Does anyone know what constitutes malpractice? Sorry for the longwinded story ...
Let me explain my situation. About 1 1/2 years ago I suddenly lost control of my left foot. I could not walk normally because of this. It turns out that I had "foot drop" which was caused by a buldging disk in my back pinching a nerve that controls my foot. This was diagnosed and I was scheduled for surgery. The surgeon performed L4/5 back surgery and removed about 3/4 of the disk. After 3 months the surgeon took me off vicodin and put me on motrin. He said the pain should eventually go away. After 2-3 months of being in pain (on motrin) I went back to complain that the pain was not going away and the motrin was not working. Over several months, the surgeon had me try several non-addictive pain meds, none seemed to work. We also tried cortazone which did work, but only worked for 1-2 weeks then wore off. Finally, he put me back on Norco and referred me to a pain management specialist.

After 4 weeks the the pain management specialist finally saw me and recomended tramadol. I said that I would rather take norco because I knew that it worked for me. She insisted that I try the tramadol and said that if it didn't work for me she would put me back on norco. After a few days on tramadol, I called her and told her that the tramadol helped, but I was still in pain and it sometimes gave me headaches. She made another appointment and gave me one RX for Norco and said that I would have to get refills from my primary care doctor and that she would contact him and that I should make an appointment with him.
She charged me over 600 bucks for this and as it turns out my insurance did not cover it. Her assistant had told me that I would be covered for this. I did nogotiate a fair paymet with them ...

Anyway, I made an appointment with my primary care doctor and when I got there she had not contacted him at all. I explained the situation to him and he gave me a prescription for several months.

(By the way, About 5 months after the surgery I started regaining my foot! My foot is fine now, but I have been in pain since the surgery! I had no pain before the surgery.) My primary care doctor didn't want to prescribe norco forever so I started getting it from DB.

Today something very starange happened. I stood up at work and I could not walk. I had lost the control of my foot again. I sat down and in a few minutes my foot started working again. I called the surgeion right away and he saw me that evening. After I explained what had happened, he said I probably just had the circulation cut off temprarily. I told him that this was different because if my foot "fell asleep" I could still move it. He looked at me like I was lying or something. I asked hime what if it happens again ... he said he could give me a shot for inflamation (Strange .. if my foot fell asleep, why give me a shot for inflamation!?!)

He also asked me what meds I was taking and I told hme that my primary care Dr. was giving me Norco but I am now only taking tramadol (which is true, I get norco from DB now.) I don't know why he asked this, I didn't come in for pain and I did not ask him for pain meds. I also told hime that I was scheduled at a UCSF to hopefully undergo treatment for to remove the scar tissue at the surgical site that is probably causing the pain.

It seems to me that he has done everything NOT TO TREAT MY PAIN, and now I finally think I've figured out why. He does not want to admit liability!!! I'm wondering if I have a case for malpractice. Whan I first saw this guy he never mentioned that fact that I might be in permanent pain after the surgery. I never thaught of it because I was not in pain before the surgery. He only mentioned the slight possiblity od HIV or Hep if I lost blood during the surgery. He also mentioned that I may not regain use of my foot. That's it.

Can I sue this guy because I now have chronic pain due to his surgery?

Thanks,
- Daniel