He was 50 and he told me right up front, “I need more of the medications the other doctors give me.  You can just renew them for me; that is why I am here.”

That’s probably the second most common thing a patient says to me.  The most common is, “Why didn’t my other doctors tell me that?” No, I don’t just renew prescriptions, I explained to him.  I told him that I need to get to know my patients, so that I can make sure that I give them the correct medications.

“I don’t want you to do that,” he said to me.  “All the other doctors just give me renewals.” I told him I didn’t much care, that was not how I worked, and if he wanted renewals he would have to tell me how he was doing. Read more on Self-Medicating On Pot And Booze As A Life Plan…