early. When she calls back I am told that because I haven't scheduled my surgery, the doctor would not refill my meds early. I explain to her the situation with the form and I had explained it to the coordinator. Either I could see pain management or schedule surgery. I argued, not wanting pills for life! Next day was discharged for not taking meds properly. Pain med was 4 days to early! Wonder how much was due to the fact was going to turn into work comp & he needed a reason to get out? The ladies up front were great but the medical staff, they know cha-ching! read more