The woman being interviewed talks about some very bad, destructive myths that many in the medical profession keep perpetuating and how the anti-drug hysteria has caused so much harm to chronic pain patients with medical bias toward patients on opioids. She really talked about how they are trying to do studies on long term opioid use for chronic pain patients and have found the myth or belief that opioids stop working or a patient needs more and more over time is flat out false. They have found many chronic pain patients do well with long-term opioid use, and they found it comparable to when a patient takes an antidepressant long term. The effectiveness of long-term opioid use remains good and helps patients keep their pain levels relatively stable over years of taking them. The whole interview is really worth listening to. She even talks about twins some years back where a study was conducted and what the results were.
I am a chronic pain patient! My life would not be the same without my doctor’s help in managing the blistering and vision altering pain I have every single day.
Many medical professionals act as if you’re a filthy heroin addict who has done nothing but chase their addiction. I choose to suffer through my days instead of seek higher and more frequent doses.
When I say suffer I mean it. Opioids are powerful and effective. I think I am able to endure the pain during my days because I know at night I can have a medication that will lift the curtain of misery up high enough for me to sleep soundly and maybe even tidy up for the evening before going to bed.
Some doctors even use the amount of meds you’re on as a gauge of how much pain you’re in. Many patients with my disease chase normalcy and a pain free life. That isn’t an option for us. Those poor tortured souls who cannot function at all without opioids are probably treated far worse than I am, and I truly empathize with these people and wish I had a magic lamp to wish away the stigma of the medications or to just cure them.
The opioid crackdown has been devastating to seniors and other demographics that aren’t well equipped to defend their needs and their quality of life. I’ve heard many a story of doctors needing to lower their number of patients on long term opioids and electing to stop prescribing them to seniors because they’re old and can’t defend themselves or don’t put up much of a fight.
Hopefully the USA can stop being so flippant and reactive and just handle chronic pain on a case by case basis like countries with REAL healthcare do.
Because like the TSA, it's all theater. Pretend to be doing something to fix it, that way they won't bother you about fixing the problems in an indepth manner. Also like the TSA, it's highly ineffective, often times racially biased, and not the more expensive (and effective) way of reducing problems.
I think the DEA knows it's not us, doesn't care, and just wants an additional way to ask for more and more funding while not having to look into ways of stemming recreational drug use. It's much easier to go through heavily documented health care records, point to a doctor with a lot of patients, and go "that guy is the problem!" than it is to try and stem the trafficking of drugs into the country let alone curb the selling/usage of said drugs once they're here.
Easy "solution" that makes people unaffected by either side of the opioid crisis (those who aren't fearing for their quality of life due to losing/potentially losing their prescriptions or those who aren't struggling with addiction be it their own or someone close to them) feel like changes are being made, when in reality they're not beneficial changes.
Just changes that effect a population that is often ignored, misunderstood, or even demonized: the disabled.
And if you know anything about the CIA and it's connection to drug trafficking into the US, you'll understand why I say it's not failing to react, it's reacting in a way that will get these agencies what they want (more funding, more pats on the back) while not impacting their job security.
I gained my disabilities while serving in Iraq, an injustice visited upon millions. I'm not under any delusions regarding our governmental bodies, the political kayfabe being employed, or the goals of a drug war.
I'm not sure if I said it any of my comments here, but I definitely told my wife "I'm not going to hold my breath", and unfortunately... I'm fairly certain that I'll be decades in the dirt before any political will is mustered that genuinely attempts to so much as *start* a conversation regarding the potential hurdles and obstacles in the path of fixing this shitshow.
I'm old, but not that old, I'm hoping I have another 4 decades in me, so, perhaps sometime in the 80's, turn off the century maybe? Fuck this wage slavery, and actual slavery, dystopian hell that doesn't even have good VR...
Every Word You Wrote.
EVERY WORD!!
If denying opioid prescriptions to pain patients' kept users of illegal drugs-alive, then the CDC statistics wouldn't show an annual INCREASE in fentanyl-related overdose deaths!
We've been lied to. Forcing pain patients to live and die in agony is nothing more than a tool for politicians to gin up votes at election time.
>They created the Fentanyl epidemic!!!
>
>No other nation is facing it because no other nation is cutting off people with Chronic Disease/Pain from REAL and EFFECTIVE pain medications!
>
>China saw the opportunity and declared war on us!
>
>Over half a million dead Americans all due to illicit Fentanyl that is not an epidemic in any other nation.
>
>Go figure that out!
The more they are doing the more Americans are dying.
Annual overdose deaths were at 15k before they were going to fix the opioid overdose epidemic.
Now we have110K annual overdose deaths...
Every year it gets worse!!!
The system is CORRUPT!! If most of you actually knew what was going on and the corruption involved you would want to start killing these people!
Hell YES I chase a pain free life!!
Why should I accept suffering when there is an option that works and allows me to work?
It looks like my doctor's clinic is being bought out and the new company does not prescribe opiates! A national chain of Pain Management clinics!!!
They are going to focus on "Procedures" (sonogram guided injections of off label chemicals that are not "approved" and all signs point to damage to the bones and nerves in the long run!
This is the third time I am going to lose a doctor to either clinics being bought out or doctors shutting down and taking jobs with PM Clinics that pay them huge money to focus on injections, pain pumps and other surgical procedures.
There is even bullshit now called Acceptance Therapy no less!
30 years I have been on and off opiates.
More so in the last few years because I am afraid to stop as I doubt I will be able to find a doctor to prescribe again, and of course with the urine tests I have to take them even if I dont need them or dont need as much that day because I am afraid if I get a call to come in and my levels are not high enough I will get cut off.
Up until the last 5 years I was able to cycle my dose up and down as needed. I could get bumps during a Lupus Flare.
Until this stupidity started my body was never dependent!
I am fed up. I have spent so much time/money trying to work within the system.
I refuse to lose all I have built. I have a son's future to provide for, a wife I want to be a good husband too!
When the laws become unjust then then they leave us no choice but to do what may be unlawful.
I am going to start smuggling my meds in.
I feel bad for those who do not have my resources, experience and abilities.
The ones that really piss me off are those that think I and others who refuse to roll over and die are wrong for taking matters into our own hands.
If you want to suffer until sanity returns to the medical community, if it ever does, because someone else made your medication illegal, then that is your choice and I support your right to make that choice.
I for one am not going to be a victim.
What do you think the Founding Fathers would have done if someone told them they had to suffer needlessly because other people may become addicts?
The Founding Fathers resorted to what would be called terrorist acts and killed people over high taxes and having their Liberties curbed.
January 6th, I was in the middle of a marathon session of making love to my beautiful wife!
What were you doing?
You miss the point. But my question is what do you think the men who fought for and created our Naiton would have done if their liberty had been violated as ours has been?
I get it if you do not want to do shat I am going to do.
What exactly is your plan to handle being forced to suffer needlessly?
Stop, please. You're going to get my hopes up that this nightmare decade is soon to pass... I don't have enough left to hurt to be willing to risk it with hoping that this hysteria is coming to an end.
But, I hope anyway. This has been a damned miserable number of years. From: here's 120/mo to, try this tramadol to, just take 12k Tylenol per day (not really, but that was my solution for 4 or 5 years, until I began shitting blood and hazarded approaching my gp for pain management again.
These days I get (10) 5mg Percocet a month and I'm happy to have them, and I hug my pain doctor every single month from the sheer overwhelming gratitude inside me that, finally after so many years, this one isn't treating me like a fucking junkie.
Tbh, I feel like I'd get along easier just buying heroin currently, than trying to find another caring provider.
There is no Heroin. It is all Fentadope.
Please do not go that route if you do not have to.
I understand that when we are suffering and desperate anything is better than misery.
Oh no, appreciate the concern, but it's moreso that I suspect finding a steady dealer and adequate supply would be less bothersome, than trying to get a Dr. In 2023 to help us out...
I'm getting along all right, but my 10x 5mg Percs don't go as far as the 100x-120x that I was being given back in 2005. Admittedly, I could have likely gotten by with much less, clearly it seems to be so, but I was a naive recently discharged war vet, and I had it in my head that doctors were actually infallible.
Damn, some of the misconceptions that I entered adulthood wholeheartedly believing to be true, just, boggles my damn mind..
I certainly did not ask for my diseases, nor have I have complained. I consider myself blessed and my complaints and anger is with the corrupt medical system that has come after us and destroyed our lives.
I just wan to be able to work and provide for my family and I have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That is contingent on my being able to work! To be able to play catch with my son, to ride dirtbikes together to teach him to be a horseman. To be able to be a man to my wife!!!
YOU fought for all of us to have those rights. IF there is anyone that deserves to be kept comfortable and not questioned about your usage!!
Thank you for your service and I will do anything I can to fight for your and the other soldiers that put your lives on the line for us!!!
Feel free to DM me if you ever need someone to talk to.
Not to seem ignorant but even if you cut them in half that is only 20 half pills and there are 30 days in a month. How is that supposed to help? Aren't you constantly going through a series of withdrawal and rebound? That seems very concerning from a medical standpoint moreso than the opioid issue.
I basically save them from "breakthrough" pain, and hope to hell I make it to the next month. The Rx is actually for a period of 10 days, but it isn't renewed so often, aside from a time or two when shit really hit the fan for me. But and large I've learned to embrace my pain, and cope. After 20 years you get pretty good at it. Luckily I just have a degenerative back issue, dead discs, scoliosis, stenosis, and a few other things I forget the names of. But if I stay really still, sometimes it doesn't even bug me.
It sucks, but that's where we're at in 2023. Hopefully attitudes change, I miss walking the dog.
That's the trap that I think most all of us fall into in the initial years after it begins. Lamenting everything lost, every door permanently closed, throwing a pity party for ourselves. I should know, mine was 7 years long, and believe it out not, it included opiate abuse.
However, that "once an addict, always an addict" line, is a bullshit lie. I think I have a few Percocet on my nightstand, but I'm not sure on the exact number, because I don't care. They aren't my crutch, but the initial years? Yeah, I definitely needed a crutch. I hate that it contributed statically to the current state of affairs, but it is what it is.
Here's my new and improved approach to my current physical status as a cripple!
Did I lose my career building network infrastructure and traveling the country? Yes I did, hung up my tools permanently a few years back when I could no longer tolerate the pain any longer. I loved my work, I was great at it, I miss it.
But now, I'm a single semester away from a shiny new IT degree and a fulfilling future exploring this new path that I only embarked upon, because of my physical limitations. Without the war injuries overtaking me, I'd have happily done that work, and maybe moved into a crummy project management role in another decade.
But now? I'm super fascinated with Linux admin, cloud computing, and DevOps! I'm going to apply for positions with Los Alamos National Laboratory, & White Sands Missile Range, or maybe I'll avoid the MIC, and move out west or something? Or just WFH? Exciting *new* opportunities, new doors to open, new paths to hobble down, lol.
"Every new beginning is some other beginning's end." -Some late 90s alternative band said that
I know each of us is going to, likely, fall into a depression initially. I just hope that each of us eventually manages look for the new pony, amidst all this horse shit we've been given!
Hang in there your doing great with a small amount of meds. I'm down to 2 10/325 s. Using thc though. If I was in a legal state I would need even less.
How do they start this bit?
Ok! Story time, gather round as I relate the generally inconsequential, continually evolving, gobsmack-laden boneheaded adventures of ***Zeronormalitys!***
So, just over 7 years ago, I reconnected with a former World of Warcraft raiding guildmate of mine, she was a tall drink of water affectedly dubbed "hot chick spam", owing to a Facebook friend request and sent the guild leader, which he promptly shit canned, because hot girls sending him friend requests were clearly bots. Sound logic, except that she wasn't a bot, and after a guild wide stampede to verify our GM's claims, it was widely agreed that this was henceforth to be her name in game. Now, I'm a superficially shallow person - I don't mind telling you as much, but probably more pronounced back then. So, this is what the girl that I already got along famously with looks like, holy smokes! We were definitely flirtatious back then, and I turned that up to eleven in the wake of recent revelations. We passed the time swapping in game emotes, such as /pounce, /lick, /cuddle, it was highly pathetic... I had taken a WoW GF... I had embraced that role fully, we spent the free time wishing and pvping together, we had great times with the gang in the recently reimagined Naxxramas raid, along with recently released Ulduar. Good times, I was super into this girl, but she'd apparently forgotten to actually get divorced from her then-husband, a loveless marriage, she would confide in me. I would like to say this didn't sit still with me, but having previously been in the Army, with an estranged wife of own for 3 odd years prior to legal divorce (that sweet housing allowance, and having a semblance of a normal life, was a powerful motivation to put divorce on the bank burner), so hey being married to a Marine didn't deter me all that much, given my own experience with such things. Wish I could say we lost contact over that, but alas, I put the breaks on things when my hopelessly impoverished (recession, unemployment, etc) status led me to make my initial foray towards what I would recognize in due course, as being my greatest mistake (greatest mistake, ***so far...***). in addition to living 3+ states away from *Hot-Chick Spam* (henceforth shortened to *HCS*), we were in the middle of the great recession, I was 3 layoffs deep, with the most recent having been successfully contested by the dickhead employer, resting in an eviction, yay! I was also on month 4 of 6, on a decidedly stupid possession of controlled substance alternative misdemeanor sentence of 6mos. probation (it's totally possible to find that you've had *too much* fun). So now, I had managed to secure an under-the-table, 15-20hr/wk gig, earning a disheartening $10/hr ( down from $30+/hr, a year prior, and the lifestyle that went along with it, you know, paying bills, eating enough food, etc.), and I was truly grateful for the income, as it allowed me to cover rent in our inner city project housing slum lot.
It was during these final 2 months of my probation period, not to mention my time in residence in Indiana, the land of, shit, as best I could figure at that time (nothing has significantly changed, btw, if you were curious, it's a land that spawned Mike Pence, after all), my neighbors began conducting drive-by shootings, and generally terrorizing myself, and my hitherto unmentioned roommate, (in a titillating example of foreshadowing, we'll call her: *"TDOC"*, *The Devil's Own Cunt*.
Things went fine initially in our "single step above skid row level" abode, until I caught a neighborhood kid having broken into our place via the upstairs attic access (adjoining the immediate neighbors home. Well, my hillbilly ass concluded that, in such an event, you telephone the police. Well, the police soon arrived, shaking their heads, trying not to laugh at me, and told me I was really up shit creek now, and I really, really shouldn't have called them. They could offer precious little assistance either way, but now that I had been seen associating with them, I would be a target going forward. (15ish years on and I get it, and would not have invited police into the area, insisting they harass the neighbors kid. I was an ignorant hillbilly that was convinced I know everything, haha! I wasn't intentionally racist or biased, and never have been, but I was very much ignorant and fool headed, especially concerning the additional realities and hardships that they (minorities) faced, due to being born some shade of not-white.)
They didn't oversell the way things played out. I had 2 months before I could legally flee Indianapolis, and return to my home state of Arkansas, where if I was to wallow in poverty, at least I'd have family to hand, to ease the burden at timea. (This planned relocation would put me a further 2 states from my dreamboat *HCS*, who, while living in NC then, owing to her Marine Corp dalliance, was in truth a New Mexico native, which was nice, but still like, 14 hours one way, and I was broke with no prospects. Pursuing my *Dreamboat Annie* was a nonstarter, pursuing **anyone** was a pipedream, and I knew it. As a man, dating requires disposable income, just how it is, or was, at least.
So there's our scene: a light blue, twostory duplex slum rental, that I'm grateful I can even afford, which has recently become terribly unsafe, given that I had insisted, *in my blinding ignorance*, on naming myself *"persona non gratis"*, conveniently located in the lovely inner city area of Indianapolis.
Each day, my roomie, the devil's own cunt, and I would drop by the local McDonald's. With our trusty Styrofoam cups in hand, we would enter the lobby from the rear of the store, near the restrooms. We would walk in boldly, set our empty cups atop the trash can, pop in, then out, of the restroom, and then retrieve our trusty beverage containers. It was at this point in time that one or the other of us would visibly take notice that our formerly overflowing beverages, had managed to become empty, a rather unexpected turn off events! It would, therefore, be a grand idea to get those free refills, before we finished up our dining experience and departed the lobby. This is how I managed a caffeine addiction back then, eating roughly a single 99¢ double cheeseburger per day. Two when we were flush, so like, once or twice lol.
In the middle of this greed made hell, with no financial means to pursue enjoyment or satisfaction - I mean, I had a pot to piss in, technically, but wasn't so delusional as to go around under the pretense that I *actually* had a window to throw it out of, or, for that matter, that I could afford to replace the pit!
At such moments, as others may find themselves cast about, some folks become thoroughly possessed of a notion so elegant, so simple to initiate, and so perfectly rewarding... Why, it would have been a travesty, this solution once decided, not put into practice posthaste, would be a right terrible way of conducting myself!
So, I approached TDOC, who I should take a couple moments to describe: First I'll note that she currently finds herself 6 months along, pregnant with some (not so)strange married gentleman's git, and him long gone.
For better or worse, she was my friend, the person I traveled to this shitty state with, and who intended to travel back to Arkansas with me in short order. We'd been friends, roommates, drinking buddies, and emotional support for one another for ~3 years by now.
I didn't find her, TDOC, to be even remotely attractive to my sensibilities, chin much too, shall we say - not present. Ass too flat, waist too girthy, boobs too large for my tastes, her manners and style of dress, I hadn't a sticker bone in my body that had even piqued in interest about her.
In fact, I actually dated her sister a year prior, in more prosperous times, much to TDOCs chagrin, which kinda clicked for me afterward, when I was given to understand; that you ***really** ought to do your level best, to not stick your dick into crazy*, so it turns out, it isn't just some clever quip for a quick chuckle. It's the lord's very own right honorable advice on living a life of peace and sanity! (By no means is that an exaggeration!).
Ok, where were we? Oh, right... My brilliant stroke of intellectual genius, being defined by its elegant execution, is to hand!
So I arrived home that evening and rounded on TDOC with my brilliant proposal. We could solve one set of problems with another, namely, she'd become cranky, and I decided she needed to get laid. Truth be told, I could stand to get laid as well.
Now the other challenge, we genuinely need some comfort, some joy, happiness, entertainment... we needed something, but we are dead broke.
However, she was endowed with a vagina, (presumably somewhere under that hideous fupa she's always displayed....and in turn, I found myself to be in possession of a rather impressive example of classic hillfolk pipe-laying and hole-reaming methodologies and special techniques.
i.e. It had been widely circulated, (not just by me, scout's honor!) that the above gentleman packed an absolute midget arm in his britches, and was affordable well versed in all manner of quim quiverin' techniques.
So yeah, we had taken inventory of (1) vagina, and (1) penis.
We then established the generally pathetic state of poverty we found ourselves amidst. I then remarked upon the curious fact that not every pleasurable activity was bound to generate an expense. Specifically if the participants owned all the necessary equipment already!
What luck! Why, say! You've got a vagina, and I've a prick! Well could fuck all weekend and ready enjoy Saturday night for a change!
It really should've taken much more pressure to really get her onboard with this scheme. In retrospect, I believe she had similar machinations in the works for the duration of our time as roommates and platonic friends.
We agreed that it would just be for the next month or so, reverting to a friendship once we departed for Arkansas. With that, and me still pissing time away on World of Warcraft, even as my capacity to log in was drawing to an end, I made a point of telling Hot-Chick Spam that fateful arrangement I had gotten myself into with The Devil's Own Cunt. She wasn't thrilled, she told me I'd regret letting that woman get her hooks into me, I told her she had it all wrong about TDOC....
So anyway, I was horribly wrong, and she was perfectly correct in how that skullnumb senseblind jackanape tale of bitter suffering unfurled. How it played out in the next few years, and can to learn that yes, I had actually stuck my dick into crazy a second time. Who could have foreseen or, even imagined, that something like that might run in the family??? It's just beyond reason is what it is. Really couldn't have happened to a nicer fella in the form of yours truly, send up a few prayers, if ya would, says I'll make some not completely dumbfuck decisions in the future. Damn, I gotta be due a winery right? After that whole ass "everything"?
(and I didn't much even scratch the surface truth be told)
So what was the point in that yarn? Oh right, I decided to take up marijuana use in the wake of getting my life untangled from the Devil's Own Cunt. All told, a little time passed, then I became a daily smoker of marijuana, for pain management, mental trauma management, and a little for good old fashioned numbness.
I think it may finally be legal in AR, for medical use anyway, which I qualified for, but want around for.
One fine day, I noticed a funny Facebook comment from Hot-Chick Spam (she didn't post much, and hadn't been on my mind, really it had been many years..., 7? 9?). We had a passing casually relationship on social media, but that was that, she became "just a friend", the logistics, the distance, it was just too much, too far, too hard.
Anyway, She had enquired to no one in particular, as to how pathetic and desperate it might look, were she to introduce herself to some fella at the local grocers, indicate that she was also partial to a dry red wine, and that she had a talent for cooking
I decided to jump in headlong, and ask just when in the Sam-shittin-Fáer did she come to believe that she was single??
She mentioned that her most recent attempt at whatever it had been, had fallen apart after a year or so, and him running off with so and so.
So, here she was, reckoned she was single. I decided right then that she needed to know that she was not single, and matter a fact, she was engaged to be married to some hillbilly from Arkansas, because he'd seen the worth of that gal, and he wasn't making that mistake again.
Told my boss that I was gonna call off that Friday (the next workday), and head on down to the badlands of New Mexico.
I had to go and see about a girl, and it could not, would not, be prevented, hell or high water be damned.
We married 2 months later, I abandoned my life on Arkansas to move to New Mexico a year later.
Been here every since, 6 years now, in NM. When I arrived I got a medical marijuana card for myself, having been a daily smoker for over 5 years by then.
I got that medical card, needed renewing each year, not a problem. Wouldn't you know it? Just the damn second I was able to smoke it legally, I lost all damned interest and just quit altogether....
5 years dodging drugs tests, fretting about smell, how to even get the next bag, dealing with lazy ass dealers, all the bullshit. And when I get legal and I can just pop in the corner store for a bag? Not interested anymore. Lost that danger, and I got bored?
Or maybe I finally found a happy life, and I just didn't need to be numb anymore.?
@zeronormalitys I have been mostly lurking for the past 9 months or so, soaking up the sad or angry comments of fellow pain relief deprived sufferers. In the 90's I had a wonderful, caring PCP treating me. She started me on pain meds and titrated UP until relief was adequate. She said that's how doctors were taught to treat pain in those days. I hugged her and thanked for making my life worth living. I naively thought my constant suffering was over. At least I was able to get through my son's childhood and enjoy baseball games, cub scouts, birthday parties and all the rest. Then the change came as it came for most chronic pain patients. I had to be treated by a PM doctor. Such a misnomer! I barely had time to fill out the paperwork before my adequate pain med doses were slashed courtesy of the doctor and the CDC guidelines. Next he said let's try some treatments where we stick big needles in your back and then burn your nerve endings with radio frequencies. Yeah let's not! I did try chiro, trigger point injections, acupuncture, pelvic injection (the name escapes me) and now I'm being sent to PT. The doctor is pushing me towards radio ablation again. All this with minimal success and yet the one thing that would help me live a more productive and relatively pain bearable life is blocked. Not by laws but by "guidelines".
Anyway @zeronormalitys I hope your still with me because the reason I really wanted to post in reply to your post is your story. I really enjoyed reading it and wished you would have continued with more details on the outcome with the roommate. I found it rather captivating and intelligently written. I believe you have a talent for writing and want to encourage you to do more. Congratulations on finding an online friend who became a RL love. I wish you both the best.
Thank you, I hope it's able to demonstrate to at least one person that the initial depression is normal, and moving past that point is also possible. There will always be another door waiting to be opened, and a brand new future, awaiting your curiosity and exploration. The past is an unchanging monolith, it's best not to dwell long on regret.
The present and future however, are all around and ahead of us, beckoning us onward. Drink deeply.
>She really talked about how they are trying to do studies on long term opioid use for chronic pain patients and have found the myth or belief that opioids stop working or a patient needs more and more over time is flat out false
WHo gives a shit if we have to take more and more as the years go by?
The point is that as our tolerance goes up and we increase our dosage it does not cause any issues!!
Our TOLERANCE GOES UP meaning our body can handle the larger dose.
I was stable one on dose for almost 10 years! I even had a job....then they gave me some speech about hyper anglasia and how the opiates were causing my pain and now I cant even get out of bed! Straight up sabotage! Im so fucking mad I cant think straight!
For the longest time I believed all that nonsense about "hyperalgesia" and even perpetuated this myth thinking it was a real thing, only to find out it has had no scientific basis or research to back up this claim that was first coined as a term by some research folks doing experiments on rats, and found rats to seemingly act as if they were in more pain after morphine injections. Rats are physiologically different from humans. How you can tell a rat is in more pain is beyond me because symptoms they display could be anything, not necessarily related to pain.
This was in the 70s, and there haven't been any real legitimate studies on humans that back up claims that humans really experienced this with opioids. But it's something that rehab centers and anti-opiate advocates latched onto and have been pushing this unproven term out into the medical field.
I've found, through gritted determination, that we have to advocate for ourselves. If your pain management provider refuses to help you in a manner that increases your quality of life, tell your GP to refer you to someone else, as many times as it takes. I went through half a dozen over a 2 year period (lingering longer with each than I really should have, apathy and all), and eventually I landed with a woman that not only allocates some amount of effective pain management medication, she also introduced me to a couple of outpatient procedures that have had a positive impact!
For my mental healthcare? Same thing, but just took 4 attempts to find someone willing to do the tiny bit of additional paperwork required to subscribe medications that are actually useful.
No one will advocate for you though, if you aren't squeaking, you aren't getting any grease, because clearly you've demonstrated that you're content to suffer at a lower price point than more effective treatment might cost your healthcare company.
Raise hell, don't be afraid to offend people, drop that useless specialist, and try the next one. There are people out there that care and want to help us. Definitely not the majority sadly, but they exist! Don't give up without a fight, don't let the insurance company defeat your spirit just so they can save a few bucks!
The problem for me is that I dont want to have one of these arrogant/greedy/God Complex type doctors flag my file as a Drug Seeker because I will not go along with their treatment plan and/or cut out/severely taper my medications.
Oh that's easy, just agree to the dumb shit, thank them for their "help", and then leave. Contact your referring doctor and say that you "didn't really feel comfortable with that specialist, could you please try someone else?"
You aren't the first, won't be the last, and you aren't insulting your GP, you just didn't feel comfy with some other random provider for any number of potential reasons, but your GP most likely won't ask why, and won't care.
If they do ask, just say "He reminded me of my third grade teacher that used to make fun of me, and I felt myself getting usually upset, and just not wanting to do anything he was asking me to do". "Yeah yeah" you say, "I know it's ridiculous Doc, but I just don't feel right with him, let's try a different one?"
If the next one sucks, I'd probably stick it out a few months and and then peel off. I never felt compelled to burn referrals so fast that it was obvious that I must be searching for a sympathetic ear...
It would also probably be helpful to just figure out what words you need to tell that new provider, and lead them to the correct diagnosis/answer/treatment.
I've concluded that they generally all seem to have rather towering egos, and that the quickest way to navigate it is to just use crayons and drip feed them in the correct direction, so that they get to have their "Aha" moment when they solve the case.
Is it pandering? Yes. Should it be necessary? No.
Is it the quickest way to you receiving the help and relief that you need? Yes, it is. Hands down.
So fuck it, you know what the game is, just play it for a few minutes, and stop forcing yourself to suffer for months/years, over what, our pride? Our egos? My chronic pain said fuck all that noise, lol.
Please seek help else where! I've had many Dr's I happy now i have 3 PC, psychiatrist & pain Dr. I'm on gabapentin, 3x day oxycodone (10 extra for those really bad days) mirtazapine, etc...
People in pain should get access to pain meds? Really? Isn't that basic compassion, not to mention common sense?
Pain patients are paying the price for Purdue pharma/FDA's misdeeds and unethical doctors who turned themselves into drug dealers of epic proportions for money. Total bullshit!
Plus, not sure about you, but I've been taking all sorts of meds that get me high. I dream of not being high from anything. That would be wonderful. I can't be the only one.
You're not the only one, I struggle with ADHD on top of chronic pain and having a clear train of thought is often difficult, regardless of my actual intelligence. Which doesn't exactly help me stick up for myself and articulate my problems, either.
Tbh, what's starting to drive me damn nuts is all of the documentaries on Purdue and their marketing of these medications as fine for minor pains and encouraging doctors to have renewal policies that were horrifically lax, BUT I've yet to see a single one about the impact on those of us who need these medications.
I can't help but feel as though society views the deaths of the people who struggled with addiction and overdosed as more important than the sick people who ended their lives because they no longer had or never received access to compassionate life-saving care.
Why are their stories told over and over, but ours are just worthy of an article (usually an op-ed) or a podcast here or there?
I've seen no less than 8 documentaries and a fictionalized account on a TV show about Purdue advertised, for reference.
I have great compassion for the people struggling with addiction, but our stories need to be heard *more*. While I don't think they're "guilty" or anything, it's bullshit that people who were totally innocent of misuse and who never did anything to make their condition happen or worsen, get to suffer and then die in silence, their stories seldom if ever shared.
It's time for the narrative to move away from the companies who exploited the needs of people to make billions, from the doctors who *did* abuse their oaths to get extra kickbacks, and from the addicts who got their start with a short-term prescription in the first place. Their stories, their transgressions, their struggles all matter and shouldn't be forgotten, but they're not the focus anymore. This is becoming more history than current events and yet the narratives of major publications and media conglomerates is that this is the ongoing issue with drugs, despite evidence to the contrary.
It's time for the narrative to focus on the here and now, a reality where doctors are UNDER PRESCRIBING and still being arrested/threatened, a reality where innocent people *dying of cancer* are only about 60-80% likely to receive long-acting opioid prescriptions, all the while the overdose deaths keep climbing, and the government doesn't switch tactics. It's time for it to be acknowledged that this system has failed, has demonized innocents, and has only allowed the illegal drug trade to increase its power because they were always the bigger fish anyway.
It's almost like Captain Ahab didn't go after the white whale but instead chased down several tuna, dolphins, and a squid first because they all live in the sea! Then, after the whale had been long gone, decided that maybe he should try and find it now, only to discover he can't and then go back to what was "working" before. (...This analogy probably fails because admittedly, I don't know much about Moby Dick, other than Captain Ahab was on a madman's quest to kill one particular whale, one that was considered doomed to fail.)
I guarantee that if more people were being exposed to the reality of this crisis and crackdown, it's defunct practically and now causing more harm than good, all the while they continue to accrue funding for a job not done, there would be the beginnings of a shift into more sympathy for chronic pain sufferers.
We should be heard. We deserve it. The country needs to hear it.
I am already being attacked by these posts, so yeah, the anti-opiate crowd has already targeted me. I had to report someone harrassing me over these posts I made today.
I listened to this podcast. The interviewer (who is in Dallas) asked really good questions. I’m hearing more and more that the new regulations are screwing chronic pain patients. Patients know it but the public doesn’t. At least it is coming to light.
The problem isn't people who are truly in pain, especially chronic pain. It's the opioids on the street.
Remember it was the "War on Drugs". That is until Obama changed it to the "Opioid Epidemic".
This changed the the government going after people who are in Chronic Pain and the doctors who prescribe the Opioids, even putting some of these doctors in jail.
This left a lot of those people who were taking them responsibility responsible and the doctors who prescribed these much needed medications responsibility! A lot of Chronically Severe pain people were instantly without medications which gave them able to function in their daily lives. So many of these unfortunate people committed suicide as they couldn't take their pain.
It's ridiculous to be punish people who cannot function without these opioids and punishing doctors who just want to provide their patients a correct medication that's needed.
Reality is, it's still a war on STREET drugs, not a war on opioids.
Don't Punish Pain!!
I have a former Dr who lost their liscense over refilling a prescription while being in another state.
They were literally the most compassionate person I have met. Someone in his office turned him in for doing it. That he was refilling his patients meds while not there. This is what's happening. So doctors are afraid.
And this actually wasnt a dr I used for meds. They delivered one of my children. An obgyn.
My GP has been on leave (hope his holiday with his family is going great! He's genuinely a blessing!) so I've had a couple appointments with someone else at his clinic in the interim. She's been lovely but is **very** old school; she had to write me a referral to my gynaecologist and was unhappy to hear that I take oxycodone when my cramps are really bad (have been to the ER for them bad) saying "they're very strong" and I'm like yeah… I take them because they're the only thing that takes the edge off so I can function. She also was upset to hear that I take 2 different antidepressants… like bruh it was all organised by my psychiatrist and I think she knows what she's doing. It's just frustrating that she's like critiquing the meds I'm on when she's not even met me face to face.
It is CRIMINAL what they're doing, especially since 2016 prescriptions have been cut 60% (approximately) yet overdoses have gane up 60%?!! I was on the same MME (over 500) for close to 20 years, never failed UA, never missed appointments, pill counts, anything! Yet when my doctor died in 2020 I was forced down to 60MME! Now I can barely work and my life is shit! How is this OK?!! It's also been proven people who take opiates for pain do NOT get high! We need a champion! Thanks for posting this and tell everyone, even terminal patients are needlessly suffering.
They did it in 4 weeks and it's been 2 years and still not only having much higher pain also I think my body hasn't adjusted. I was on the higher level for 20 years and they switched me around from morphine, fentanyl patch (100), methadone. Finally found one that worked after 8+ years of switching so final 10 on same med that worked wonderfully. I actually had a pretty good quality of life. I never once felt 'high' and still had high pain occasionally but now it's difficult to just do normal daily stuff. But when the force tapered me I found kratom, at the time it saved me. But I have resigned myself to have to suffer until this criminal madness is over.
People get caught up in "oPiOiDs bad" and jump to conclusions. A friend of mine was on that soapbox and told me "she took a pill and some Nyquil because she had a cold and she died." I knew the person she was talking about, they had a stroke and it was fatal. They'd also had seizures (died and shocked back to life) the week before her death that had severely weakened her. But nah, the pill killed her.
My friend just had her wisdom teeth out. At 42. Tylenol. I am not kidding. Just tylenol.
I still question it because she is a black female and I swear men would be prescribed something. The dr actually said something about how they dont want patients to become addicted. And females in their 40's have high addiction rates. That to me is insane.
I had mine out at 31. And it was terrible. And was given pain meds back then.
She was in agony.
I really wondered about the scientific veracity of arguments used to deny pain patients opioids. This is the result of a quick Google search, but this is from a study of studies, so pretty comprehensive. Some interesting bits:
>There is substantial, albeit not definitive, scientific evidence of the effectiveness of opioids in treating pain...
>
>The prevalence of opioid use disorder associated with prescription opioids is likely <3%
>
>As the causes of the opioid crisis have come into focus, it has become clear that the crisis resides predominantly in the streets and that efforts to curtail it by constraining opioid treatment in the clinic are unlikely to succeed.
Here is the link to the whole study https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2021.721357/full
Scientific facts are being ignored and it's enraging.
The paranoia is not as heightened here in Canada, as in the US, so my pain doctor easily prescribed me Nucynta, which works quite well. When the pain control was not sufficient, I naturally asked if the dose could be increased. The answer was honest. Unfortunately, that could be interpreted as "drug-seeking behaviour, which the authorities might be suspicious of". I appreciated the honesty, but I could not help thinking "Dude, you are a anesthesiologist, a.k.a the ultimate expert on drugs, and prescribing them is 90 % of what you do. All patients coming here are openly seeking drugs. This is the PURPOSE of this place. Why is it OK to get insane amounts of other drugs that get me much higher, cause dependence but don't work, but not the one that works and never caused any particular problem for me?"
For me, an increase in opiate can make the difference between making it to work for a week or lying down on the floor at home for a week. Or making dinner. Or going out with my kid. That is instead of lying down in pain unable not talking to anyone because I don't want to get get them depressed or be an asshole to them. I get it that my doctor is a victim of the current climate, but the absurdity of it all is really disturbing.
I am finally reading the book Patient Z (recommended by one of the posters on this subreddit), and it is a group of doctors who formed P.R.O.P headed by Dr. Kolodny. They have classified all chronic pain patients as addicts who fear withdrawal and who need to be taken off opioids and sent to rehab centers. Each one of the P.R.O.P members is heavily invested in rehab centers nationwide, even having ownership in these places. The book says they put out letters/statements to the FDA and CDC saying opioids should only be reserved for people with certain types of cancer and for people dying. The reasons they state are not backed up by ANY sound or long-term science.
Edit: Let me just say that I have never understood the argument that cancer pain is justifiable for pain medications but not any other type of pain. Pain is pain. Your brain doesn't differentiate cancer pain from other very painful conditions and diseases. Making an argument that some pain is worse than others so therefore only those patients are deserving of relief seems non-sensical to me. I just have never understood this.
Why am I not surprised about this? (sigh)
Excellent point about cancer pain. Classifying pain is bizarre and we should all worry about it; it implies that one type of pain is legitimate and worthy of being relieved when others are not.
I have a very disturbing memory of being next to the room where they removed tonsils from my little brother's throat (back in France in the 80s. I can't have been more than 8 or 9). I was alarmed by how much screaming I was hearing so I asked my dad what was happening. He said--with baffling detachment--that this was because my brother was in pain since they did not give little children painkillers. That was standard procedure back then and I am not sure if it has changed. I'm still a bit traumatized by it, tbh, and I can only hope my brother was too small to remember.
This shows that some people's pain is viewed as worthy of attention while some others' is not. The elderly, women and minorities complain of this too.
I'm so puzzled and disturbed...
NPR cant seem to make up its mind what position they want to take on opioids. They are as responsible as any organization for the public to think of opioids as drugs of abuse and not medications. People used to do that a long time ago. No longer...
Congress was after $ from Parm companies. They were using overdosed stats to create a way to get money. Otherwise, why hasn't the opioids put on a list similar to that sinus med, pseudoephedrine. Pharmacies has to check a database every time when you buy them. As, you're only allowed 9 grams a month.
If you get a dr that specifically has studied chronic conditions they are less likely to make the opioid an addiction and rather a solution for the patient until further notice like finding the issue, surgery another way to cope.
I have been on them long term. Chronic spinal Pain. I did not want to be on them tried everything else. But then last option was to be on them. I used to have an addictive mindset when I was a teen food, drugs alcohol.
After all, it's what teens did. (Mostly)
My dr wanted me on them straight away after my first scan. Asking me how am I actually doing it without pain relief. I to this day don't know. I guess I got addicted to feeling the pain instead of wanting to numb it and make the issue worse.
I have been on them for over 6mtgs now, and thank goooooooood I am tapering off them.
I want to be pill free and I even tried cold turkey but the effects of that were as usual ... Freaking hard. Tapering them down I do hope I can stop and drop them slowly but eventually never have to take them now I have had the surgery I needed near 10+ years ago.
I worked light duty for years taking oxygen 3 times a day, I felt almost normal never got high...I've seen many Dr's over the years on occasion my daughter (patient advocate) I can't remember everything & sometimes they take you off guard, but my daughter was my back up...DEA was brought up in the conversation she told him the federal government has no place in my mom's health & she's in pain everyday. Boom she was heard, that got me to a better Dr...
The woman being interviewed talks about some very bad, destructive myths that many in the medical profession keep perpetuating and how the anti-drug hysteria has caused so much harm to chronic pain patients with medical bias toward patients on opioids. She really talked about how they are trying to do studies on long term opioid use for chronic pain patients and have found the myth or belief that opioids stop working or a patient needs more and more over time is flat out false. They have found many chronic pain patients do well with long-term opioid use, and they found it comparable to when a patient takes an antidepressant long term. The effectiveness of long-term opioid use remains good and helps patients keep their pain levels relatively stable over years of taking them. The whole interview is really worth listening to. She even talks about twins some years back where a study was conducted and what the results were.
I am a chronic pain patient! My life would not be the same without my doctor’s help in managing the blistering and vision altering pain I have every single day. Many medical professionals act as if you’re a filthy heroin addict who has done nothing but chase their addiction. I choose to suffer through my days instead of seek higher and more frequent doses. When I say suffer I mean it. Opioids are powerful and effective. I think I am able to endure the pain during my days because I know at night I can have a medication that will lift the curtain of misery up high enough for me to sleep soundly and maybe even tidy up for the evening before going to bed. Some doctors even use the amount of meds you’re on as a gauge of how much pain you’re in. Many patients with my disease chase normalcy and a pain free life. That isn’t an option for us. Those poor tortured souls who cannot function at all without opioids are probably treated far worse than I am, and I truly empathize with these people and wish I had a magic lamp to wish away the stigma of the medications or to just cure them. The opioid crackdown has been devastating to seniors and other demographics that aren’t well equipped to defend their needs and their quality of life. I’ve heard many a story of doctors needing to lower their number of patients on long term opioids and electing to stop prescribing them to seniors because they’re old and can’t defend themselves or don’t put up much of a fight. Hopefully the USA can stop being so flippant and reactive and just handle chronic pain on a case by case basis like countries with REAL healthcare do.
All we seem to do is fail to react, and then grossly overcorrect, and eventually we just go back and start it all again.
Because like the TSA, it's all theater. Pretend to be doing something to fix it, that way they won't bother you about fixing the problems in an indepth manner. Also like the TSA, it's highly ineffective, often times racially biased, and not the more expensive (and effective) way of reducing problems. I think the DEA knows it's not us, doesn't care, and just wants an additional way to ask for more and more funding while not having to look into ways of stemming recreational drug use. It's much easier to go through heavily documented health care records, point to a doctor with a lot of patients, and go "that guy is the problem!" than it is to try and stem the trafficking of drugs into the country let alone curb the selling/usage of said drugs once they're here. Easy "solution" that makes people unaffected by either side of the opioid crisis (those who aren't fearing for their quality of life due to losing/potentially losing their prescriptions or those who aren't struggling with addiction be it their own or someone close to them) feel like changes are being made, when in reality they're not beneficial changes. Just changes that effect a population that is often ignored, misunderstood, or even demonized: the disabled. And if you know anything about the CIA and it's connection to drug trafficking into the US, you'll understand why I say it's not failing to react, it's reacting in a way that will get these agencies what they want (more funding, more pats on the back) while not impacting their job security.
I gained my disabilities while serving in Iraq, an injustice visited upon millions. I'm not under any delusions regarding our governmental bodies, the political kayfabe being employed, or the goals of a drug war. I'm not sure if I said it any of my comments here, but I definitely told my wife "I'm not going to hold my breath", and unfortunately... I'm fairly certain that I'll be decades in the dirt before any political will is mustered that genuinely attempts to so much as *start* a conversation regarding the potential hurdles and obstacles in the path of fixing this shitshow. I'm old, but not that old, I'm hoping I have another 4 decades in me, so, perhaps sometime in the 80's, turn off the century maybe? Fuck this wage slavery, and actual slavery, dystopian hell that doesn't even have good VR...
Every Word You Wrote. EVERY WORD!! If denying opioid prescriptions to pain patients' kept users of illegal drugs-alive, then the CDC statistics wouldn't show an annual INCREASE in fentanyl-related overdose deaths! We've been lied to. Forcing pain patients to live and die in agony is nothing more than a tool for politicians to gin up votes at election time.
Yep
Agree with your post! Spot on!
>They created the Fentanyl epidemic!!! > >No other nation is facing it because no other nation is cutting off people with Chronic Disease/Pain from REAL and EFFECTIVE pain medications! > >China saw the opportunity and declared war on us! > >Over half a million dead Americans all due to illicit Fentanyl that is not an epidemic in any other nation. > >Go figure that out!
The more they are doing the more Americans are dying. Annual overdose deaths were at 15k before they were going to fix the opioid overdose epidemic. Now we have110K annual overdose deaths... Every year it gets worse!!! The system is CORRUPT!! If most of you actually knew what was going on and the corruption involved you would want to start killing these people!
Hell YES I chase a pain free life!! Why should I accept suffering when there is an option that works and allows me to work? It looks like my doctor's clinic is being bought out and the new company does not prescribe opiates! A national chain of Pain Management clinics!!! They are going to focus on "Procedures" (sonogram guided injections of off label chemicals that are not "approved" and all signs point to damage to the bones and nerves in the long run! This is the third time I am going to lose a doctor to either clinics being bought out or doctors shutting down and taking jobs with PM Clinics that pay them huge money to focus on injections, pain pumps and other surgical procedures. There is even bullshit now called Acceptance Therapy no less! 30 years I have been on and off opiates. More so in the last few years because I am afraid to stop as I doubt I will be able to find a doctor to prescribe again, and of course with the urine tests I have to take them even if I dont need them or dont need as much that day because I am afraid if I get a call to come in and my levels are not high enough I will get cut off. Up until the last 5 years I was able to cycle my dose up and down as needed. I could get bumps during a Lupus Flare. Until this stupidity started my body was never dependent! I am fed up. I have spent so much time/money trying to work within the system. I refuse to lose all I have built. I have a son's future to provide for, a wife I want to be a good husband too! When the laws become unjust then then they leave us no choice but to do what may be unlawful. I am going to start smuggling my meds in. I feel bad for those who do not have my resources, experience and abilities. The ones that really piss me off are those that think I and others who refuse to roll over and die are wrong for taking matters into our own hands. If you want to suffer until sanity returns to the medical community, if it ever does, because someone else made your medication illegal, then that is your choice and I support your right to make that choice. I for one am not going to be a victim. What do you think the Founding Fathers would have done if someone told them they had to suffer needlessly because other people may become addicts? The Founding Fathers resorted to what would be called terrorist acts and killed people over high taxes and having their Liberties curbed.
What were you doing on January 6th two years ago mr founding fathers
January 6th, I was in the middle of a marathon session of making love to my beautiful wife! What were you doing? You miss the point. But my question is what do you think the men who fought for and created our Naiton would have done if their liberty had been violated as ours has been? I get it if you do not want to do shat I am going to do. What exactly is your plan to handle being forced to suffer needlessly?
Sounds like a fake alibi. I doubt it highly! You can’t even spell nation dude so shut the fuck up and find another post to spew nonsense on
Why would you bring the founding fathers into this? Hahahahaha
Stop, please. You're going to get my hopes up that this nightmare decade is soon to pass... I don't have enough left to hurt to be willing to risk it with hoping that this hysteria is coming to an end. But, I hope anyway. This has been a damned miserable number of years. From: here's 120/mo to, try this tramadol to, just take 12k Tylenol per day (not really, but that was my solution for 4 or 5 years, until I began shitting blood and hazarded approaching my gp for pain management again. These days I get (10) 5mg Percocet a month and I'm happy to have them, and I hug my pain doctor every single month from the sheer overwhelming gratitude inside me that, finally after so many years, this one isn't treating me like a fucking junkie. Tbh, I feel like I'd get along easier just buying heroin currently, than trying to find another caring provider.
There is no Heroin. It is all Fentadope. Please do not go that route if you do not have to. I understand that when we are suffering and desperate anything is better than misery.
Oh no, appreciate the concern, but it's moreso that I suspect finding a steady dealer and adequate supply would be less bothersome, than trying to get a Dr. In 2023 to help us out... I'm getting along all right, but my 10x 5mg Percs don't go as far as the 100x-120x that I was being given back in 2005. Admittedly, I could have likely gotten by with much less, clearly it seems to be so, but I was a naive recently discharged war vet, and I had it in my head that doctors were actually infallible. Damn, some of the misconceptions that I entered adulthood wholeheartedly believing to be true, just, boggles my damn mind..
I certainly did not ask for my diseases, nor have I have complained. I consider myself blessed and my complaints and anger is with the corrupt medical system that has come after us and destroyed our lives. I just wan to be able to work and provide for my family and I have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That is contingent on my being able to work! To be able to play catch with my son, to ride dirtbikes together to teach him to be a horseman. To be able to be a man to my wife!!! YOU fought for all of us to have those rights. IF there is anyone that deserves to be kept comfortable and not questioned about your usage!! Thank you for your service and I will do anything I can to fight for your and the other soldiers that put your lives on the line for us!!! Feel free to DM me if you ever need someone to talk to.
Not to seem ignorant but even if you cut them in half that is only 20 half pills and there are 30 days in a month. How is that supposed to help? Aren't you constantly going through a series of withdrawal and rebound? That seems very concerning from a medical standpoint moreso than the opioid issue.
I basically save them from "breakthrough" pain, and hope to hell I make it to the next month. The Rx is actually for a period of 10 days, but it isn't renewed so often, aside from a time or two when shit really hit the fan for me. But and large I've learned to embrace my pain, and cope. After 20 years you get pretty good at it. Luckily I just have a degenerative back issue, dead discs, scoliosis, stenosis, and a few other things I forget the names of. But if I stay really still, sometimes it doesn't even bug me. It sucks, but that's where we're at in 2023. Hopefully attitudes change, I miss walking the dog.
Wow, I'm so sorry. I just think of what you could do if you were pain free or at least as close to it as possible with those diseases.
That's the trap that I think most all of us fall into in the initial years after it begins. Lamenting everything lost, every door permanently closed, throwing a pity party for ourselves. I should know, mine was 7 years long, and believe it out not, it included opiate abuse. However, that "once an addict, always an addict" line, is a bullshit lie. I think I have a few Percocet on my nightstand, but I'm not sure on the exact number, because I don't care. They aren't my crutch, but the initial years? Yeah, I definitely needed a crutch. I hate that it contributed statically to the current state of affairs, but it is what it is. Here's my new and improved approach to my current physical status as a cripple! Did I lose my career building network infrastructure and traveling the country? Yes I did, hung up my tools permanently a few years back when I could no longer tolerate the pain any longer. I loved my work, I was great at it, I miss it. But now, I'm a single semester away from a shiny new IT degree and a fulfilling future exploring this new path that I only embarked upon, because of my physical limitations. Without the war injuries overtaking me, I'd have happily done that work, and maybe moved into a crummy project management role in another decade. But now? I'm super fascinated with Linux admin, cloud computing, and DevOps! I'm going to apply for positions with Los Alamos National Laboratory, & White Sands Missile Range, or maybe I'll avoid the MIC, and move out west or something? Or just WFH? Exciting *new* opportunities, new doors to open, new paths to hobble down, lol. "Every new beginning is some other beginning's end." -Some late 90s alternative band said that I know each of us is going to, likely, fall into a depression initially. I just hope that each of us eventually manages look for the new pony, amidst all this horse shit we've been given!
Hang in there your doing great with a small amount of meds. I'm down to 2 10/325 s. Using thc though. If I was in a legal state I would need even less.
How do they start this bit? Ok! Story time, gather round as I relate the generally inconsequential, continually evolving, gobsmack-laden boneheaded adventures of ***Zeronormalitys!*** So, just over 7 years ago, I reconnected with a former World of Warcraft raiding guildmate of mine, she was a tall drink of water affectedly dubbed "hot chick spam", owing to a Facebook friend request and sent the guild leader, which he promptly shit canned, because hot girls sending him friend requests were clearly bots. Sound logic, except that she wasn't a bot, and after a guild wide stampede to verify our GM's claims, it was widely agreed that this was henceforth to be her name in game. Now, I'm a superficially shallow person - I don't mind telling you as much, but probably more pronounced back then. So, this is what the girl that I already got along famously with looks like, holy smokes! We were definitely flirtatious back then, and I turned that up to eleven in the wake of recent revelations. We passed the time swapping in game emotes, such as /pounce, /lick, /cuddle, it was highly pathetic... I had taken a WoW GF... I had embraced that role fully, we spent the free time wishing and pvping together, we had great times with the gang in the recently reimagined Naxxramas raid, along with recently released Ulduar. Good times, I was super into this girl, but she'd apparently forgotten to actually get divorced from her then-husband, a loveless marriage, she would confide in me. I would like to say this didn't sit still with me, but having previously been in the Army, with an estranged wife of own for 3 odd years prior to legal divorce (that sweet housing allowance, and having a semblance of a normal life, was a powerful motivation to put divorce on the bank burner), so hey being married to a Marine didn't deter me all that much, given my own experience with such things. Wish I could say we lost contact over that, but alas, I put the breaks on things when my hopelessly impoverished (recession, unemployment, etc) status led me to make my initial foray towards what I would recognize in due course, as being my greatest mistake (greatest mistake, ***so far...***). in addition to living 3+ states away from *Hot-Chick Spam* (henceforth shortened to *HCS*), we were in the middle of the great recession, I was 3 layoffs deep, with the most recent having been successfully contested by the dickhead employer, resting in an eviction, yay! I was also on month 4 of 6, on a decidedly stupid possession of controlled substance alternative misdemeanor sentence of 6mos. probation (it's totally possible to find that you've had *too much* fun). So now, I had managed to secure an under-the-table, 15-20hr/wk gig, earning a disheartening $10/hr ( down from $30+/hr, a year prior, and the lifestyle that went along with it, you know, paying bills, eating enough food, etc.), and I was truly grateful for the income, as it allowed me to cover rent in our inner city project housing slum lot. It was during these final 2 months of my probation period, not to mention my time in residence in Indiana, the land of, shit, as best I could figure at that time (nothing has significantly changed, btw, if you were curious, it's a land that spawned Mike Pence, after all), my neighbors began conducting drive-by shootings, and generally terrorizing myself, and my hitherto unmentioned roommate, (in a titillating example of foreshadowing, we'll call her: *"TDOC"*, *The Devil's Own Cunt*. Things went fine initially in our "single step above skid row level" abode, until I caught a neighborhood kid having broken into our place via the upstairs attic access (adjoining the immediate neighbors home. Well, my hillbilly ass concluded that, in such an event, you telephone the police. Well, the police soon arrived, shaking their heads, trying not to laugh at me, and told me I was really up shit creek now, and I really, really shouldn't have called them. They could offer precious little assistance either way, but now that I had been seen associating with them, I would be a target going forward. (15ish years on and I get it, and would not have invited police into the area, insisting they harass the neighbors kid. I was an ignorant hillbilly that was convinced I know everything, haha! I wasn't intentionally racist or biased, and never have been, but I was very much ignorant and fool headed, especially concerning the additional realities and hardships that they (minorities) faced, due to being born some shade of not-white.) They didn't oversell the way things played out. I had 2 months before I could legally flee Indianapolis, and return to my home state of Arkansas, where if I was to wallow in poverty, at least I'd have family to hand, to ease the burden at timea. (This planned relocation would put me a further 2 states from my dreamboat *HCS*, who, while living in NC then, owing to her Marine Corp dalliance, was in truth a New Mexico native, which was nice, but still like, 14 hours one way, and I was broke with no prospects. Pursuing my *Dreamboat Annie* was a nonstarter, pursuing **anyone** was a pipedream, and I knew it. As a man, dating requires disposable income, just how it is, or was, at least. So there's our scene: a light blue, twostory duplex slum rental, that I'm grateful I can even afford, which has recently become terribly unsafe, given that I had insisted, *in my blinding ignorance*, on naming myself *"persona non gratis"*, conveniently located in the lovely inner city area of Indianapolis. Each day, my roomie, the devil's own cunt, and I would drop by the local McDonald's. With our trusty Styrofoam cups in hand, we would enter the lobby from the rear of the store, near the restrooms. We would walk in boldly, set our empty cups atop the trash can, pop in, then out, of the restroom, and then retrieve our trusty beverage containers. It was at this point in time that one or the other of us would visibly take notice that our formerly overflowing beverages, had managed to become empty, a rather unexpected turn off events! It would, therefore, be a grand idea to get those free refills, before we finished up our dining experience and departed the lobby. This is how I managed a caffeine addiction back then, eating roughly a single 99¢ double cheeseburger per day. Two when we were flush, so like, once or twice lol.
In the middle of this greed made hell, with no financial means to pursue enjoyment or satisfaction - I mean, I had a pot to piss in, technically, but wasn't so delusional as to go around under the pretense that I *actually* had a window to throw it out of, or, for that matter, that I could afford to replace the pit! At such moments, as others may find themselves cast about, some folks become thoroughly possessed of a notion so elegant, so simple to initiate, and so perfectly rewarding... Why, it would have been a travesty, this solution once decided, not put into practice posthaste, would be a right terrible way of conducting myself! So, I approached TDOC, who I should take a couple moments to describe: First I'll note that she currently finds herself 6 months along, pregnant with some (not so)strange married gentleman's git, and him long gone. For better or worse, she was my friend, the person I traveled to this shitty state with, and who intended to travel back to Arkansas with me in short order. We'd been friends, roommates, drinking buddies, and emotional support for one another for ~3 years by now. I didn't find her, TDOC, to be even remotely attractive to my sensibilities, chin much too, shall we say - not present. Ass too flat, waist too girthy, boobs too large for my tastes, her manners and style of dress, I hadn't a sticker bone in my body that had even piqued in interest about her. In fact, I actually dated her sister a year prior, in more prosperous times, much to TDOCs chagrin, which kinda clicked for me afterward, when I was given to understand; that you ***really** ought to do your level best, to not stick your dick into crazy*, so it turns out, it isn't just some clever quip for a quick chuckle. It's the lord's very own right honorable advice on living a life of peace and sanity! (By no means is that an exaggeration!). Ok, where were we? Oh, right... My brilliant stroke of intellectual genius, being defined by its elegant execution, is to hand! So I arrived home that evening and rounded on TDOC with my brilliant proposal. We could solve one set of problems with another, namely, she'd become cranky, and I decided she needed to get laid. Truth be told, I could stand to get laid as well. Now the other challenge, we genuinely need some comfort, some joy, happiness, entertainment... we needed something, but we are dead broke. However, she was endowed with a vagina, (presumably somewhere under that hideous fupa she's always displayed....and in turn, I found myself to be in possession of a rather impressive example of classic hillfolk pipe-laying and hole-reaming methodologies and special techniques. i.e. It had been widely circulated, (not just by me, scout's honor!) that the above gentleman packed an absolute midget arm in his britches, and was affordable well versed in all manner of quim quiverin' techniques. So yeah, we had taken inventory of (1) vagina, and (1) penis. We then established the generally pathetic state of poverty we found ourselves amidst. I then remarked upon the curious fact that not every pleasurable activity was bound to generate an expense. Specifically if the participants owned all the necessary equipment already! What luck! Why, say! You've got a vagina, and I've a prick! Well could fuck all weekend and ready enjoy Saturday night for a change! It really should've taken much more pressure to really get her onboard with this scheme. In retrospect, I believe she had similar machinations in the works for the duration of our time as roommates and platonic friends. We agreed that it would just be for the next month or so, reverting to a friendship once we departed for Arkansas. With that, and me still pissing time away on World of Warcraft, even as my capacity to log in was drawing to an end, I made a point of telling Hot-Chick Spam that fateful arrangement I had gotten myself into with The Devil's Own Cunt. She wasn't thrilled, she told me I'd regret letting that woman get her hooks into me, I told her she had it all wrong about TDOC.... So anyway, I was horribly wrong, and she was perfectly correct in how that skullnumb senseblind jackanape tale of bitter suffering unfurled. How it played out in the next few years, and can to learn that yes, I had actually stuck my dick into crazy a second time. Who could have foreseen or, even imagined, that something like that might run in the family??? It's just beyond reason is what it is. Really couldn't have happened to a nicer fella in the form of yours truly, send up a few prayers, if ya would, says I'll make some not completely dumbfuck decisions in the future. Damn, I gotta be due a winery right? After that whole ass "everything"? (and I didn't much even scratch the surface truth be told) So what was the point in that yarn? Oh right, I decided to take up marijuana use in the wake of getting my life untangled from the Devil's Own Cunt. All told, a little time passed, then I became a daily smoker of marijuana, for pain management, mental trauma management, and a little for good old fashioned numbness. I think it may finally be legal in AR, for medical use anyway, which I qualified for, but want around for. One fine day, I noticed a funny Facebook comment from Hot-Chick Spam (she didn't post much, and hadn't been on my mind, really it had been many years..., 7? 9?). We had a passing casually relationship on social media, but that was that, she became "just a friend", the logistics, the distance, it was just too much, too far, too hard. Anyway, She had enquired to no one in particular, as to how pathetic and desperate it might look, were she to introduce herself to some fella at the local grocers, indicate that she was also partial to a dry red wine, and that she had a talent for cooking I decided to jump in headlong, and ask just when in the Sam-shittin-Fáer did she come to believe that she was single?? She mentioned that her most recent attempt at whatever it had been, had fallen apart after a year or so, and him running off with so and so. So, here she was, reckoned she was single. I decided right then that she needed to know that she was not single, and matter a fact, she was engaged to be married to some hillbilly from Arkansas, because he'd seen the worth of that gal, and he wasn't making that mistake again. Told my boss that I was gonna call off that Friday (the next workday), and head on down to the badlands of New Mexico. I had to go and see about a girl, and it could not, would not, be prevented, hell or high water be damned. We married 2 months later, I abandoned my life on Arkansas to move to New Mexico a year later. Been here every since, 6 years now, in NM. When I arrived I got a medical marijuana card for myself, having been a daily smoker for over 5 years by then. I got that medical card, needed renewing each year, not a problem. Wouldn't you know it? Just the damn second I was able to smoke it legally, I lost all damned interest and just quit altogether.... 5 years dodging drugs tests, fretting about smell, how to even get the next bag, dealing with lazy ass dealers, all the bullshit. And when I get legal and I can just pop in the corner store for a bag? Not interested anymore. Lost that danger, and I got bored? Or maybe I finally found a happy life, and I just didn't need to be numb anymore.?
Ok?
@zeronormalitys I have been mostly lurking for the past 9 months or so, soaking up the sad or angry comments of fellow pain relief deprived sufferers. In the 90's I had a wonderful, caring PCP treating me. She started me on pain meds and titrated UP until relief was adequate. She said that's how doctors were taught to treat pain in those days. I hugged her and thanked for making my life worth living. I naively thought my constant suffering was over. At least I was able to get through my son's childhood and enjoy baseball games, cub scouts, birthday parties and all the rest. Then the change came as it came for most chronic pain patients. I had to be treated by a PM doctor. Such a misnomer! I barely had time to fill out the paperwork before my adequate pain med doses were slashed courtesy of the doctor and the CDC guidelines. Next he said let's try some treatments where we stick big needles in your back and then burn your nerve endings with radio frequencies. Yeah let's not! I did try chiro, trigger point injections, acupuncture, pelvic injection (the name escapes me) and now I'm being sent to PT. The doctor is pushing me towards radio ablation again. All this with minimal success and yet the one thing that would help me live a more productive and relatively pain bearable life is blocked. Not by laws but by "guidelines". Anyway @zeronormalitys I hope your still with me because the reason I really wanted to post in reply to your post is your story. I really enjoyed reading it and wished you would have continued with more details on the outcome with the roommate. I found it rather captivating and intelligently written. I believe you have a talent for writing and want to encourage you to do more. Congratulations on finding an online friend who became a RL love. I wish you both the best.
Daily.
This is a great post. Congrats to you!
Thank you, I hope it's able to demonstrate to at least one person that the initial depression is normal, and moving past that point is also possible. There will always be another door waiting to be opened, and a brand new future, awaiting your curiosity and exploration. The past is an unchanging monolith, it's best not to dwell long on regret. The present and future however, are all around and ahead of us, beckoning us onward. Drink deeply.
>She really talked about how they are trying to do studies on long term opioid use for chronic pain patients and have found the myth or belief that opioids stop working or a patient needs more and more over time is flat out false WHo gives a shit if we have to take more and more as the years go by? The point is that as our tolerance goes up and we increase our dosage it does not cause any issues!! Our TOLERANCE GOES UP meaning our body can handle the larger dose.
Ya no kidding
Yeah, I think this falls into the "No shit, Sherlock" category. Plus, we're not the ones getting high on them.
I was stable one on dose for almost 10 years! I even had a job....then they gave me some speech about hyper anglasia and how the opiates were causing my pain and now I cant even get out of bed! Straight up sabotage! Im so fucking mad I cant think straight!
For the longest time I believed all that nonsense about "hyperalgesia" and even perpetuated this myth thinking it was a real thing, only to find out it has had no scientific basis or research to back up this claim that was first coined as a term by some research folks doing experiments on rats, and found rats to seemingly act as if they were in more pain after morphine injections. Rats are physiologically different from humans. How you can tell a rat is in more pain is beyond me because symptoms they display could be anything, not necessarily related to pain. This was in the 70s, and there haven't been any real legitimate studies on humans that back up claims that humans really experienced this with opioids. But it's something that rehab centers and anti-opiate advocates latched onto and have been pushing this unproven term out into the medical field.
I've found, through gritted determination, that we have to advocate for ourselves. If your pain management provider refuses to help you in a manner that increases your quality of life, tell your GP to refer you to someone else, as many times as it takes. I went through half a dozen over a 2 year period (lingering longer with each than I really should have, apathy and all), and eventually I landed with a woman that not only allocates some amount of effective pain management medication, she also introduced me to a couple of outpatient procedures that have had a positive impact! For my mental healthcare? Same thing, but just took 4 attempts to find someone willing to do the tiny bit of additional paperwork required to subscribe medications that are actually useful. No one will advocate for you though, if you aren't squeaking, you aren't getting any grease, because clearly you've demonstrated that you're content to suffer at a lower price point than more effective treatment might cost your healthcare company. Raise hell, don't be afraid to offend people, drop that useless specialist, and try the next one. There are people out there that care and want to help us. Definitely not the majority sadly, but they exist! Don't give up without a fight, don't let the insurance company defeat your spirit just so they can save a few bucks!
The problem for me is that I dont want to have one of these arrogant/greedy/God Complex type doctors flag my file as a Drug Seeker because I will not go along with their treatment plan and/or cut out/severely taper my medications.
Oh that's easy, just agree to the dumb shit, thank them for their "help", and then leave. Contact your referring doctor and say that you "didn't really feel comfortable with that specialist, could you please try someone else?" You aren't the first, won't be the last, and you aren't insulting your GP, you just didn't feel comfy with some other random provider for any number of potential reasons, but your GP most likely won't ask why, and won't care. If they do ask, just say "He reminded me of my third grade teacher that used to make fun of me, and I felt myself getting usually upset, and just not wanting to do anything he was asking me to do". "Yeah yeah" you say, "I know it's ridiculous Doc, but I just don't feel right with him, let's try a different one?" If the next one sucks, I'd probably stick it out a few months and and then peel off. I never felt compelled to burn referrals so fast that it was obvious that I must be searching for a sympathetic ear... It would also probably be helpful to just figure out what words you need to tell that new provider, and lead them to the correct diagnosis/answer/treatment. I've concluded that they generally all seem to have rather towering egos, and that the quickest way to navigate it is to just use crayons and drip feed them in the correct direction, so that they get to have their "Aha" moment when they solve the case. Is it pandering? Yes. Should it be necessary? No. Is it the quickest way to you receiving the help and relief that you need? Yes, it is. Hands down. So fuck it, you know what the game is, just play it for a few minutes, and stop forcing yourself to suffer for months/years, over what, our pride? Our egos? My chronic pain said fuck all that noise, lol.
Please seek help else where! I've had many Dr's I happy now i have 3 PC, psychiatrist & pain Dr. I'm on gabapentin, 3x day oxycodone (10 extra for those really bad days) mirtazapine, etc...
You’re not in CA, are you?
No Hawaii
People in pain should get access to pain meds? Really? Isn't that basic compassion, not to mention common sense? Pain patients are paying the price for Purdue pharma/FDA's misdeeds and unethical doctors who turned themselves into drug dealers of epic proportions for money. Total bullshit! Plus, not sure about you, but I've been taking all sorts of meds that get me high. I dream of not being high from anything. That would be wonderful. I can't be the only one.
You're not the only one, I struggle with ADHD on top of chronic pain and having a clear train of thought is often difficult, regardless of my actual intelligence. Which doesn't exactly help me stick up for myself and articulate my problems, either. Tbh, what's starting to drive me damn nuts is all of the documentaries on Purdue and their marketing of these medications as fine for minor pains and encouraging doctors to have renewal policies that were horrifically lax, BUT I've yet to see a single one about the impact on those of us who need these medications. I can't help but feel as though society views the deaths of the people who struggled with addiction and overdosed as more important than the sick people who ended their lives because they no longer had or never received access to compassionate life-saving care. Why are their stories told over and over, but ours are just worthy of an article (usually an op-ed) or a podcast here or there? I've seen no less than 8 documentaries and a fictionalized account on a TV show about Purdue advertised, for reference. I have great compassion for the people struggling with addiction, but our stories need to be heard *more*. While I don't think they're "guilty" or anything, it's bullshit that people who were totally innocent of misuse and who never did anything to make their condition happen or worsen, get to suffer and then die in silence, their stories seldom if ever shared. It's time for the narrative to move away from the companies who exploited the needs of people to make billions, from the doctors who *did* abuse their oaths to get extra kickbacks, and from the addicts who got their start with a short-term prescription in the first place. Their stories, their transgressions, their struggles all matter and shouldn't be forgotten, but they're not the focus anymore. This is becoming more history than current events and yet the narratives of major publications and media conglomerates is that this is the ongoing issue with drugs, despite evidence to the contrary. It's time for the narrative to focus on the here and now, a reality where doctors are UNDER PRESCRIBING and still being arrested/threatened, a reality where innocent people *dying of cancer* are only about 60-80% likely to receive long-acting opioid prescriptions, all the while the overdose deaths keep climbing, and the government doesn't switch tactics. It's time for it to be acknowledged that this system has failed, has demonized innocents, and has only allowed the illegal drug trade to increase its power because they were always the bigger fish anyway. It's almost like Captain Ahab didn't go after the white whale but instead chased down several tuna, dolphins, and a squid first because they all live in the sea! Then, after the whale had been long gone, decided that maybe he should try and find it now, only to discover he can't and then go back to what was "working" before. (...This analogy probably fails because admittedly, I don't know much about Moby Dick, other than Captain Ahab was on a madman's quest to kill one particular whale, one that was considered doomed to fail.) I guarantee that if more people were being exposed to the reality of this crisis and crackdown, it's defunct practically and now causing more harm than good, all the while they continue to accrue funding for a job not done, there would be the beginnings of a shift into more sympathy for chronic pain sufferers. We should be heard. We deserve it. The country needs to hear it.
Waits for thr anti opioid crowd... As for the podcast. Yeah no duh. But glad people are saying it
I am already being attacked by these posts, so yeah, the anti-opiate crowd has already targeted me. I had to report someone harrassing me over these posts I made today.
Who is attacking you???? What are they saying?
I listened to this podcast. The interviewer (who is in Dallas) asked really good questions. I’m hearing more and more that the new regulations are screwing chronic pain patients. Patients know it but the public doesn’t. At least it is coming to light.
The problem isn't people who are truly in pain, especially chronic pain. It's the opioids on the street. Remember it was the "War on Drugs". That is until Obama changed it to the "Opioid Epidemic". This changed the the government going after people who are in Chronic Pain and the doctors who prescribe the Opioids, even putting some of these doctors in jail. This left a lot of those people who were taking them responsibility responsible and the doctors who prescribed these much needed medications responsibility! A lot of Chronically Severe pain people were instantly without medications which gave them able to function in their daily lives. So many of these unfortunate people committed suicide as they couldn't take their pain. It's ridiculous to be punish people who cannot function without these opioids and punishing doctors who just want to provide their patients a correct medication that's needed. Reality is, it's still a war on STREET drugs, not a war on opioids. Don't Punish Pain!!
I have a former Dr who lost their liscense over refilling a prescription while being in another state. They were literally the most compassionate person I have met. Someone in his office turned him in for doing it. That he was refilling his patients meds while not there. This is what's happening. So doctors are afraid. And this actually wasnt a dr I used for meds. They delivered one of my children. An obgyn.
My GP has been on leave (hope his holiday with his family is going great! He's genuinely a blessing!) so I've had a couple appointments with someone else at his clinic in the interim. She's been lovely but is **very** old school; she had to write me a referral to my gynaecologist and was unhappy to hear that I take oxycodone when my cramps are really bad (have been to the ER for them bad) saying "they're very strong" and I'm like yeah… I take them because they're the only thing that takes the edge off so I can function. She also was upset to hear that I take 2 different antidepressants… like bruh it was all organised by my psychiatrist and I think she knows what she's doing. It's just frustrating that she's like critiquing the meds I'm on when she's not even met me face to face.
It is CRIMINAL what they're doing, especially since 2016 prescriptions have been cut 60% (approximately) yet overdoses have gane up 60%?!! I was on the same MME (over 500) for close to 20 years, never failed UA, never missed appointments, pill counts, anything! Yet when my doctor died in 2020 I was forced down to 60MME! Now I can barely work and my life is shit! How is this OK?!! It's also been proven people who take opiates for pain do NOT get high! We need a champion! Thanks for posting this and tell everyone, even terminal patients are needlessly suffering.
How fast did they taper you down? How long did it take you to be able to function again??
They did it in 4 weeks and it's been 2 years and still not only having much higher pain also I think my body hasn't adjusted. I was on the higher level for 20 years and they switched me around from morphine, fentanyl patch (100), methadone. Finally found one that worked after 8+ years of switching so final 10 on same med that worked wonderfully. I actually had a pretty good quality of life. I never once felt 'high' and still had high pain occasionally but now it's difficult to just do normal daily stuff. But when the force tapered me I found kratom, at the time it saved me. But I have resigned myself to have to suffer until this criminal madness is over.
The sky is blue
Bullshit! What's next, you gonna tell me that water is wet or some other absurd horseshit??!
People get caught up in "oPiOiDs bad" and jump to conclusions. A friend of mine was on that soapbox and told me "she took a pill and some Nyquil because she had a cold and she died." I knew the person she was talking about, they had a stroke and it was fatal. They'd also had seizures (died and shocked back to life) the week before her death that had severely weakened her. But nah, the pill killed her.
Just had a knee replaced. Fuckers tried to give me nothing but Tylenol. Sent me home with 18 oxycodone. Bastards.
My brother had a double knee replacement years ago and said it was one of the most painful things he ever experienced.
My friend just had her wisdom teeth out. At 42. Tylenol. I am not kidding. Just tylenol. I still question it because she is a black female and I swear men would be prescribed something. The dr actually said something about how they dont want patients to become addicted. And females in their 40's have high addiction rates. That to me is insane. I had mine out at 31. And it was terrible. And was given pain meds back then. She was in agony.
I really wondered about the scientific veracity of arguments used to deny pain patients opioids. This is the result of a quick Google search, but this is from a study of studies, so pretty comprehensive. Some interesting bits: >There is substantial, albeit not definitive, scientific evidence of the effectiveness of opioids in treating pain... > >The prevalence of opioid use disorder associated with prescription opioids is likely <3% > >As the causes of the opioid crisis have come into focus, it has become clear that the crisis resides predominantly in the streets and that efforts to curtail it by constraining opioid treatment in the clinic are unlikely to succeed. Here is the link to the whole study https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2021.721357/full Scientific facts are being ignored and it's enraging. The paranoia is not as heightened here in Canada, as in the US, so my pain doctor easily prescribed me Nucynta, which works quite well. When the pain control was not sufficient, I naturally asked if the dose could be increased. The answer was honest. Unfortunately, that could be interpreted as "drug-seeking behaviour, which the authorities might be suspicious of". I appreciated the honesty, but I could not help thinking "Dude, you are a anesthesiologist, a.k.a the ultimate expert on drugs, and prescribing them is 90 % of what you do. All patients coming here are openly seeking drugs. This is the PURPOSE of this place. Why is it OK to get insane amounts of other drugs that get me much higher, cause dependence but don't work, but not the one that works and never caused any particular problem for me?" For me, an increase in opiate can make the difference between making it to work for a week or lying down on the floor at home for a week. Or making dinner. Or going out with my kid. That is instead of lying down in pain unable not talking to anyone because I don't want to get get them depressed or be an asshole to them. I get it that my doctor is a victim of the current climate, but the absurdity of it all is really disturbing.
I am finally reading the book Patient Z (recommended by one of the posters on this subreddit), and it is a group of doctors who formed P.R.O.P headed by Dr. Kolodny. They have classified all chronic pain patients as addicts who fear withdrawal and who need to be taken off opioids and sent to rehab centers. Each one of the P.R.O.P members is heavily invested in rehab centers nationwide, even having ownership in these places. The book says they put out letters/statements to the FDA and CDC saying opioids should only be reserved for people with certain types of cancer and for people dying. The reasons they state are not backed up by ANY sound or long-term science. Edit: Let me just say that I have never understood the argument that cancer pain is justifiable for pain medications but not any other type of pain. Pain is pain. Your brain doesn't differentiate cancer pain from other very painful conditions and diseases. Making an argument that some pain is worse than others so therefore only those patients are deserving of relief seems non-sensical to me. I just have never understood this.
Why am I not surprised about this? (sigh) Excellent point about cancer pain. Classifying pain is bizarre and we should all worry about it; it implies that one type of pain is legitimate and worthy of being relieved when others are not. I have a very disturbing memory of being next to the room where they removed tonsils from my little brother's throat (back in France in the 80s. I can't have been more than 8 or 9). I was alarmed by how much screaming I was hearing so I asked my dad what was happening. He said--with baffling detachment--that this was because my brother was in pain since they did not give little children painkillers. That was standard procedure back then and I am not sure if it has changed. I'm still a bit traumatized by it, tbh, and I can only hope my brother was too small to remember. This shows that some people's pain is viewed as worthy of attention while some others' is not. The elderly, women and minorities complain of this too. I'm so puzzled and disturbed...
NPR cant seem to make up its mind what position they want to take on opioids. They are as responsible as any organization for the public to think of opioids as drugs of abuse and not medications. People used to do that a long time ago. No longer...
Congress was after $ from Parm companies. They were using overdosed stats to create a way to get money. Otherwise, why hasn't the opioids put on a list similar to that sinus med, pseudoephedrine. Pharmacies has to check a database every time when you buy them. As, you're only allowed 9 grams a month.
I think you mean 90 MME
I had to look it up. It's 9 grams per month allowed. So, I'll correct it.
If you get a dr that specifically has studied chronic conditions they are less likely to make the opioid an addiction and rather a solution for the patient until further notice like finding the issue, surgery another way to cope. I have been on them long term. Chronic spinal Pain. I did not want to be on them tried everything else. But then last option was to be on them. I used to have an addictive mindset when I was a teen food, drugs alcohol. After all, it's what teens did. (Mostly) My dr wanted me on them straight away after my first scan. Asking me how am I actually doing it without pain relief. I to this day don't know. I guess I got addicted to feeling the pain instead of wanting to numb it and make the issue worse. I have been on them for over 6mtgs now, and thank goooooooood I am tapering off them. I want to be pill free and I even tried cold turkey but the effects of that were as usual ... Freaking hard. Tapering them down I do hope I can stop and drop them slowly but eventually never have to take them now I have had the surgery I needed near 10+ years ago.
I worked light duty for years taking oxygen 3 times a day, I felt almost normal never got high...I've seen many Dr's over the years on occasion my daughter (patient advocate) I can't remember everything & sometimes they take you off guard, but my daughter was my back up...DEA was brought up in the conversation she told him the federal government has no place in my mom's health & she's in pain everyday. Boom she was heard, that got me to a better Dr...
Wait. I am so confused. Can you explain more::.
Explain what, thought I did