Stories from the U.S. Regarding Patients in Chronic Intractable Pain:

Below I will be compiling stories I have found on the web that outline and underscore the need for reform of policies that affect chronic pain patients and the walls that exist between them and getting the relief that they need.

In the United States, we are entitled to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". For some of us, that requires strong medications to treat our chronic pain.

I will be updating and adding links to this post. I begin today with a tale which is unbelievable to me, almost:

http://www.prohealth.com/me-cfs/blog/boardDetail.cfm?id=598516

This story is absolutely appalling and a good yet tragic example of how broken our healthcare & criminal systems are in the United States. While reading the article, I felt my face flushing with anger!

I'll look forward to more posts on this topic.

Thanks Stef!

OMG!!!

He received a sentence for more time in jail than most murders get!!! This is so frightening and a classic example of how the laws are focused on trying to stop people using drugs for recreational use, without taking into consideration those of us who need strong pain meds just to function. Appalling!!!

Thanks Stef!

That is so sad, and sicking to think of..... and I'm on 30mgs of oxycotin and it only is taking my pain levels to a 7 ... I asked my pain dr if he thought upping the dose to 60mgs would be ok.. and he said yes. The one dr at my dr's office , I showed him the note saying that upping the dosage would be a ok thing ... this one dr .. not my regular dr .. says we have to be careful because the higher dosages will sneak up on you and you might not wake up.... I have taken 60mg's before because I fell and trapped my leg in a board .. I fell down three steps and landed on my back and hit my head on the cement my leg became trapped and twisted the wrong way, thankfuly i didn't break it.. but it is severly spranged... and swollen and hurts so bad I thought I was dying.. so I took 2 of the 30mgs , it brought my pain levels down to a 2 I could manage .. and I was not sleepy or anything, just made life bareable.... this scares me... I hate being in so much pain .. it makes me very sad...

Here is some good news for us chronic pain suffers,

http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/c/5949/108978/pain-patients

I so hope this is true... it would make such a difference in all of our lives..

Thank you, Stef, for your vigilance concerning this topic. I have ATN and, unfortunately for me, I live in Florida where it is getting to be impossible to fill my medications. I average about 10 pharmacies a month before all my prescriptions are filled. I even switched off of Oxycodone to Dilaudid because no pharmacy would fill for me. I panicked when I had to go to three different pharmacies to find my MS Contins last month.

I have been told so many stories by pharmacies and pharmacy-techs as to why they could not fill my prescriptions yet no two stories are the same. Apparently, the state is just going live with it's PMP and the DEA is cracking down hard.

I don't go to a pill-mill like the ones on the news but I fear my doctor will be out of business soon because he is more liberal. The atmosphere here in Florida is almost hostile for pain victims who need opiates. I am barely functioning without even my BT pain meds right now cause of difficulties I had getting them filled and I am trying desperately to find employment.

So, I am going to start reporting every pharmacist who denies me a prescription despite the reasons given to me as to why they cannot fill it.

I wrote a letter to the governor of Florida a few months back and a Mark Whitten responded. He told me to have my doctor get in touch with the pharmacy staff ahead of time, but I feel he was full of hot air.

Thanks again, Stef



Stormy said:

Here is some good news for us chronic pain suffers,

http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/c/5949/108978/pain-patients

I so hope this is true... it would make such a difference in all of our lives..

I recently read an article online that said that the Obama administration was shifting focus from Mexican druglords to law-abiding doctors and pharmacists as a matter of policy to be enforced by the DEA. I only later questioned the info but I did follow up and got absolutely no clarification from the alleged source.

Most of the comments were in support. Beyond deplorable.

The first time a dentist told me that drs were being harassed I was stunned and incredulous. That was over 20 years ago. Matters have deteriorated significantly.

None of the blather I have read in the media is EVER backed up by any form of research. I have yet to see it. They merely fabricate the number of od's although I would contend that when overdoses do occur it is because people are mixing their substances and shooting them up.

Regardless to any facts, the mood in the country toward pain patients is one of mass hysteria. That people have their facts wrong, do not bother to research anything within even within their own personal educational limits, seems to matter not a whit. They KNOW.

People are suffering. As we well know, far too many are not suffering from a negligible or even tolerable amount of pain. TN pain is right off the charts! Can a description be any more explicit than the "suicide disease"?

People are being denied any quality to their lives. TO WHAT PURPOSE?

Far too many medical professionals and paraprofessionals are also exhibiting the hysteria. Their job is to help pain patients, not to harass them! Some tell bald faced lies. Specialists are often trained to hold their pain patients in contempt.

People with terminal cancer are far too often NOT afforded any real pain coverage. I have seen it repeatedly first hand. People- friends, relatives screaming in pain and the drugs may be sitting right there, with held by "care-givers" or ignorant, oblivious family members. It may go on when they are at work.

History will look back at these times as barbaric. But these have to be the worst times politically to be suffering from extreme, often relentless, intolerable pain in this country.

Unless we fight back. Unless we get politically pro-active agony, suffering is going to continue its downward plunge.

Those worthy of scorn are not only the handful of abusers but could be the person that may be in training to be your next so-called healthcare pain professional or your neighbor who points.

Doctors should be free to do their jobs and not answer to the federal government!

Our representatives have to hear about it as they read the same blather on the Internet that the rest of us read. People in severe pain are in the millions.