I am new to chating on my pain i hope talk helps cause i have had my fill. let me tell you a little about my self . i am 36 and i live in western ky. I have had 6 back surgerys since 2001. My life is hell and i dont know what to do i am one year and a month since i had my second fussion at L4-L5. Having said that i lost my pain management dr less than one month after having this surgery and have not been back since. All because i had ran out of my med (which were opania time release 40 twice day and opania ir 5 times daily which i had been on for 2 yearsand fentanal patch before that with percocet) and had some old perocet and took when i ran out. i have went with out pain meds until sep and my spine surgen put me on lortab 10 which i cant even tell i take. So now i no what hell is and i am about done. i have a family with to kids and all ii can do is lay in bed my life consest of being in bed 20 hrs a day and this is no life. Oh ps i am a vetern as well. i guess that help me suck it up and drive on but that only last for so long. i am about to lose my mind from the pain and this is not good. no one should have to suffer the way i have had too. good luck to all and i wish everyone the best.

Vicious terrible cycle.

I started this pain ride saying no pain meds and doctors will believe me and take me serious. Then some started saying if you are hurting that bad why no pain meds. But then I would ask and it would be act of god to get them or doctor would say dont get on them at your young age????

to the availability of pain medications in over 8 years now.
The only changes have been that the doctors know need to document and provide rationalization for their narcotic pain prescriptions. This also means that doctors are also more careful about writing these types of prescriptions.

20 years after one of my lumber surgeries, the surgeon would write prescriptions for 200 Tylox like they were handing out candy.

15 years ago, they were see that no other doctor wrote those same prescriptions for the same person

10 years ago, with the aid of electronic records , both physicians and pharmacists were able to cross check to week out those drug seekers, those that went to multiple doctors and pharmacies to get their pain medications.

5 years ago, the DEA started to get tougher as they should have been all along.

Today, only patients that need pain medications are getting pain medications. Now, that is in a perfect world.

Because I do know that not all doctors are willing to document and justify everything that they do. It might be easier just to say no. Thats when things begin to become bad and potentially dangerous.

The problem today should not be blamed on the government , DEA, or any other agency that needs to monitor and regulate so many different things.

If you read all the governing rules and regulations, they all are very fair and just.

Its what is happening between the bodies that are trying to govern and then those bodies that are being governed. Somewhere, things are breaking down.

The unfortunate victims become chronic pain patients who need medications but are being denied.

I've seen how both sides of that works and Id be spending more time and making sure that the doctors do what they should be doing for their patients and not be worrying about a government regulation. If they do what they are suppose to be doing, then no one should have a problem.

Fact is - I could walk to any street corner where I work and buy anything I want - because junkies are ALWAYS gonna get drugs, and us pain patients are still going to have to jump thru the doctors and feds (including DEAs) hoops to get ours. Be subjected to ridiculous urine tests, drug tests, and treated like a 2 year old - not to mention the thousands a year (I know my insurance pays for all these stupid urine tests) - while the junkies and druggies get their fixes and go merily on their way - until they drop dead of course. The gov has its nose in way too much and way too many people's business - you'll never, ever convince me otherwise!

I'd just like to say it's not just young people who abuse meds, it's people of all ages.

ron like you i have been on pain meds for the better part of 10 years and also i have seen prescriptions go from the triplicate forms to the one page form that the dr has to use for all pain meds, vicodin through morphine. i for one never had pain meds handed out like candy but that is probably different circumstances between you and i. it is weird i went to a nose throat dr who was going to give me surgery for a tumor and he knew i had back issues. he asked me what i was on and i told him. it seems like there are sites where drs can go now to see individual patients and what they are taking. i have been to doctors who seem to know before hand what i am taking. there seems to be ways drs can monitor patients old and new ones. so there is this first hand knowledge that is aviable to drs now. i feel like i am being looked at like a drug addict before i even talk to a new dr. in fact i am perfectly honest and tell them that i am on pain meds. i told a dr before hernia surgery and he thought i was kidding. i think this new way of monitoring patients and also the knowledge of abuse from the media is making it tighter for us legitimate pain patients. i for one have to see my pain dr every 2 months to get pain meds and he has to document everything that happens. now he tells me he has to take on line classes about pain meds eventhough he has been a pain dr for 30 years. with the media exposures of abuse of pain meds i believe it is going to get harder to get the meds we all need. people who go in and tell a dr i have back pain without any form of proof, x-rays, mri's nerve tests, discoctemies etc make it more difficult also. so the extra screening by the dea and the amount of people demanding pain meds is making it harder for all of us.
jon

U go ahead with that detox and baby aspirin regimine. I will stay with the narcotics - thank you very much.
I am a firm believe that sometimes, that IS all that is left. I feel that way for myself and my situation, but we are all different.
Whatever works to get you where you need to be and feel most comfortable right??!! Smile

It is very frustrating. I haven't been a chronic pain patient for all that long...just a little over three years now. I was diagnosed with the degenerative disk disease at a very early age when I ruptured my first disk at age 23. Back then, an ortho doc put me on lortab and I took them for almost a year. (not consistently, but when my pain was unbearable) I stopped taking them when I felt my pain was resolved. Since then though, I would have periodic flare-ups where I would become practically disabled by the pain. I'd miss a lot of work and have to go for steroid injections, etc. It wasn't until late summer of 2008 when I had what I call "the final injury that did me in." I was taking care of a morbidly obese patient who weighed in at 600lbs. It took eight of us to move him and after I gave the big heave ho, I knew I had screwed up my back in a major way. Since then I've had three surgeries in three years and am now coming to terms with the cold hard facts that I will probably always have pain. It's been hard to accept because I've always been such an active person. I played softball for 28 years and was always on the go. That all came to a screeching halt with that obese patient. I'm now 47 years old and I can no longer work as a nurse in the hospital, which I miss terribly. I have a desk job now and go to work Mon-Fri and lie in bed all weekend just so I can walk again on Monday.

I am currently dealing with ignorant doctors who think I'm just an addict and shouldn't need pain control any longer. My PCP even had me sign a "contract" with him, which I did willingly, that promised I would not abuse the meds. I haven't.

My oldest daughter DID become addicted to narcotics after a short stint in the hospital with kidney stones and having surgery for that. Her behavior was completely opposite of mine which is why I do not see myself as an "addict." She stole all of my pain meds once last year right after I'd had my third surgery. She just walked right into my bedroom and took the whole bottle without me seeing her and never thought twice about what she was doing to me. Fortunately, my doctor is also her doctor and he knows her history, so he DID go ahead and refill the script early when I told him that she'd stolen them. Since then, I've had to keep my pain meds WITH me at all times, especially if she's around. She's now been in outpatient rehab for 6 mths and is clean. But my daughter has a very addictive personality and a lot of anxiety. She was diagnosed with bipolar and refuses to stay on meds for that. Her father was an addict too, so I do believe in the whole genetics thing. As for me, I've never been like that. I've never taken pain meds when I didn't need them to function.

I know that the government is cracking down on pain clinics and are working toward linking all the computers so that drug seekers will no longer be able to "doctor shop." I do understand why these measures are necessary, but I hate that those of us who are legitimate pain patients, will end up being the unnecessary casualties of all the new regulations. I'm willing to play by their rules if that's what it takes to continue to function in my life, but I get so damn frustrated hearing stories like this where doctors can turn their backs on people and just allow them to suffer. It's not right at all.

I want to comment today & have tried 2 times & lost them in spell check, the pain is so bad, i have to go back to bed for now, God willing i will be back a little later. May God Bless Each Of You Ron It should not be this way, I'm sorry

Hello Ron...
I agree with your post 100%. Everyone should write to their reprensative and explain their situation to them and ask their help.

I also agree that it is the druggies who are mostly to blame for this problem of not getting proper treatment for our chronic pain. These people fill the ER's and Doctors waiting rooms! Here in the state I live in that is the #1 reason I can't get addiquate treatment for my brutal chronic pain.

I had reasons to find a new GP and not one Doctor here in the small town I live in would take me because of my chronoc pain!! I now have a new GP because my old one moved out of town and a new Doctor replaced hem at te clinic I go to. My old Doctor kept saying he was afraid I would become addicted to pain pills!! It's rare that a chronic pain patient becomes a addicted to pain meds!!(I have never became dependant to any medication either)

We can also blame the news reporters!! Drug addicts make better reading than chronic pain patients. Unless a chronic pain patient has an auto accident, then they blame it on the pain medication that person is on, THAT is widly reported and that person will be blamed even if they were not at fault!!

Please, please everyone write to your reprensetive!!

Ron, have you tried a SCS(spinal cord stimulator) or a pain pump implant for your chronic pain??

Cheers
Patsy W

last summer i made a comment about writing my representative due to the negative press about prescription meds. I wrote my 2 state senators and my congressman of my district. i wrote a logical letter with no inflammatory comments and told them i appreciated the time they took to read my letter. well guess what? no response from anyone at all, Feinstein or Boxer. can't remember the name of my congress man but no response either. i have written the three before that dealt with economic issues since my wife at the time was unemployed. they told me to tell her to file for unemployment, well DUHHHHHHH. she did before i wrote them. any way back to the point. i find it interesting that there was no response from them about the negative issues with pain patients and how these meds help us to live a more productive life etc etc. well, i would never vote for them in the past and due to this rejection i definitely will never vote for them at all never ever. try to write your representatives but i bet dimes to dollars you will get the no response i did. they probably thought i was a drug crazed kook. i think that if millions of people wrote and it was on the news and in a positive light, then i probably would have gotten a response. that is the crux of the issue, there are not enough of us to warrant a response from our reps. if there was a pro pain med lobby and we were on the news and other media all of the time, then something would happen. we are small in number because we as a group don't want to be recognized as people who use pain meds due to our work, lives or other issues that we don't want out in the open. if you feel the need to write then go for it but don't expect anything to happen.
jon