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Many people with lung cancer quit smoking after the damage is done. It’s cettainly not unheard of to try to beat an addiction after permanent damage has been done.
Right - well, we all know that addictions are hard to beat. Incredibly difficult. Especially when there are years or decades of denial of the problem.
And even if you quit smoking after a lung cancer diagnosis, you have only about a 50 percent chance of being alive in five years IF it is diagnosed in the early stages (only 16 percent of lung cancer is diagnosed in the early stages). Late stage diagnosis - five percent survival rate. Heck, I'd probably just keep smoking at that point!
Are you saying that in spite of my uncle's pain and his liver disease, he should have quit taking opiates? At that point, why? Like I said, the damage was already done.
Yes...and the losers are the ones that REALLY need them.
I answered everyone of your questions (because you said you'd appreciate it)...you answered none of mine....how come?
I'm sorry - I thought I had answered multiple questions - please repeat them. Thanks.
But drop the snark. I never said or implied that "losers are the ones that REALLY need opiates." I don't consider myself, or my mother, or my grandmother losers in any way.
If we can't discuss this civilly then I'm out. But if you really want to discuss the topic reasonably without sarcasm and without putting words I didn't say or think or imply into my mouth (well, fingers), then let's keep talking.
Are you saying that it was the opioids that caused his death?
How would you feel if your mother was denied her opioids because of the so-called opioid crisis, and now faced a never ending pain.
THAT'S the reality for a LOT of legitimate patients.
Do you think we must all be dying before we should be allowed pain killer that actually works for us?
'
My mother is not going to be denied her opiate prescription. All she has to do is have a face to face visit with her doctor once a quarter, like everyone else on long term opiate prescriptions. Heck, she sees her doctor more often than that anyway, so I don't see the problem. You're creating a scenario that doesn't exist.
I am saying that years of prescription opiate use severely damaged my uncle's liver, and that he died of liver failure. That's what I'm saying about his death. I am also saying that he expressed great regret many times over taking prescription opiates for so long. He firmly believed that in the long run, they were more damaging and detrimental than helpful for him, in spite of his health conditions that created chronic pain.
And sorry, but that's the last time I'm going to repeat that - I've said that in every way I can come up with multiple times.
I have some questions as well - anyone, jump in and give me some honest feedback:
1. Do you believe that opiates can be addictive, sometimes quickly?
2. Do you believe that we have an increasingly serious opiate addiction in this country?
3. Do you believe that in some cases, over time, opiates can actually cause a hypersensitivity to pain?
4. Do you believe it's possible to predict with any accuracy, prior to prescription, who will and who will not have any addiction or hypersensitivity to pain from prescription opiates?
5. Do you believe that the overdose and abuse rates for opiate usage in this country are increasing? If so, why? Should we as a society be concerned about this?
1. Yes
2.Not to prescription Opiates as clear evidence has not been provided yet due to mis-reporting.
3.Of course, ALL medication has side effects and NO medication works the same on all who take it.
4.Possibly with addictive gene identification.
5(A). Depends on which Opiate we're talking about, that does matter right?
5(B). Drug use for escape has always been an issue. As drug use via the push for legal MJ has become more and more mainstream it seems to me the idea of ALL drug use is becoming more "normalized" behavior.
Yes, we should be concerned but not paranoid and overreacting as we are now headed...
Did the opiates keep him mobile?
Did they help him tolerate the pain, so that he could go about his life?
Did being "addicted" or dependent (as the doctors of legitimate patients like to call it) prove detrimental to his life??? Perhaps you could explain in what way...
Do you believe cutting your Uncle off of the opiates would have saved him?...or helped him live longer?
I believe these are the questions you asked, and though I've answered them in various forms, I'll make it more succinct.
1. To some extent, though he believed later in life that other methods could have helped him.
2. No. According to him, they ruined his life.
3. Yes. Not going to explain it again.
4. Yes. I believe that because I heard it straight from his mouth and he should know - he was the one with the pain and with the opiate addiction, not me.
These are the losers in the "war" on pain killers.
Good god those are sad stories that had NO logical reason for happening. I worry that if this crusade continues and gets worse I might be in the same situation as those in that article.
Each one of those so-called "doctors" should be sued for malpractice if the stories are in fact true.
Good god those are sad stories that had NO logical reason for happening. I worry that if this crusade continues and gets worse I might be in the same situation as those in that article.
Each one of those so-called "doctors" should be sued for malpractice if the stories are in fact true.
Agree. "Failure to treat" is happening. People are suffering due to addicts. Even I was given the once over many times at the ER while having a heart attack (genetic issue). Even had a nurse tell me they would screen me for drug use before I got relief...DURING a heart attack.
After many surgeries, I still get the side eye at Walgreens for post op meds. It's insanity now.
I believe these are the questions you asked, and though I've answered them in various forms, I'll make it more succinct.
1. To some extent, though he believed later in life that other methods could have helped him.
2. No. According to him, they ruined his life.
3. Yes. Not going to explain it again.
4. Yes. I believe that because I heard it straight from his mouth and he should know - he was the one with the pain and with the opiate addiction, not me.
Sometimes one has to decide which one of two evils are worse. Pain control or potential risk to one's body. That's a decision only the patient can make with the information at hand at that time. I'd certainly regret my choice if it led later on to my death but would understand it was my doing.
My doctors have and do blood work every 3 months (and have for 20 years) to monitor liver/kidney functions as well as several other things to make sure I'm not going toxic in any way from the meds I take.
I'd hate to have to make a choice should something go awry...
Good god those are sad stories that had NO logical reason for happening. I worry that if this crusade continues and gets worse I might be in the same situation as those in that article.
Each one of those so-called "doctors" should be sued for malpractice if the stories are in fact true.
Dr. Thomas Kline - supposedly practices medicine in NC, one of the states with the highest opiate addiction and opiate prescription rates per capita. His "business address" online is actually a home address in a residential area. I could find no other address for him. In the stories he relays, he states that people "couldn't get pain meds for pain diseases." This is a constant refrain in his stories. However, people CAN get pain meds for "pain diseases."
He frequently talks about the VA and implies that veterans aren't able to get opiates that they need. Out of ALL the veterans in the US, what percentage of them do you think have a true need for opiate pain relief? The reason why I am asking that is because while opiate prescriptions have been declining (as part of a plan to decrease dependency and abuse of opiates in general), VA hospitals still do prescribe opiates - the average percentage is about 10 percent of veterans under the care of the VA receive opiate prescriptions, with some VA hospitals at 3 percent ranging up to 18 percent.
Anyway, the stories he describes are lacking a LOT of detail.
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