Comments on: AP: Pain Med Use Doubles… http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/ap-pain-med-2x/ Addiction, Pain, and Public Health website (doctordeluca.com) Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:13:32 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: John http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/ap-pain-med-2x/comment-page-1/#comment-88459 John Wed, 27 May 2009 17:14:51 +0000 http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/index.php/archive/ap-pain-med-2x/196/#comment-88459 <p>I have been in chronic pain for 30 years and it was only 15 years ago that I started taking pain medication because the pain was so bad. I found a neurologist who was willing to provide pain meds. After three years he let me go as a patient because a urine sample showed a drug I had taken due to a toothache. I then went to a pain specialist who is doing a spinal procedure on my spine. But, I had an unusually bad pain month and took more meds than usual and ran out before my next prescription. The doctor doing my spinal procedure refuses to give me more meds. He says I should not have taken more than prescribed and will have to wait until my next RX is due. So now I am detoxing and he will be doing this procedure while I'm am detoxing because he won't provide me with my needed meds. Some months are better than others and the really bad months require more meds. I have a long history of documentation with 7 herniated disks, neuropathy in both major nerves in my arms and Carpel Tunnel in both wrists. It's not like I'm a stranger without proof of need..... and going in and asking for pain meds. Why should we, those who need medicine suffer, because there are those, who unfortunately abuse the system? But the fact that I have years of MRI documentation, a schedule for a major procedure the physiologically reality of tolerance is not factored in( which means you require more...... or a more powerful med),and the fact that I have been taking my meds responsibly, for years............ why isn't this proof of need, and non-addictive behavior on my part allowing me from getting the meds I need? The DEA (the government) should not have it's nose in the Doctor client relationship. Isn't that what HIPP is all about. That my privacy is protected?</p> <p>If I had a particularly bad pain month and took more pain meds than usual. Shouldn't that be a time where the doctor would re-assess the patient to determine if the patient is in need of a better or more powerful medicine? I am a nurse and have a broad knowledge base regarding pain management. A doctor has the right to re-assess a patient and change treatment plans. The DEA is causing a situation where doctors are scared out of their wits to give appropriate treatment to their patients. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they don't provide relief they can be sued for neglect. If they do provide relief they can be arrested. The AMA has deemed pain the fifth vital sign. It is as important as a heartbeat if it is a vital sign. Yet, it is ignored and the more a patient screams in pain the more automatically they are labeled a drug addict/seeker.</p> <p>The whole thing is insane!! It is a sad state of affairs when an American citizen can purchase heroin on any street corner in America easier than that citizen to get a pain pill from his or her doctor. Has this nation gone completely insane??</p> <p>J.</p> I have been in chronic pain for 30 years and it was only 15 years ago that I started taking pain medication because the pain was so bad. I found a neurologist who was willing to provide pain meds. After three years he let me go as a patient because a urine sample showed a drug I had taken due to a toothache. I then went to a pain specialist who is doing a spinal procedure on my spine. But, I had an unusually bad pain month and took more meds than usual and ran out before my next prescription. The doctor doing my spinal procedure refuses to give me more meds. He says I should not have taken more than prescribed and will have to wait until my next RX is due. So now I am detoxing and he will be doing this procedure while I’m am detoxing because he won’t provide me with my needed meds. Some months are better than others and the really bad months require more meds. I have a long history of documentation with 7 herniated disks, neuropathy in both major nerves in my arms and Carpel Tunnel in both wrists. It’s not like I’m a stranger without proof of need….. and going in and asking for pain meds. Why should we, those who need medicine suffer, because there are those, who unfortunately abuse the system? But the fact that I have years of MRI documentation, a schedule for a major procedure the physiologically reality of tolerance is not factored in( which means you require more…… or a more powerful med),and the fact that I have been taking my meds responsibly, for years………… why isn’t this proof of need, and non-addictive behavior on my part allowing me from getting the meds I need? The DEA (the government) should not have it’s nose in the Doctor client relationship. Isn’t that what HIPP is all about. That my privacy is protected?

If I had a particularly bad pain month and took more pain meds than usual. Shouldn’t that be a time where the doctor would re-assess the patient to determine if the patient is in need of a better or more powerful medicine? I am a nurse and have a broad knowledge base regarding pain management. A doctor has the right to re-assess a patient and change treatment plans. The DEA is causing a situation where doctors are scared out of their wits to give appropriate treatment to their patients. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they don’t provide relief they can be sued for neglect. If they do provide relief they can be arrested. The AMA has deemed pain the fifth vital sign. It is as important as a heartbeat if it is a vital sign. Yet, it is ignored and the more a patient screams in pain the more automatically they are labeled a drug addict/seeker.

The whole thing is insane!! It is a sad state of affairs when an American citizen can purchase heroin on any street corner in America easier than that citizen to get a pain pill from his or her doctor. Has this nation gone completely insane??

J.

]]> By: James Stacks http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/archive/ap-pain-med-2x/comment-page-1/#comment-11071 James Stacks Tue, 21 Aug 2007 06:24:43 +0000 http://doctordeluca.com/wordpress/index.php/archive/ap-pain-med-2x/196/#comment-11071 <p>“There’s a significant problem with narcotics in this area,” Adler said. After the pain management clinic closed, “all those folks were like rats, scurrying from a burning building, trying to get their fix.”</p> <p>Nice metaphor for patients...rats. I think maybe I don't want this guy's services. Ultimately, those physicians who give in to the war and abandon the needs of their patients in favor of political expediency and career security might should be abandoned by their patients. Doctors are a small but powerful group. However, their power in this system is still very much limited by the patients that are willing to pay for and consent to their treatments. I think the system (which I still believe is Big Pharma), could be better influenced by educating medical consumers about this issue, rather than relying on the activism of the few expert doctors who are willing to risk their careers by saying that the emperor is naked. Those doctors are surely honorable and should be supported, but they are ultimately going to lose against this adversary. I am not suggesting that physicians who simply refuse to provide adequate treatment should be boycotted (as this is asking them to submit to almost certain prosecution), but those who use their expert status to fuel the propaganda should be boycotted. I am willing to work with a doctor who admits his/her hands are tied, and who admits that he/she is being forced to withhold proper medication, but I don't want to add to the fortunes of those doctors who champion the cause of this drug war in order to maintain favor with the political forces that are killing us for profit.</p> “There’s a significant problem with narcotics in this area,” Adler said. After the pain management clinic closed, “all those folks were like rats, scurrying from a burning building, trying to get their fix.”

Nice metaphor for patients…rats. I think maybe I don’t want this guy’s services. Ultimately, those physicians who give in to the war and abandon the needs of their patients in favor of political expediency and career security might should be abandoned by their patients. Doctors are a small but powerful group. However, their power in this system is still very much limited by the patients that are willing to pay for and consent to their treatments. I think the system (which I still believe is Big Pharma), could be better influenced by educating medical consumers about this issue, rather than relying on the activism of the few expert doctors who are willing to risk their careers by saying that the emperor is naked. Those doctors are surely honorable and should be supported, but they are ultimately going to lose against this adversary. I am not suggesting that physicians who simply refuse to provide adequate treatment should be boycotted (as this is asking them to submit to almost certain prosecution), but those who use their expert status to fuel the propaganda should be boycotted. I am willing to work with a doctor who admits his/her hands are tied, and who admits that he/she is being forced to withhold proper medication, but I don’t want to add to the fortunes of those doctors who champion the cause of this drug war in order to maintain favor with the political forces that are killing us for profit.

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