I’m hoping someone can help with missing medical records. Apologies for the long post.
I’ve had issues with my shoulder / neck / hip since 2007. I had shoulder surgery in 2008 and the problem worsened and the following year I was diagnosed with CRPS and hyper mobile ED in addition to bursitis in my shoulder and hip.
Since then I’ve had additional diagnosis of ulna nerve neuropathy at the axilla, damage to the brachial plexus and bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome.
I’ve had steroid injections, nerve blocks, radio frequency ablation, nerve condition tests plus a lot of physio and some acupuncture. I’ve tried a cocktail of drugs including co-codomal, tramadol, morphine patches, lidocaine patches, amytriptilne, duloxetane, pregabalin, gabapentin, zopiclone and oxycodone. One specialist suggested I need tapentadol if symptoms weren’t controlled but this is no longer on my record.
I moved in Dec’22 and had to change practice and have now found out they have no copy of any records before Dec’22. I’m 50 so the first 49 years of my life are missing!!
I really need copies of the records including specialist reports. I’ve recently been referred to a pain management clinic & they insist I have a 9 month history of pain rather than 17 years. I’ve explained my history as best I can but they disagree with some of what I’ve said despite the diagnosis being made following MRI scans and being made by rheumatologists, neurologists and pain management specialists. The issue is I can’t prove anything and the new GP says I have a 9 month history.
They want me to have physio but I’ve explained I had this before but it was stopped. The physio had concerns it was making things worse and the specialist agreed and stopped it. This is due to CRPS which is also why any more invasive procedures will be decided upon very carefully due to risk of making the condition worse. The pain clinic physio says this treatment is my only option for support.
Im currently taking co-codomal and pregabalin which isn’t controlling the pain and they suggested taking tramadol for a while to get things under control. While I took this in the past, I had a reaction to it, and my old GP took me off it immediately saying they’d mark my record as having an allergy. This is obviously not available to any doctor now as the records are missing.
In addition to this I had severe kidney infections several years ago which is not recorded. The GP had said any more issues and I’d need to see a specialist. I also had a few minor illnesses none of which show.
Interestingly, what is on my record is a booking for a follow up with an oncologist despite me not having cancer or any symptoms of cancer / investigations into cancer. I was called about this and they insisted it was for me and a follow up after completing treatment. Once I’d explained I’ve never had cancer treatment they said it would be removed but it’s still there months later. This could affect any critical illness or travel claim if I was unlucky enough to have this diagnosis in the future.
In the immediate future, I’ve asked to see my employers OH department as I’m struggling at work due to the pain. I’m meeting them early next month but I know they’ll ask my GP for my medical history. Which of course is incomplete.
I’ll call my GP practice about this on Monday but has anyone experience of this? Did they find your notes? If so how long did it take? If not then what on earth do I do?