Posted on 10/16/2017 6:07:22 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Nothing like picking up a vet with two rods in his back courtesy of an IED that threw his vehicle into the air and compressed his spine after an appointment with a pain management specialist (AKA, a physician’s assistant) - a journey nearly 40 miles from his home - and he just got told that ‘we’ve decided you don’t need any prescription pain medications, we suggest over the counter solutions.’
Why 40 miles? Because the doctor who lives across the street from his home is part of a medical group that refuses to write any prescriptions for pain medications in order to ‘curb the opioid epidemic.’
Not a new prescription, a long standing existing one that no one will renew.
Well, that was the case. I took him to the VA clinic, the nurse pulled his military medical records, went in, talked to the doctor for a moment, and came right out with a renewed prescription. There were a couple strings attached; the doctor wants to refer to a specialist and see if though some additional surgery that pain can be addressed and he’s got a monthly appointment to check on his progress and to renew the prescription.
The ‘opioid epidemic’ is just new branding for an age old issue; people will abuse drugs (including alcohol.) Targeting one specific type of drug is just the way the media gets more story inches in print and fills their broadcasts.
I read the article yesterday morning, linked from Drudge I think, then just happened to catch the 60 Minutes treatment of the same subject last evening.
Please post a link if I missed the correct thread, but isn't anyone remotely interested in:
"The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump’s nominee to become the nation’s next drug czar. Marino spent years trying to move the law through Congress. It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA."
I (probably like many freepers) have a personal interest in opioid threads, but it sounds like Trump is wondering himself about Rep. Tom Marino, what is the word round these parts?
The DEA, compost, CBS are no friends of liberty. These stories are no doubt slanted.
True, big pharma is corrupt and exploitative.
Can we trust government stats? If someone dies of terminal cancer or suicide with opiates prescribed or on the tox screen, I’m sure opiates are listed as one of the causes of death.
But in the end, one thing is for sure; the result is more government control and totalitarianism.
Now, let me get this straight. You have a licensed and approved pharmaceutical manufacturer distributing a drug that has gained federal approval, to a licensed pharmacy, which can only sell it to people who have a valid prescription from a properly licensed and qualified medical practitioner.
I’m having a hard time identifying any illegality here. Any legal distribution to the consumer has to go through several levels of licensed, learned professionals.
It was the hard sell by the pharmacy company detailers TO THE DOCTORS that was the problem.
The doctors were sold a bill of goods and wrote prescriptions for opioid when some else could have been used.
.
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“But in the end, one thing is for sure; the result is more government control and totalitarianism.”
That would suit many just fine.
Sad.
The drug industry even corrupted the scientific literature through shoddy research and dishonest publishing practices. About a decade ago, I noticed a spate of drug manufacturer sponsored medical studies touting new opioid formulations as less addictive and therefore useful for treating a wider range of pain disorders. There were a few critical letters, but the overall tone was positive. As I suspected, this was the beginning of a drug company push for more opioid use.
It DISGUSTS me.
You buy a street drug, you’ll still have my prayers as a Christian but quite a bit less sympathy.
You take pills the doctor gave you, you take them! That’s what they’re there for. How is one supposed to know it could ruin their life?
Yep, that will surely stop the epidemic.
/s
I know a tanker with back problems. The pain is potentially crippling, and he has to stay ahead of it.
When those ads list the side effects, which thery’re required to do, they’re worse than whatever you’re supposed to take the drug for. Pass.
I’m having a hard time getting worked up about all this opioid addiction. I herniated a disc in my neck. The pain was unbearable and before I knew it I was addicted to vicadin. When the pain started easing up and I started taking less drugs I started going through withdrawals. So I flushed the rest of them down the toilet and did full withdrawals for a week. And that was that. Haven’t, and won’t, take them now.
If I had unending, unbearable pain I’d take them again, addiction or not. Which is worse? The pain or the addicition?
That's a pretty wise perspective.
Sadly, there are thousands of cases of normal, responsible people in middle age or later who became unwittingly addicted due to trusting a doctor’s prescription for pain. Eventually, the doctor cuts them off, leaving them to combat addiction more or less on their own or to turn to other sources for opioids.
or homeless crapping in the street.... see San diego 150 Hep C deaths.
The doctors were sold a bill of goods
I have no problem heavily fining those drug companies for fraud - possibly for every dime they made on those drugs under false pretenses. But now that the truth is out, the priority must be keeping those drugs available to those who need them for pain.
“the priority must be keeping those drugs available to those who need them for pain. “
Absolutely. Intractable pain should be treated by opioids,temporary back pain,and the like, shouldn’t be.
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Who should make that decision: doctors or government?
Temporary pain should be treated by opioids (if it is bad enough, if the patient responds to those, etc). Chronic pain should not be, although it can be under the right conditions.
The reason you should treat temporary pain with opioids is simple: it works. It is not addictive with short term use.
The reason you should treat temporary pain with opioids is simple: it works. It is not addictive with short term use.
This!
I’ve been proscribed an opioid pain killer on a couple of occasions and was grateful to have had them and used them only until the pain subsided to a tolerable level that either didn’t require any type of pain medication or an OTC like Motrin or aspirin.
The last time was when I had an abscessed tooth. The pain was excruciating, like someone had taken an axe to my jaw and down the middle of my head, and was so bad, along with a high fever, that I went to the ER because it was a Sunday and I couldn’t get in to see an oral surgeon on a Sunday. The ER doc proscribed an anti-biotic for the infection and a script for IIRC about 6 oxycodone. First thing Monday morning I called around to several oral surgeons and the first appointment I could get was that Tuesday afternoon, so I was sure glad to have the pain relief until then. The tooth had to be removed and the oral surgeon offered to write me another script for the oxy but I had 4 left and said, no, I didn’t think I would need more and I didn’t. I only took one more the evening after the surgery and then I flushed the remaining pills.
I also have a lower back problem that flairs up from time to time. Most of the time I can soldier through without taking anything except perhaps for a muscle relaxer and Meloxicam which I also take for arthritis. I also benefit from gentle stretches and a Tens unit. But even then, it usually works its way out over a couple of days.
But a couple of times I had a flair up so bad that I couldn’t even stand, live alone walk and the pain was excruciating – nerve pain along with excruciating muscle spasms. My ortho gave me a prescription for Percocet and a strong muscle relaxer on one such occasion. I was glad he did but truthfully after a couple of days of sitting in my recliner chair and alternating ice and heat and taking the Percocet and muscle relaxer as proscribed and watching TV but not remembering anything I watched, I could see how an opioid could be additive. I sort of felt at the time that the pain was still sort of there, sort of in the background but the Percocet either dulled it or made me feel so good that I just didn’t care. I tend to think it was a bit of the latter. So as soon as I felt I didn’t need them anymore, I got rid of the remaining couple of pills.
For those with severe chronic pain, excepting for terminal cancer patients, long term opioid medications are probably not in many cases the answer. If possible, using physical therapy and other methods of dealing with the root cause of the pain is probably the better option.
As to the arthritis in my knees and feet and my back problem, surprisingly exercise and stretching has been the answer. If I walk, do some moderate weight training and targeted stretching, religiously, every day (and you have to learn know what to do and just as important, not what to do, often with the help of a physical therapist) I find I don’t have nearly as much or any pain as when I am sedentary for a couple of days.
But it is a hard sell to tell someone in pain that the answer may be to move more, even if painful at first.
I’m going through this with my older brother. He also has arthritis and a back problem, even had surgery about 6 years ago for spinal stenosis. He hurts and I get that. But he also sits around all day in a chair watching TV, IMO only making matters worse. He’s not into taking many pain pills but keeps going from doctor to doctor looking for a “cure” and when several doctors suggested physical therapy as a prerequisite before even considering surgery, he told them they were full of it if they couldn’t do anything for him. I think he thinks there is some surgery or magic pill that will make all is pain go away and I keep telling him that the last thing he wants to do is undergo another back surgery – the first one worked but he may not be so lucky the next time and it may not even be stenosis and at least one doc after an MRI told him it wasn’t.
I keep asking him to go walking with me. Just a little a first, just a walk from his house to the end of his drive way, then a little farther and a little farther, but he refuses. He’d rather blame doctors for not doing anything for him, either not giving him a “magic” pill or performing a surgery on him.
But the other side of the coin is that people with chronic pain, if they don’t get it will look to find it other ways.
My same brother told me that when he lived in NJ, near the shore in an area with many retirement communities, one day he and my SIL went to a liquor store before Thanksgiving to pick up a bottle of wine and were amazed to see so many elderly folks, some using oxygen tanks and walkers, buying large bottles of cheap whiskey and boxes wine.
My brother asked the store owner what was up, and he told him that a lot of these folks have serious and chronic pain but because of the restrictions and scrutiny doctors are now under in how and when they proscribe pain medications and not just opioids, these old folks come in after getting their SS checks and stock up for the month on the only pain relief they can legally get.
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