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Old 05-05-2017, 11:55 PM
 
18,223 posts, read 16,832,842 times
Reputation: 7523

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Quote:
Originally Posted by StillRoaming View Post
Tell that to my husband, a severely injured Army veteran who has been on pain pills for years. With pain pills, he has a little bit of a life. Without them, he vegetates in a chair in severe pain. He has been the model patient taking the pills as prescribed and without incident. But now the VA is cutting back on prescribing pain pills for everyone. Hubby has just been cut back again, and I have to watch him disintegrating before my eyes. He went through all of the BS of TENS units, chiropractors, etc, but none of it helped long-term. Maybe those things would work for those with little pain, but they are useless for most with severe chronic pain.

Thanks to the druggies of this world as well as those who have never lived with chronic pain but think they know what's best for everybody else, many good people who really need these pills will no longer have any quality of life. Good medicine should not be "one size fits all." Pain pills are not a perfect solution, but for some they are the only reasonable solution. It's disgraceful what is happening to good people.
I've read several excellent posts here (along with my own ) and StillRoaming's resonates best with me. Everything she says is absolutely true.

What I am still trying to figure out is what the FDA is trying to accomplish with these draconian cutbacks, even against veterans who were maimed and defacto forced onto these pills in the service of their country. I don't believe even for a second that their concern is for the young lives lost to abuse. If health were their primary concern they'd be moving against the alcohol industry whose product kills ten times the number of people lost to drug OD.

The second mystery to me is why Big Pharma is rolling over and playing dead instead of fighting these measures with an army of lobbyists flooding Capitol Hill with money. That normally would be their modus operandi when their biggest cash cow is being threatened. Instead they're allowing the FDA to push them around like a schoolyard bully. I just don't get it.

Pain clinics are also the big losers here. Unless they can safely prescribe narcotics to their patients their base will dry up and they will be forced to shut their doors. Already pain clinics are being shuttered faster than churches.

Other big losers are the doctors who will lose 50% of their patient base that regularly come to them for prescriptions. Also pharmacies who are outright refusing to carry the pain meds and if they have them are refusing to fill legitimate prescriptions.

Again, no one wins here. The pain sufferers lose; Big Pharma loses; doctors lose; pharmacies lose; the only winners are the drug dealers whose client base will swell 10,000% as pain victims flock to them for illicit pills/heroin or blow their brains out from the intractable agony.
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Old 05-06-2017, 12:03 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
5,586 posts, read 8,374,392 times
Reputation: 11210
I can relate to so many of your stories. I was prescribed narcotics for severe back pain, which didn't go away after epidurals, physical therapy and even surgery. It's nerve pain that shoots down my legs and totally has affected my quality of life. I have found that the pain medication takes the "edge" off (never totally eliminates nerve pain) and also gives me a bit of energy. I've been on them for over 10 years, taken responsibly and prescribed by a pain management specialist.

But wow, when I moved from PA to FL, it was touch-and-go! I found a pain specialist and was having the scripts filled at Walgreen's, when suddenly, the Walgreen's pharmacist decided to cut me off. No call to my doctor or anything. She told me I should not be taking this many pills for this long. WOW! She did this knowing full well that I would go into complete withdrawal in a cold-turkey situation. I found out that Walgreen's in FL got in trouble with the FDA some years back for filling pill-mill scripts, so in an effort to crack down, they have given their pharmacists permission to use their own judgement on whether the scrip should be filled! For example, if you don't live in the local area, or maybe you don't "look right". Do you believe it!!?? No pharmacist should have that authority without talking to your doctor!!!

Then I started going to an independent Mom & Pop pharmacy, but the narcotics could only be a certain percentage of your overall meds. I wasn't taking enough "other" stuff, so he had my doctor prescribe me unnecessary stuff like Motrin that would jack up the pill count. It was ridiculous. Finally he told me one day that he wouldn't have any more of my Percocet in for a few weeks. I was like, no, I'm not going through this again. I went to a large supermarket, explained my situation, told them I'd transfer all my other medications to them (and I didn't have to get unnecessary scripts to jack up the count) and have not had any problems. They are very nice and don't me suspiciously like an addict.

So if you ARE dependent on narcotics, don't move to FL. They make it EXTREMELY difficult. My current doctor seems to be sympathetic to my problem, he certainly has the MRI proof that I'm not making it up. And we go through epidurals, physical therapy and other things that might help, but nothing really does. I am not a candidate for any further surgery due to disk degeneration at all levels of my spine.

I can tell you this: I certainly hope I don't live a long age, not with this pain. I'm in my 60's and cannot IMAGINE living til 85, with quality of life suffering as the pain gets worse.

Last edited by Avalon08; 05-06-2017 at 12:04 AM.. Reason: correction
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Old 05-06-2017, 12:12 AM
 
21,108 posts, read 13,483,156 times
Reputation: 19722
My mother faced this problem. She needed oxy. One Dr from a hospital wrote it for her and it really helped. None of her Drs would write it though. She could have had a better quality of life with it. They are cracking down too much. If a person isn't doing any addictive behavior, they shouldn't suffer because of those that do.
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Old 05-06-2017, 02:21 AM
 
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
1,059 posts, read 827,221 times
Reputation: 1716
Long-time kidney stone sufferer here. Vicodin barely touches the pain during an attack, so it is ER for me when a bad one occurs. I always have a few just in case.

I recently slipped on a muddy trail and broke three ribs. After four days of moderate pain (I thought I pulled a muscle) I visited Urgent Care. The nurse practitioner wrote a prescription for 20 Vicodin after x-rays confirmed the injury. I didn't ask for pain medication.

It's too bad there is such an opioids addiction/mis-use in this country. Those who abuse the drug have ruined it for legitimate users. My suspicion is most is bought on the streets, pilfered from family members, etc. Obviously, something has changed over the past few years (especially considering the medication has been on the market for a long time). If someone wants the drugs, I am sure they will find them, even with the stringent regulations in place. ( I have never met a doctor who willy-nilly writes prescriptions for opioids, but have never sought such practitioners.)
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Old 05-06-2017, 02:35 AM
 
Location: Myrtle Creek, Oregon
15,293 posts, read 17,619,593 times
Reputation: 25231
Quote:
Originally Posted by Annie53 View Post
The new reality......if you need pain meds it is time to look to the streets, find yourself a dealer, hope the pills you get are legit and you don't get caught.

This new draconian approach to pain killers is just going to up the demand for backstreet drugs.
Many people are switching to heroin, which works as well as Oxycodone and is cheaper. You don't have to mainline the stuff for it to work. Oral doses work just fine.
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Old 05-06-2017, 02:40 AM
 
Location: Myrtle Creek, Oregon
15,293 posts, read 17,619,593 times
Reputation: 25231
Nobody is really concerned about addiction. Lexapro (prozac) is addictive as all hell, but they hand out prescriptions like candy. They just want the druggies out on the street hustling a new high rather than sitting at home eating pudding.
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Old 05-06-2017, 03:35 AM
 
Location: Orange County/Las Vegas
2,521 posts, read 2,723,728 times
Reputation: 2514
Marijuana here I come!!!
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Old 05-06-2017, 04:19 AM
 
Location: Central Florida
1,319 posts, read 1,076,636 times
Reputation: 6293
Quote:
Originally Posted by StillRoaming View Post
Tell that to my husband, a severely injured Army veteran.
I did not mention in my previous post because I did not think it was important to the subject matter, but I happen to work in VA Primary Care, and unfortunately I am often the one who is tasked with the delivering of the bad news to Vets just like your husband. And although most of the Vets are fully aware that I am not the person who made the decision to discontinue their narcotics or reduce the dose because I am not a medication prescriber, I am still usually the one who receives the brunt of their anger which usually comes in the form of verbal abuse. But there have been times had I not quickly pressed my distress alarm and received rapid assistance, I would have been the recipient of a physical assault delivered by a highly angered Vet. Although I would have been traumatized by this, I would have never lost compassion and understanding for this Vet because I know where the source of their anger comes from.
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Old 05-06-2017, 05:50 AM
 
11,165 posts, read 15,959,350 times
Reputation: 29858
Quote:
Originally Posted by thrillobyte View Post
I recently tore a muscle in my back pretty badly. It was evident on the X-ray the ER doctor ordered and I was in a lot of pain--more pain than I can remember experiencing in 20 years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat View Post
When did x-rays start showing muscle tissue?
Quote:
Originally Posted by thrillobyte View Post
The Dr. had to rely on x-ray even though MRI would have been preferable. The problem was there were too many inpatients scheduled to have an MRI and the only way I could be fit into the schedule would have been to be admitted as an inpatient as well and stay overnight, something I wasn't willing to agree to. Otherwise I couldn't get an MRI until three days later on walk-in. So the doc decided to do an x-ray because it was the only thing available on a moment's notice.
But none of that is relevant to fluffy's question. How could your muscle tear be evident on the x-ray when x-rays (afaik) don't show soft tissue?

Interestingly, this additional information you've added to your story may better explain why you weren't given a prescription for narcotics. It appears that the doctor wanted to perform an MRI to properly diagnose your condition, but you refused to be admitted. From his point of view, since you weren't willing to follow through with his recommended course of action and were willing and able to just go back home, you could have just been looking for some pain pills from him. I'm not saying that this how you viewed it, but it does make his refusal to provide you with a prescription and send you on your way without a complete diagnosis seem more reasonable than your initial description.
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Old 05-06-2017, 06:13 AM
 
Location: Seattle/Dahlonega
547 posts, read 505,329 times
Reputation: 1569
Quote:
Originally Posted by Annie1004 View Post
Long-time kidney stone sufferer here. Vicodin barely touches the pain during an attack, so it is ER for me when a bad one occurs. I always have a few just in case.

I recently slipped on a muddy trail and broke three ribs. After four days of moderate pain (I thought I pulled a muscle) I visited Urgent Care. The nurse practitioner wrote a prescription for 20 Vicodin after x-rays confirmed the injury. I didn't ask for pain medication.

It's too bad there is such an opioids addiction/mis-use in this country. Those who abuse the drug have ruined it for legitimate users. My suspicion is most is bought on the streets, pilfered from family members, etc. Obviously, something has changed over the past few years (especially considering the medication has been on the market for a long time). If someone wants the drugs, I am sure they will find them, even with the stringent regulations in place. ( I have never met a doctor who willy-nilly writes prescriptions for opioids, but have never sought such practitioners.)
As I posted earlier, I too thought going to the ER when I had a kidney stone attack while on the road was a good idea. I was one of three patients at the little hospital that morning and they would give me nothing. Even after tests confirmed I had a stone. I left for a while and only made it to the parking lot where I rolled around in agony. They told me they watched on closed circuit TV. Nice.
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