As bad as some of my experiences have been with docs in Miss., at least we have recently gotten a new doc in our tiny little Mayberry town who is from Michigan and IS brilliant and DOES believe in treating pain. My husband has been able to stop seeing two different specialists in towns an hour away, and when hospitalized this year this doc enabled him to stay those 6 days at our little local hospital, thereby saving him being an hour or more away. One block from home vs. my driving back and forth all that way. This physician initially came here to work through a Christian organization for the needy here (we have one of the highest poverty/minority rates in the state), then miraculously opened a practice and I was amazed to see how quick he was to rx my husband for pain. Unfortunately, at this time he isn't my primary, as I DO have to see a cancer specialist an hour away, but it is good to know that with all these uncaring docs in Mississippi, any time I am home and in need now, this doc I've mentioned WILL be there for me for pain management, and

even makes house calls!

Otherwise, most people I know who have serious CP issues go to Louisiana or Alabama. I was visiting another part of the state recently and everyone there said the docs had never heard of - or claimed not to have - methadone as a pain treatment option, and that CPers down there flock to La. in droves.

Last summer, we lost a good local doc who was a friend of ours. He visited us one afternoon before leaving, explaining to us how the malpractice insurance requirements here had forced him to have to leave. He ultimately relocated to another state. He also told us that, with the way the regulatory agencies hover over their shoulders these days, he had been heartbroken at times over the feeling that he could not adequately treat pain in his (mostly) geriatric patients, and that he had moments of wanting to just chuck it all and move to some other country altogether where he could "treat" patients and not satisfy the gov't. Take that for what it's worth, came right out of this doc's mouth.

I do realize that this is an issue that isn't limited to one state, but really, Mississippi does seem to have more than our share of stingy docs - I say this after having lived in other states, so I can make this comparison based on personal experience. I do know that since living here, I have personally seen many events that mirror some of the heartbreaking stories in FFairy's initial post.