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First of all, any gray-haired person who is retired should immediately eliminate 75% of suspicion in Dr's minds because the vast majority of retirees are not addicts looking for a high. We've gotten past all that. All we want is to spend our few remaining years in comfort free from pain but the government has robbed us of even looking forward to that
You'd think anybody smart enough to get a medical degree could figure that out.
The problem with pain specialists is that, as far as I could find, they are all specialists in muscular or skeletal pain. I went thru a period in my life when I suffered from chronic kidney stones. This was serious crawling-into-the-ER-at-3:00am type pain, happening almost every other month, along with frequent smaller and merely painful stones. The pain specialists I visited kept referring me back to a urologist. My urologist wouldn't give me anything stronger than Tramadol. Even then, he refused to give me enough so that I could keep some handy to take when the pain started; so I wouldn't have to sit in his office in pain all day until I could be "squeezed in" for an emergency appointment. I ended up doing my own shopping for PKs online. I wasn't happy with it, but it was better than the alternative. Fortunately the stones have abated, since getting PKs online is considerably harder today than it was a few years ago.
I am sorry that so many people have trouble with addiction to opioids. But their problems are simply not a reason why I or anyone else who is capable or controlling themselves should have to endure excruciating pain. Isn't that why these medicines were developed in the first place? And whatever happened to personal freedom/responsibility? This is the same argument we often hear with respect to other potentially useful or enjoyable but hazardous things in our society -- some people can't handle it, so we shouldn't have it either.
Amen, Cap'n. Kidney stone sufferer here too. I had almost NO pain from my joint replacements, but man, that kidney stone pain is the worst. Fortunately, for all those conditions, CA and TX gave me pain meds with no objection. Maybe its the state one lives in?
I admit to loving the "high" on a morphine drip after surgery, but really never experienced any kind of terrific "high" from opioids. I'm looking at a container of them now (I took one last night to sleep) and its "Hydrocod/Acetam". I am hoarding them from my surgeries since they don't exist here (Ecuador) either, like another poster said about Mexico.
It's really sad this situation has gotten so out of hand.
Another victim of the government's knee-jerk reaction to the opioid epidemic. This is why more and more people are turning to alternative pain control methods. My 80 year old mother in law has chronic pain issues but has horrible side effects from narcotics, so surprisingly, both her PCP and his APRN suggested medical marijuana. Medical marijuana isn't about "getting high" anymore. There are a variety of strains and dosages out there nowadays that, for some people, can provide better pain relief with less side effects than traditional opioid treatments.
Is it any wonder that pharmaceutical companies are among the top lobbyists to keep it illegal on a federal level?
Then there's Kratom, a leaf from Southeast Asia that's been used for pain control for thousands of years. The herb is a member of the coffee family and is slightly more addictive than caffine. Junkies use it to kick narcotics, chronic pain patients use it to effectively manage a wide range of pain issues......it can also help fight depression. The government's response to Kratom? An attempted emergency ban last September that was put on hold because of public outcry.
Isn't it something that a herbs like Kratom and marijuana can be so effective at managing pain (with much less addictive side effects and no chance of overdose) yet pharmaceutical companies can't develop less addictive medications to market?
Call me cynical, but I think they could. However, if they legitimize the effectiveness of these herbs, people might get it in their heads that they can actually manage their pain problems without the aid of big pharmaceutical companies.
Amen, Cap'n. Kidney stone sufferer here too. I had almost NO pain from my joint replacements, but man, that kidney stone pain is the worst. Fortunately, for all those conditions, CA and TX gave me pain meds with no objection. Maybe its the state one lives in?
I admit to loving the "high" on a morphine drip after surgery, but really never experienced any kind of terrific "high" from opioids. I'm looking at a container of them now (I took one last night to sleep) and its "Hydrocod/Acetam". I am hoarding them from my surgeries since they don't exist here (Ecuador) either, like another poster said about Mexico.
It's really sad this situation has gotten so out of hand.
Maybe its the state, but the doctor is the one most responsible for making decisions in his patients' interests.
My experience as somebody who's been on opioids for periods of 1-2 weeks at a time (either awaiting surgery or post surgery), is that the first day or two are ok, but then constipation sets in, then boredom, since I have no energy for anything, and then a few days after that I begin to feel like an old zombie, not knowing what day or time it is, or whether I'm awake or dreaming. All in all, I'd say that to become addicted to something so unpleasant, its not enough to have merely physical pain -- one's emotional pain would have to be a major issue.
Last edited by CapnTrips; 05-05-2017 at 11:29 AM..
Hmm. Several years ago my 80+ year old father developed hip pain. His PCP, God bless him, renewed a prescription for Oxycodone at every visit. However, my father is the type of guy who wouldn't take the pain pills because he preferred to tough it out. My father was becoming confused so I tried to remove the pills from his home. He became irate because "someone" at the veterans hall might need them. Eventually my siblings and I slipped at least TEN full bottles of unused oxycodone from his home. One of us accompanied him on his next PCP visit and told the doc he wasn't taking the medication so please stop prescribing it. Dad's medical history indicated he was dependent on opioids...NOT!
OTOH, one of my friends in her mid 50s, has chronic incapacitating pain. Following her third neck surgery a few weeks ago, she visited her pain specialist and was prescribed her usual, high dose of opioids, along with a prescription for narcan. According to her doc, prescribing narcan along with the opioids is now considered best practice.
You'd think anybody smart enough to get a medical degree could figure that out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CapnTrips
Maybe its the state, but the doctor is the one most responsible for making decisions in his patients' interests.
........................
True statements on their face, but doctors do not practice medicine in a vacuum. By necessity, they have to think about more than their patients' interests, more than figuring things out. They have to think about the law, about their medical licenses, and about potential crimimal prosecution. You can't blame them for that - it's just the reality of the present-day situation.
So it's Big Brother government you should be mad at, not doctors. The law's priority is protecting the lowest of the low (addicts and abusers) not the legitimate patients (you and me). And even in defense of Big Brother government, if you read my earlier post in this thread, there have been horrendous abuses on the part of some doctors themselves whom I consider to be among the lowest of the low despite their medical degrees.
I don't think this is an issue unique to retirees.
As I've posted in several threads, we recently relocated to a new area several hours from where we've lived for decades.
While searching for a new medical provider, we discovered that many here carry disclaimers that say they do not prescribe pain medications and that if patients need such, they will be referred to specialists who do so. When we selected a primary care physician, we had to sign a form acknowledging this. This was somewhat a surprise to us, it's not something we came across in our former community but it doesn't seem unreasonable.
It's not unique to providers who accept Medicare. Our new PCP doesn't limit his practice to Medicare patients.
I don't have a problem with it.
Persons of any age who are terminally ill have access to hospice care, which provides pain medications.
But cancer patients NOT terminally ill can still have severe pain...and chronically...because they aren't dying soon. And hospice is only if you're terminal WITHIN 6 MONTHS usually.
Another victim of the government's knee-jerk reaction to the opioid epidemic. This is why more and more people are turning to alternative pain control methods. My 80 year old mother in law has chronic pain issues but has horrible side effects from narcotics, so surprisingly, both her PCP and his APRN suggested medical marijuana. Medical marijuana isn't about "getting high" anymore. There are a variety of strains and dosages out there nowadays that, for some people, can provide better pain relief with less side effects than traditional opioid treatments.
Is it any wonder that pharmaceutical companies are among the top lobbyists to keep it illegal on a federal level?
Then there's Kratom, a leaf from Southeast Asia that's been used for pain control for thousands of years. The herb is a member of the coffee family and is slightly more addictive than caffine. Junkies use it to kick narcotics, chronic pain patients use it to effectively manage a wide range of pain issues......it can also help fight depression. The government's response to Kratom? An attempted emergency ban last September that was put on hold because of public outcry.
Isn't it something that a herbs like Kratom and marijuana can be so effective at managing pain (with much less addictive side effects and no chance of overdose) yet pharmaceutical companies can't develop less addictive medications to market?
Call me cynical, but I think they could. However, if they legitimize the effectiveness of these herbs, people might get it in their heads that they can actually manage their pain problems without the aid of big pharmaceutical companies.
Alternative pain treatments are their own deal. Do I think the government is to restrictive on MM and other alternate methods? Absolutely.
You can be for medical marijuana and against the pill pushing going on in places like here in Appalachia, Ohio, etc. Many communities have been severely negatively impacted by these drugs. If inconveniencing some pain patients cleans up these communities, then I'd rather have them inconvenienced than have all these pills of the street.
True statements on their face, but doctors do not practice medicine in a vacuum. By necessity, they have to think about more than their patients' interests, more than figuring things out. They have to think about the law, about their medical licenses, and about potential crimimal prosecution. You can't blame them for that - it's just the reality of the present-day situation.
So it's Big Brother government you should be mad at, not doctors. The law's priority is protecting the lowest of the low (addicts and abusers) not the legitimate patients (you and me). And even in defense of Big Brother government, if you read my earlier post in this thread, there have been horrendous abuses on the part of some doctors themselves whom I consider to be among the lowest of the low despite their medical degrees.
I agree with you that doctors shouldn't bear all the blame for causing the current situation, and fear of prosecution/litigation is a big factor as well.
Still, I'd like to think that there are still some physicians out there who are confident enough in their own diagnosis and concerned enough for their patients that they aren't afraid to prescribe opioids to a patient who definitely needs them.
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Eventually my siblings and I slipped at least TEN full bottles of unused oxycodone from his home. One of us accompanied him on his next PCP visit and told the doc he wasn't taking the medication so please stop prescribing it. Dad's medical history indicated he was dependent on opioids...NOT! 
