Thank you for writing this. My husband has a rare, progressive form of spinal arthritis that attacks the soft tissue between the vertebrae. He’s in contant pain, cannot work and to top it off is shamed for taking his opioid prescription as directed and never refills it early. Yet doctors and pharmacists call him a junkie and treat him like his less than others. Why do pharmacists get to lecture him? If they wanted to be doctors, they should have done so. Instead, they act as if they have the right to shame my husband in a crowded pharmacy. We can’t move, because my husband’s doctor is the only one for 160 square miles who treats pain patients and car rides are a misery for his condition. My husband was a proud man who worked hard to support his family. He’s a good husband and father, but the shame heaped on him constantly and the continuous pain he suffers has turned him into a broken and unhappy man. He deserves better. A good first step is to put the power back into the hands of pain doctors who legitimatly care for those patients left aside by Washington and unscrupulous medical boards, prosecutors and police trying to make names for themselves. My family has cried enough tears for their poor treatment of an honrable man. The government has done enough damage with their overreach to last a lifetime. The opioid crisis of overdoses are caused by fentanyl mixed with other drugs nearly 87% of the time, not by pain medications alone. Close the border and stop fentanyl smuggling and the death will stop almost completely. That’s as close to perfect as we’ll ever get in this life.
Very well thought out & written. The pendulum always swings in the opposite extreme direction & hurts those that it wasn’t intended too unfortunately, but policies haven’t corrected for it yet. I fought cancer for 7 years & had a WONDERFUL oncologist! He managed my cancer pain very well and we had excellent, open communication about it. I struggled with his nurses & staff repeatedly though because of all the above. I saw a TON of other cancer patients not get pain mgmt during treatment & that blows my mind!! I would add a few bullets from my oncology experiences:
–oncology patients & Drs should be in a subset that possibly have their own guidelines, in needed.
–a pain mgmt off-boarding process should be followed when any patient no longer requires treatment:
*should be a slow, steady process that involves the patient & a high level of communication without judgement for pauses in reduction (it happens).
*too many patients get “just cut off” leading to street drugs. (This may be more in onco in my experience? Not sure) but An open communication, slow ramp to decrease physical dependence helps the patient achieve it successfully & without unnecessary withdrawal side effects. It should always be part of the patients care IMO. I feel the lack of this process has directly contributed to the opiod epidemic the US has seen.
Just my thoughts
Wait what state are u in that nps can’t write for opioids cause my pm Dr is a nurse practitioner and I get my meds from her .I’m just curious
I am in complete shock as to what is happening in this country. People are talking their own lives and turning to the streets because they are forced too. These are lives! Stolen lives that matter! But not to those who caused such suffering.
That Pharmacist should lose her license for her biased behavior. Medicine should have no politics. Politics Agnostic of sorts.
I am required to go in MONTHLY to receive my pain medications and am subject to random urine tests, which cause undue stress due to false positives. A stable patient should not be required to appear in person every month. Three months is more than sufficient. If a patient requires an increase in dosage, I can see monthly visits to titrate the dose to the proper amount, but not this foolishness of monthly visits.
Thank you for your comment.
Thank you for this. I was diagnosed with a rare bone disease that is known to cause horrible pain, even without my chronic fractures. No doctor will help me or prescribe pain medication so i am forced to lay in the fetal position most of the time, its the only relief i get. They will only offer me injections, which are not FDA approved and are known to cause more harm to my specific disease. I have no quality of life and i contribute nothing to society currently because i am unable to function without excruciating pain.
A pharmacist told me about one of his cancer patients who did just what you said: went to the street for relief. Not only is that dangerous it’s cruel and unusual punishment.
I totally agree. Random meant every single month for me. I felt duped. I was manipulated into signing the contract because I was desperate. I was taken advantage of. I was told that in order to receive care I had to sign and do an evaluation. Never had to do this until this time. Been on pain meds for over 24+ yrs and thrived. This has hurt my ability to work and prosper. I just want to live my life and live passionately unapologetically.
Let’s Go! Good job! I think this is a well thought out policy. I am praying for all of us.
I take Norco for a bad spinal surgery that cannot be fixed. I had 2nd degree burns recently on my face. I was refused pain meds because I took Norco. The 3rd time I went to the er, I was on the verge of a massive heart attack with a healthy heart due to the pain. I was sent home, nothing for pain and still showing signs of a heart attack. THIS IS NOT RIGHT!! I DID NOT ASK FOR CHRONIC PAIN!!
I never got “high” I just get pain relief, like a 6 or 7 instead of a 10.
Absolutely, I’m losing the ability to care for myself with every taper down that I’m given no choice but to do. Dr says if you don’t go down you can find another Dr. All this when I’ve had a pain pump for 9 years, not taking anything orally and since losing the pump to infection I need a higher dose of oral meds to match the high dose from the pump that gave me some relief to go on, now none.
I can only get gabapentin and I have a sever spinal deformity. I did well on the same dose for 10 yrs until 2016. I have now developed dysautonomia and I can no longer walk or be upright for more than 10 minutes. I feel the amount of pain I am in has changed me. I don’t trust Drs or Pharmacist and I was a nurse for 30 yrs. I feel so insignificant and useless now. God Bless the pain community. Hopefully we get heard now. I read once you can tell a lot about a country by the way they treat children and the elderly. I might add how they treat those in unrelenting pain.
I’m in total agreement with you. We are patients not convicts. We are treated like we don’t contribute. We have lives, families to provide for. The proper management of my intractable painful azzdisease,allowed me to complete college, participate in organized functions such as walks for Ups for Downs. A walk for Down syndrome kids. They encouraged me, my children developed relationships which enabled them to see love is what brings us together. My husband and I are proud parents of loving,compassionate and empathetic young men. College educated bc the help from us. Our health is not the best, no cure,yet the care we received from our drs allowed us to succeed at parenting and learning,teaching ND nurturing relationships. My spiritual journey was able to grow. I served, took the message on the road helping teach the love of God. My disabled community has suffered for $. This is akin to imprisonment. MY Cleaning business,tutoring business with my daughter as a Girl Scout was a life rich with exposure and experience. Thanks to corrupt des and misinformation lies and stigma surrounding pain meds took all that aWay from out family. Mentoring young girls ,teaching swimming by a woc that didn’t learn til after my last child was born. Her fear pushed me into the water to support her. Life in severe pain that can be controlled is inhumane. Gain control from individualized pain control. That’s how we win!
This is pain patient genocide. Horrible. Die with dignity, how about respect and compassion for life struggling to get out of bed,shower,go to work, take care of children and a household!? We deserve to live a qol with dignity. Why should we suffer bc we are not coding? Our life matters. The quality of our life matters to MANY. Sicklers deserve to live out their dreams and HAVE QOL OUTSIDE A HOSPITAL BED. LIVING AND DYING WITH DIGNITY SHOULD ME A LAW, man was given this by God but man wants to control who gets pain meds and how much. Hate looks like that. Gatekeepers are unnecessary and devious not to mention divisive! Allow drugs to sold used etc ie mjm,alcohol,cigarettes, mushrooms, ketamine. Opioids have a real benefit on lives gold standard of care for severe intractable-pain.
We as a country have failed you. You deserve whatever makes us thrive.
Wow thank you. Theres a lot more tocit and how i have been failed in many ways. They give more to illegals. I have been a taxing paying citizen since i was 14 and have worked my ass off. I have never mooched off of the government but when i need them most thaley have failed me in everyway. I have lost everything, literally everythng because of my health. I now live in my vehicle making it all more difficult. I have no family and no others to be able to help. I have signed up for every possible resource there is to try to get some sort of help and have not received anything. The medical system has also just completely failed me. I have been accused of seeking drugs, seeking sympathy, I have been talked down to and belitted, ignored, almost paralyzed due to negligence, all while my helth was deteriorating right in front of them. It took me literally being in tears and begging one of my doctors to listen to me and help me did I actually get proper testing and then a diagnosis. Then on top of it all, insurance!! What a joke. They have denied so many things that if i would have had, either it be medication or certain procedures, i wouldnt be in as bad of shape im in. I have 15 fractures currently in my back and neck, they denied the only procedure I am elgible for because i am not a candidate for the surgery i need because there isnan 80% chance ill become paralyzed. I so hope i wake up one day and this is actually all just 1 big nightmare.
Doctors, patients, and medications have been unjustly vilified. It’s time for change. It’s time for the truth to emerge from the propaganda and lies that have spread like wild fire. People should not be left to suffer in pain, when there are safe medications that offer quality of life.
Bill your starting to come across as a mg cop. Where’s the compassion? In my case, while it may be in the guidelines, the pain is worse and the dosage isn’t enough. Guidelines are kind of dumb in a pain situation as pain isn’t a one size fits all.