Chronic Pain Thoughts: Volume 30

 Dear Reader,

I used to face the frustration of trying to get something, anything to help relieve my pain. I was subject to drug testing; pill counts and audits of the pharmacies I picked up ANY medications from. If I was prescribed anything from any other doctor or given treatment in a hospital setting, I had to make sure to contact my provider to report it.

I was given something (I don't remember exactly what medication) from a Hip Laprel Tear surgery I had, I had reported the surgery thinking they would figure out I wasn't taking the medication they prescribed but the new pain medication from the surgery. That medication was filled twice, and I was grilled about it at an appointment. I felt like a criminal who had actually done something wrong, not a chronic pain patient that had gone through a surgery.

I've been cut off due to “Pill counts” which were never actually off. Once I even verified with the pharmacy how many pills I should have left, they checked my records and I was spot on, yet the doctor's office decided I was 8 pills short. They were awful to deal with and I had to call them to even get the information, the nurse was terrible, and I was again treated like a criminal vs a person who is in chronic pain.

In the last 10 years I have been a pin cushion (Injections upon Injections), refused pain medications when the one I was taking wasn't really working, dropped from providers, put in dangerous situations due to medications, told to “just stop taking” things that shouldn't be just stopped and have been gas-lite more times than I can recall.

I watch the news, read the news and follow the police scanners on Facebook. There are so many OD's and so many fake pain medications on the market. Some people wonder how someone can get so hooked, not me, I understand.

When the Sakler Family and the Oxycontin scandal went down, policies were changed, and chronic pain patients took the burnt. People were cut off and some felt they had no choice but to turn to the street, not only for their pain but now for their withdrawal.

This article talks about just this very thing. It's really about time the media is keeping up and getting things straight.

“The ill and disabled suffer the most. Virtually all patients who have diseases or chronic pain conditions will say that the emergency department is the single worst place to go for relief from severe pain. Doctors and hospitals are often more concerned about law enforcement looking over their shoulders than patient care. Patients desperate for pain relief often turn to street drugs, where they fall victim to counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl (or worse) instead of a legal opioid.”

I personally went to the CDC in regard to their “Policies” for doctors and they clapped back with their updates. They also stated that “All people deserve access to safe and effective pain control”, yet doctors are still scared.

We all know that the illegal drug trade will never go away, as long as there is money to be made it will go on. We will still have OD's and Rehabs BUT my hope is that more articles like this come out the more the FDA, CDC and everyone in between will start to understand the actual problem.

If Opiates Are Killing Americans, Why Won't the FDA Let Us Try an Alternative? (msn.com)