User profile: newsjunkie356

Northsider:

I am NOT "doctor shopping" and never have. I have always strictly followed the legal guidelines for Schedule II meds (I know you'll have to look the term up, sorry, but that's the price of your having a double digit IQ).

My wife has seen Dr. Buckwalter multiple times and he never prescribed narcotics to her nor did he offer to. We also know other people who've seen him and liked him and didn't report any untoward behavior.

To reiterate: you have no idea of what your talking about.

He's a good man and a good doctor and, in this country, as you are obviously unfamiliar with Anglo-American jurisprudence, one is innocent until proven guilty!

And btw, 725 pills in a month is by no means out of line. One medication I took required 350 pills a month. It isn't the amount of pills, it's the STRENGTH.

As I said, you have ZERO idea of what you're talking about.

You can't handle the fact your niece was a worthless dope fiend who killed herself like a fool and simply lashing out at the doctor.

No wonder so many doctors are leaving medicine. With people like you around, it simply isn't worth practicing anymore--as so many MDs/ODs have told me.

Northsider:

So now you're threatening to assault me? What is your malfunction? Internet punk syndrome?

I've seen so many chumps like you online: threatening people when you know you'll never be held responsible for it. If you threatened me to my face you'd be committing assault, earning yourself a trip to CCDC. But you don't have the stones to say it to my face--and never will.

What a pathetic waste of human space you are.

I NEVER said I was doctor. I was a pharmacy tech in another state.

AND IT'S YOU WHO HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT:

1.) Only first degree relatives have standing to sue; since it's YOUR IQ that is in serious question, I'll define First Degree relative for you (sorry for all the hours you'll spend with your dictionary looking up the polysyllabic words).

First Degree relatives: spouse, parent, sibling. PERIOD.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, second cousins eight times removed do NOT have said standing--as I'm sure all the lawyers you called looking to make bucks off your niece's death told you.

2.) The use of Marijuana for MEDICAL purposes in the State of Nevada IS COMPLETELY LEGAL. You've probably only lived here for 5 minutes (like 90% of the population), but I've been here a long time I voted for the Ballot Question that made Medical Marijuana LEGAL!!!

3.) IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOUR NIECE THAT MAKE LIFE MUCH HARDER FOR REAL PAIN PATIENTS. Because of addicts like her, patients with a genuine need for narcotics are forced to take drug tests and are viewed with suspicion if they have to go to an ER or physician not familiar with their case history.

So I have ZERO sympathy for ADDICTS who are STUPID enough to get themselves killed. They should buy a gun and end it that way and stop causing needless problems and exacerbating the pain of REAL patients.

And...

...it's just that simple!

4. Try doing a little research before making a complete idiot out of yourself; if that's possible. Which I doubt.

And I'm not going to disclose ANY private, personal details about my illness or the meds I may or may not have been prescribed simply to satisfy your prurient interest in other people's business.

Like the song says, "Don't go away mad, girl, just go away."

And, northsider...

there's no reason to insult me. I haven't stooped to that level and there's no reason you should.

It's YOU who owe ME an apology.

(But no matter: I've been called been worse by better. ;o)

You don't know me and have no basis on which to slander me.

I'm a trained medical professional and know whereof I speak. I was also trained to spot addicts.

There's a long history of addiction and alcoholism in my family; my grandfather died driving drunk. My brother was a meth addict for years (10 years clean and a computer programmer). And, if one includes my wife's family, there's an even longer and deeper history. One of my brothers-in-law is a homeless junkie on the streets of Vegas right now.

I know the pain that addiction causes all too closely. So I am not without sympathy. But the addict is ultimately the responsible party. To reiterate, getting a fix/drink/hit is--and ALWAYS will be--a choice.

@Northside:

My condition was diagnosed by a board-certified, nationally renowned specialist in my particulary illness. I've suffered from my condition my ENTIRE adult life and I went more than a DECADE without access to adequate--or, often, any--pain control. So I'm not apologizing to ANYONE for finally getting relief from a disease that has literally ruined my life.

Don't hold your breath for an apology, it won't be coming. As an aunt/uncle you have no standing to sue so my comment about relatives capitalizing on tragedy DOES NOT apply 2 you.

And give me a break: everyone knows how litigious this society has become. What's the first thing so many people do when they are injured or a loved one is killed? They find an ambulance chaser to make as much cash as they can.

And quite frankly the ultimate responsibility for the tragedy lies with your niece. No one forced her to take so many meds that she OD'd. Addiction is a CHOICE. No one and nothing forces ANYONE to pop a pill, shoot a balloon of heroin, snort a line of coke, take a drink, etc.

Regardless of ANY doctor's actions, the ultimate responsibility lies with the patient. And...

...it's just that SIMPLE.

With the internet, all the information anyone could ever want is at one's fingertips! Don't own/can't afford a computer? There are cybercafes and libraries (and friends!) thru which one can access the Net.

My central point stands: Buckwalter's ALLEGED behavior with your niece and with me are wildly incongruous. I think we can both agree on that at least.

It's as tho' we're talking about 2 different MDs.

A guy who wouldn't even discuss a LEGAL marijuana prescription and would only write me Vicodin* is suddenly handing out pills like another doctor I could name but won't.

It just doesn't jive.

I'm going to discuss him with my pain specialist and see what the word is amongst local doctors--not just from a story in the Red Sun.

However, if it's proved that Dr. Buckwalter broke the law then he should suffer the consequences. But only four ODs is hardly an epidemic. My own pain specialist has had two ODs in the last year alone and he's scrupulous down to his fingertips. A correlation is not a cause.

If it were 40 or 400 or 4000, it would be different.

*(which is like jellybeans on the scale of painkillers; it's a semi-synthetic codeine analogue and thus quite weak, to use the technical term, I am a trained pharmacy tech and thus know of what I speak).

I was a patient of Dr. Buckwalter's, last seeing him 3 or 4 years ago. I am also a chronic pain patient; my condition has been verified by a specialist.

This rush to judgment smells a lot more like a witch-hunt driven by the greed of relatives eager to make $$$$ off their addicted relations' deaths.

IN MY EXPERIENCE WITH DR. BUCKWALTER...

I asked Dr. Buckwalter to write prescriptions for Oxycontin & another med for breakthru pain.

Instead of doing so, he referred me to a pain specialist. He also wrote me a script for LorTab to "tide me" over until I could get into to see the specialist.

During the course of this conversation HE DID PERFORM A PHYSICAL EXAMINATION ON ME in addition to the one his staff had done (who had weighed me, taken bp, pulse, temp, etc).

I also discussed a marijuana prescription (perfectly legal in this state, as is well known) with him which he flatly refused to sign, citing fears that the DEA would "pull [his] license". He was clearly uncomfortable even talking about the subject.

He could have just as easily--and quite legally--prescribed the medications to me without any worries because, as I noted above, I have proof of my need for these powerful medicines.

Or, were he truly a crooked doctor, he could have just as easily said to me, "Hey, Newsjunkie, we can cut thru all the hassle and for X amount dollars I'll write whatever you want." And I HAVE had similar experiences (to this hypothetical example) with other local pain specialists who wrote me ANYTHING for which I asked.

One local specialist did write me anything I requested--as long as my insurance was reimbursing him at a high rate ($110 for visits usually lasting 10 min or less); once the insurance cut the reimbursement to $42 per visit, this other doctor (NOT Buckwalter, to reiterate) instantly began to demand that I have unnecessary and extremely expensive tests performed or, he said, I would be "cut off" (an exact quote!).

Dr. Buckwalter, on the other hand, NEVER behaved in any untoward or illegal manner. Nor did he ever exhibit behavior one sees in pill mills (as I described above).

I think these "out of state" doctors--who I doubt are familiar with NV law since these laws tend to vary greatly by state--so they are doing little more than Monday-morning quarterbacking (probably to get their names in the paper; perhaps Dr. Trescot is thinking of abandoning the muggy h*ll of FL for our sunny, dry clime?).

Bottom line: I don't believe the accusations against Dr. Buckwalter. However, I think some kind of hearing is in order; as long as there is due process (and an appeal to prevent arbitrary action by the various agencies involved) in the proceeding, I have no issue, based on the bare facts, with the medical board and others, conducting and investigation and if the board (and a court) decide he should temporarily be suspended from prescribing narcotics, then so be it.