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Unless a person is dying, I think pain medication is over prescribed, and like someone upthread said, pain is an indication that something is wrong . . . find out what is wrong and correct it is my thinking (I know it is not always easy) . . . doctors definitely overprescribe pain meds.
Sounds like addicts just needing their next fix . . .
the MS stands for multiple sclerosis read up on the effects of MS and let me know if a cure has been found ok, then check on the pain that MS alone causes.now add the other illnesses on top degenerative disc disease,nerve damage,sciatica,osteoathrites,diabetes etc,Oh and dont forget the other non-pill things I do to make it through each day like body rubs just to make my legs work , then physical therapy,tens unit,herbal supplements,vitamins,water therapy and balance ball plus I can even walk up to two hole blocks(not city blocks) now without my bulging (L-3,4 discs)coming out of place and throwing me to the ground and giving me another ride to the hospital.than i get to do more cat-scans,mri's, x-rays and start all over again ! SOUNDS like an addict just needing a fix!! no pain here I sincerly hope you or yours never have to deal with even the pain a stubed toe or hitting your funnybone or living through a train wreak,even the pain of being burned over 1/3rd of your body. or get an illness that has no cure or cause like MS!
the MS stands for multiple sclerosis read up on the effects of MS and let me know if a cure has been found ok, then check on the pain that MS alone causes.now add the other illnesses on top degenerative disc disease,nerve damage,sciatica,osteoathrites,diabetes etc,Oh and dont forget the other non-pill things I do to make it through each day like body rubs just to make my legs work , then physical therapy,tens unit,herbal supplements,vitamins,water therapy and balance ball plus I can even walk up to two hole blocks(not city blocks) now without my bulging (L-3,4 discs)coming out of place and throwing me to the ground and giving me another ride to the hospital.than i get to do more cat-scans,mri's, x-rays and start all over again ! SOUNDS like an addict just needing a fix!! no pain here I sincerly hope you or yours never have to deal with even the pain a stubed toe or hitting your funnybone or living through a train wreak,even the pain of being burned over 1/3rd of your body. or get an illness that has no cure or cause like MS!
imcurious began one of his/her sermonettes:
"I will not argue this further because I don't "believe" in conventional medicine and always try to look at metaphysical reasons for everything."
You are dealing with the reality of pain, imcurious is dealing with a belief system. It's the difference between the guy who is digging a ditch, and the lofty thinker who contemplates why the Eternal needs a ditch.
I share some of your physical problems, and you have my best wishes for the strength to live with these problems and to make the most judicious use of you can of medical science, including pain relieving medications.
The other thing that imcurious and some others don't take into consideration is that chronic pain is debilitating and depressing. Doing research, seeing doctors, undergoing tests, trying various treatments, having surgery -- all of it takes energy that I don't have. For example, people say "try acupuncture". Easy enough to suggest. But first I have to figure out how to find an acupuncturist, then whether it's covered by my insurance, then go to the acupuncturist, describe my issues, and probably have to go to treatment several times per week. For a normal person, this may sound not all that difficult. But for a patient who's in pain and depressed, it takes a level of energy that is hard to muster...for a treatment that may or may not help. I'm sure it's difficult for the average person to understand, or perhaps they don't want to understand in their rush to judge chronic pain patients as pill-poppers.
it is so easy for people like IMCURIOUS to take the stand that a person should just fix the problem but they wont,because they are wanting the buzz that pain killers give them.....and they are usually people who have never been ill a day in their life. humans aren't fords or Chevy's that you can get your front end rebuilt or a new set of rings. yes several of the injuries are self induced from football injuries or a fall off a roof that may have been avoided. but the pain is there to stay,or people who contact a genetic disease like I have rheumatoid arthritis, or m.s. which my niece has and her pain compared to what I suffer makes me feel wimpy in comparison.
some people talk when they dont think things out. I sure would like to get a complete body overhaul (preferably a low mileage unleaded one from the late 90's or early 2000 models) and I would flush the pain pills in a heart beat
Absolutely. Doctors have been so harassed by the DEA that the vast majority of them will not provide any pain relief medication if it is one of the DEA's targets (like all opiates, which are the ones that work). Today you are likely to have to pay a higher co-pay to visit a specialist every single month (you must pick up and hand carry every 30 day Rx to the pharmacy), to treat a long-term pain problem.
I suffered from horrendous migraines most of my life, and until the invention of Imitrex (which is not a pain medication) I saw literally hundreds of doctors looking for relief. Later, when my Dad was dying of cancer, I found out about many times when his pain medication was stolen by the nursing home staff (at a nursing home that charged us $8,000 a month).
This "War on Drugs," done for the sole purpose of increasing government power, has greatly increased the problem of under-treatment of pain in America--a problem that was noted even before the Drug Nazis existed. And since the vast majority of us will be dealing with pain problems some time before we die, this has major ramifications for quality of life in America.
America is rare in making almost every drug available only by prescription, and in going so overboard in criminalizing drugs that are nowhere near as dangerous as tobacco. Drug abuse is a problem limited to very few, though government would have us believe ANYONE could fall victim to it and society will fall unless we submit to totalitarian control. The vast majority of the population has tried both legal and illegal drugs, but only a tiny minority become "addicted" and even fewer abuse them.
To the OP: I think the implication of your post was people who are on pain meds continuously, month in and month out, not people who need them on a one shot basis such as for a broken bone in an accident or during the recovery from surgery. Is this correct?
If so, I have often wondered what sort of conditions call for continuous pain medication. That just doesn't seem right or normal to me. Pain is a sign that something is wrong. Shoudn't that something be corrected so that pain meds are no longer needed?
My experience has been that doctors over-prescribe pain medication. I had hernia surgery a month ago and was sent home from the hospital with a bottle of 30 pills of a powerful narcotic (Norco). I used 8 of them and now I have 22 just sitting there waiting until I stub my toe or skin my knee or whatever. This is sort of an invitation for abuse, in my opinion. (I will not abuse the 22 pills - I will probably wind up throwing them out four or five years from now, nor will I give or sell them to anyone else, but I'm just saying that not everyone may be as scrupulously correct as I am in such matters).
EscortRider
Come and live in my world.....I take pain medication on a daily basis thank the good Lord above because without it I would be bed bound and wouldn't be sitting here typing on CD...I suffer from advanced stages of Rheumatoid & Osteo Arthritis, Fibromylgia, and other medical problems. If it wasn't for my pain meds I couldn't make it thru my day. In the past year and a half I have had rotar cuff surgery, fractured shoulder, shattered humurous bone, surgery on my fractured shoulder and a metal rod put in my arm to hold it together, 2 fractured bones in my arm, 1 in my hand, a couple of fractured ribs, a cracked bone in my face near my eye, I fainted and cracked my head so hard on the floor I went into a grand mall seizure and now suffer from memory loss and have cronic head aches and severe back and neck pain.....so why do I take pain meds!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely. Doctors have been so harassed by the DEA that the vast majority of them will not provide any pain relief medication if it is one of the DEA's targets (like all opiates, which are the ones that work). Today you are likely to have to pay a higher co-pay to visit a specialist every single month (you must pick up and hand carry every 30 day Rx to the pharmacy), to treat a long-term pain problem.
I suffered from horrendous migraines most of my life, and until the invention of Imitrex (which is not a pain medication) I saw literally hundreds of doctors looking for relief. Later, when my Dad was dying of cancer, I found out about many times when his pain medication was stolen by the nursing home staff (at a nursing home that charged us $8,000 a month).
This "War on Drugs," done for the sole purpose of increasing government power, has greatly increased the problem of under-treatment of pain in America--a problem that was noted even before the Drug Nazis existed. And since the vast majority of us will be dealing with pain problems some time before we die, this has major ramifications for quality of life in America.
America is rare in making almost every drug available only by prescription, and in going so overboard in criminalizing drugs that are nowhere near as dangerous as tobacco. Drug abuse is a problem limited to very few, though government would have us believe ANYONE could fall victim to it and society will fall unless we submit to totalitarian control. The vast majority of the population has tried both legal and illegal drugs, but only a tiny minority become "addicted" and even fewer abuse them.
Sole purpose? How about the purpose of stopping abuses, about which you are in denial. If one just reads a good daily newspaper, such as the Los Angeles Times, one will be aware of doctors (note the plural - more than one) who face criminal charges because they write massive numbers of prescriptions for the heaviest kinds of drugs for people whom they have never examined. There have been documented deaths resulting from this. It is a very dangerous thing.
Now it could well be that there has been an over-reaction towards enforcement, but your post completely lacks any semblance of balance. And it seems to lack any awareness of the lethal abuse problems which are out there.
escort the balance should be from the DEA if a Dr treats people who suffer from extreme pain over look them but if you are a gen.prac. who is writing a enormous amount of pain killers go for them but the DEA wants feathers in their hats to say see we saved the public and what happens is the Dr's run and hide and let needy Patience in pain . the DEA needs to go after the drug peddler Dr's. not the ones dealing with extreme pain.
escort the balance should be from the DEA if a Dr treats people who suffer from extreme pain over look them but if you are a gen.prac. who is writing a enormous amount of pain killers go for them but the DEA wants feathers in their hats to say see we saved the public and what happens is the Dr's run and hide and let needy Patience in pain . the DEA needs to go after the drug peddler Dr's. not the ones dealing with extreme pain.
I am not claiming everything is fine. You admit and recognize that there are real and serious abuses out there, and that's exactly what the previous poster (to whom I responded) denied completely. I was responding to the one-sided denial. I don't think you and I are very far apart at all.
Sole purpose? How about the purpose of stopping abuses, about which you are in denial. If one just reads a good daily newspaper, such as the Los Angeles Times, one will be aware of doctors (note the plural - more than one) who face criminal charges because they write massive numbers of prescriptions for the heaviest kinds of drugs for people whom they have never examined. There have been documented deaths resulting from this. It is a very dangerous thing. Now it could well be that there has been an over-reaction towards enforcement, but your post completely lacks any semblance of balance. And it seems to lack any awareness of the lethal abuse problems which are out there.
How many documented deaths, and how do those numbers compare to the 445,000 deaths every year from tobacco?
Yes, government would like you to think that anyone can go to any doctor and be given any drug for the slightest complaint. If you have ever dealt with a health issue that causes chronic pain, you would know this is simply not true. You could go to a hundred doctors for pain that would drive most people to suicide, and chances are very few would give you an effective pain Rx. None would give you anything without seeing you--every single month. This is how they make their money, and there is simply no reason to give out pain prescriptions (and risking being set up by the DEA) without collecting your $250 "fee" for the 30-day Rx.
The anecdotal case of a doctor writing "massive" prescriptions for people they have never examined is, in all but the rarest cases, simply government trying to get all the sheeple behind their Drug War. We all know government is insatiable in its need for more power and more money. And when drugs are involved the government can easily confiscate private property and cash: "Beginning in 1970, Congress enacted legislation to permit government to seize property of Mafia organizations and big-time drug smugglers.[1] In succeeding decades, other forfeiture laws were enacted, and federal agents can now seize private property under more than 200 different statutes.[2] From 1985 to 1991, the number of federal seizures of property under asset forfeiture laws increased by 1500 percent—reaching a total of $644 million.[3] State and local governments have also seized hundreds of millions of dollars of property in recent years.[4]" Seizure Fever: The War on Property Rights | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty
I agree that abuse of drugs can be a problem, which is exactly why it should be treated as a medical problem and not driven underground by criminalization. Do the cash and assets confiscated by government go to drug treatment? Of course not. It goes to more and more government staff and high-tech toys, just like speeding fines pay for more traffic cops to hand out more tickets. Has the Drug War had any effect on stopping or limiting drug abuse? No. Is is incredibly expensive? Yes.
The Drug War does absolutely nothing to address the causes and treatment of drug abuse, because it forces people to hide their problems from law enforcement AND everyone else. If you think drug abuse is a problem, you should want to address it rather than use people's problems as a cash cow to make government even bigger and more intrusive.
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because without it I would be bed bound and wouldn't be sitting here typing on CD
...I suffer from advanced stages of Rheumatoid & Osteo Arthritis, Fibromylgia, and other medical problems. If it wasn't for my pain meds I couldn't make it thru my day. In the past year and a half I have had rotar cuff surgery, fractured shoulder, shattered humurous bone, surgery on my fractured shoulder and a metal rod put in my arm to hold it together, 2 fractured bones in my arm, 1 in my hand, a couple of fractured ribs, a cracked bone in my face near my eye, I fainted and cracked my head so hard on the floor I went into a grand mall seizure and now suffer from memory loss and have cronic head aches and severe back and neck pain.....so why do I take pain meds
!!!!!!!!!!
Sole purpose?
