Replies

One of the biggest problems is that the medical profession doesn't really know how to actually diagnose and deal with pain. My wife had cancer and went through chemo and all that other crap. The pain never went away, but she had difficulty sometimes getting prescriptions from what we needed because of the paranoia of doctors who didn't want to show up on a "high prescriber" list. It is also impossible for the doctor to actually tell how much pain a patient is in. There are indicators, like high blood pressure and the like, but with all the crap she was going through, that was not particularly useful.

Fortunately for her, she was able to eventually manipulate the system to get what she needed. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it myself. Eventually, it got to the point where she was taking enough painkillers to kill a horse and it would barely take the edge off enough to even get some rest. They certainly weren't making her 'high'. One of the big problems was finding what would actually work. Some did, and some didn't. Some would actually make things worse.

Then you have the other side, scammers who make claims of back pain or whatever just to get the drugs. The doctor can't prove the person is faking anything because we don't really have the tools to actually measure pain. In some ways, our ability to produce medicine has outstripped our ability to diagnose it's need. Of course, the government feels that it must get involved, because control is the only thing they know. It is the hammer they have, so they want to pound some nails.

You are correct. Cancer types do not hurt any worse then those with GSW’s, or real severe chronic pain like 4 out of 5 lumbar spine discs (L2,3,4,5) have severe left or right foraminal stenosis. You have stinging pain in your lower spine plus it radiates into your buttocks plus it shoots down your sciatic nerve etc. Add the nerves from each disc gets worse as does the pain. Yes, these damn pain pill limits do not control serious pain and the countless, worthless, nerve blocks, plus the caudal ESI’s’s done by regular MD’s are more dangerous then patients know. You can end up with arachnoiditis fast. No damn 200 MEDD will control arachnoiditis. Young punks getting a buzz off their parent’s lortabs and percocets graduated to stealing their oxycontin. They do not have the damn guts to sweat the crap out. Who pays-those over 65 mostly. Pain MD’s are not all anesthesiologists or even trained to stick a needle in your spine. They are getting rich off pain and BS spinal stimulators.