N101CS, lena, and others,

I too have worried about being "on the record" with regard to involving my GP and hence my insurance about my disease of alcoholism. This despite being a state employee of North Carolina, USA, whose insurance carrier (Blue Cross Blue Shield) has just managed to discriminate against users of tobacco and against folks with BMI's above 40. I am niether, but worry about alcohol being next.

I have also worried about the discussions on this site as providing a time-stamped record of my struggles. I currently include an email address in my profile that could easily be used to indentify me.

For the record. I involved my General Practitioner and my insurance company when seeking treatment for my disease of alcoholism, with the Good Faith expectation that the medical adivice I received would provide benifits to my health.

-wort

wort -- The email is not displayed in your profile. The "email" button is linked to the address you provide, but the address itself is not displayed. As long as you do not reply directly to any email you receive, the address will remain undisclosed.

Protecting your private information is the main reason N101CS has declined many offers of tech help. Only he (not even moderators) has access to information that you do not choose to display and he treats this responsibility with the grave concern it merits.

I occasionally go through my posts to be sure I haven't disclosed to much personal info in order to maintain anonymity. Some on here have chosen to disclose plenty of identifying information. On the other hand, sometimes I wonder whether some posters grasp the possible surrender of privacy that comes with disclosing certain things. Anyone who has concerns can always go back and edit their profile and their own posts.

Wort,

You should be concerned about posting personal information on this forum. Anything you post here could be indexed by google and viewed by anyone. Just don't post anything personal or anything about your true identity. For example, my name certainly isn't ~Q~. As long as you post under an alias like this, it is nearly impossible to identify you by what you post here.

As for email, it is never good internet practice to use your regular email address when submitting anything over the internet or when signing up for things (sure there are exceptions). Get a gmail or hotmail account instead -- both are free and easy.

As for your GP and health insurance, you are taking a MAJOR MAJOR gamble talking to your GP about your condition and then claiming it on your insurance. I've posted on this topic previously, as I was bit big time by it (do a search and read about what I ran into). My suggestion to you is to stop talking to your Dr about doing TSM and stop getting the medication from him. Instead, get your meds from what of the trusted online pharmacies. I use all day chemist. While on the TSM, there really is no need to involve you GP unless your have a bunch of other medical conditions. TSM isn't rocket science and it is very safe. You just take a pill before you drink. That's it.

Good luck

Q

Question: I'm already screwed: I talked to my doctor about TSM, asked for a prescription of naltrexone and got it through my doctor. Thanks to Barack, hopefully this pre-existing condition won't screw me in the future. Political points aside, here is my question. The cat is already out of the bag as I've already gotten naltrexone from my doctor. Is there any benefit to me now, to stop using my doctor -- and getting the naltrexone online -- or is it too late? BTW, my naltrexone only costs $14 for 30 tablets with insurance.

I welcome anyone's thoughts in this matter.

Thanks.

Nick,

I don't think it's too late. I'd go into your Dr, stop your prescription, and ask him what he's put in your medical record. This is very important as the codes and notes they put in there is what tags you as a person who went through "Alcohol Treatment." Once you are branded with this, "The System" sees you as an alcoholic for the rest of your life. At a minimum, you want to "Officially" get off the Nal. If someone queries your medical records an you still have an active prescription for Nal, then you are going to be viewed as still being treated.

Getting Nal from an online source is cheap and easy. Cost of 30 tablets of Nal from Alldaychemist is about $50 plus shipping. I ordered 90 of them a couple months ago and go them in about 2 weeks.

Q

Nick, ~Q~, lena, All,

For an interesting perspective, see Daffyd's post.

Now that I am outed, I share his point of view. I am pretty sure that now that I have obtained naltrexone and baclofen under insurance, then there is absolutely no way this can be undone. I am also reasonably sure that terminating my insurance support would not make the records go away.

And, yes nick, Obama has done us a huge favor.

-wort

Hi,

I’m not sure how relevant this is, but the use of your credit card is likely monitored by the issuing company. Call BEFORE making an international purchase.

From what I have seen, once you visit a doctor and have any procedure performed, any scrip written, any diagnosis at all, it will be in your medical record.

Wort, I agree that we have finally seen something positive in the health care conundrum. I’m reading too much about it to make my final decision on who will benefit at this hour. Hopefully, all of us.

Call me nuts, but I’m just happy to live in a world where I can spout off now and again.

Best to all,
mermaid

Just my opinion -- My impression is that, once you go to a doctor for naltrexone, or whatever other drug for treatment, I would think you'd be better off seeing it through and, once you have progress, making it VERY CLEAR to your MD that yes indeed you are cured, and you want that in your record. If you have already gone to an MD for an unconventional alcoholism treatment, and do not return, IMO the doctor will be very certain to cover his/her ass and document that you never returned for followup as advised. This could only make things worse.

bob3d is an example of this. His prescribing psychiatrist went to bat for him over the Fla. DMV fiasco.

Again, these are things we all must decide for ourselves. But it helps to think it through together.

**deleted duplicate post**

I dont quite get this. I have private health insurance (here you are not obliged to have health insurance) from once you have been insured by any company for more than 6 months you are covered for any medical procedure and another company is obliged to take you on and even if you you didnt meet this ciriteria you are covered under the health board. I see a lot of posts about the USA system and dont get it, as in how can anyone know what health issue they will suffer from and isnt that why there is insurance in the first place?