Most of you know that I live in pain. Lots and lots of daily pain. Some days are better than others but even the good days are full of pain. to get through my days I rely upon strong opioid medications to lessen the pain and this is the problem. There is a huge bias in society against those of us who need this medication to get through our days. You can see it in the crazy laws the states have trotted out to battle prescription drug abuse. Most of these laws deal with a drug called Oxycontin. There are other names for it as well but it's basically just oxycodone without the usual pairing of acetaminophen. Because it is not paired with acetaminophen it is stronger than those that are paired with it. It also is easier to abuse.
So there is a lot of abuse of the drug. There are multiple causes from doctors prescribing without actually meeting patients to patients selling their pills to the media. See the media hype over this actually helped to spread the abuse. Areas that were not seeing much abuse saw abuse increase after news articles about it. The media hyped the story and the public bit on it hook, line and sinker. They demanded their politicians do something to protect decent society from these rampaging hordes of addicts. The real problem was that there wasn't as much going on as they hyped. The smoke was bigger than the fire.
Along came our politicians eager to look tough on the war on drugs. They came out with all kinds of idiotic laws to punish doctors and patients but did very little to stop the abuse but hey they aren't doctors so we can cut them a little slack. They were trying to regulate something they knew nothing about. Then the DEA jumped in with both feet. They busted a couple of doctors in Florida for running pill mills. This is where so called patents can go and pay a fee and get a script without actually having to lie and playact. A couple of more well publicized busts and the DEA could trumpet how effective they were in this battle. They looked for more doctors and found a few and they went after them as well.
The result of this is we have doctors who are afraid to prescribe patients with the medication they need to relieve their pain. Even cancer patients can have trouble getting medication to combat their pain. They have every reason to be afraid. See some of those doctors who were busted were not running pill mills. They took their oath seriously and were trying to help their patients. They believed Drug company reps who touted these miracle drugs. They are now serving jail sentences for their trust.
Jump on down below the orange snow doodle and find out what is happening now.
Regular doctors are now very afraid of prescribing strong medications to combat pain. The DEA has made them very fearful and justly so. Some doctors saw a need and started a new branch of medicine. Pain management clinics. They came up with ways to protect themselves from the DEA and charges they were running pill mills. They gave patients "contracts" to sign and rules to abide by. These ranged from regular piss tests to test for illegal drugs to random pill counts to a myriad of other rules. . One bad test and the patients are out. Break any rule and the patient is out. Even in states with medical marijuana or legal marijuana a positive test for marijuana is grounds for instant dismissal.
What the heck is a patient to do ? They swallow their pride and put up with the intrusive rules. Why ? Because this is the only place they can find some relief. I say some because pain medications rarely relieve all the pain. They bring it down to a manageable level for the patient at least that is what they hope for. See these pain clinics are a license to print money just about for the doctors. Chronic pain patients are not real money makers for a pain clinic, nope but that doesn't matter. they have found ways to make up for this. They push shots. These are huge money makers. The list of different shot types is huge. You have epidurals, nerve blockers, Facet shots, SI injections and the list goes on. They can do multiples of these on different levels and on both sides and each brings a nice fat check from the insurance company. Too bad they don't help much in relieving pain. Sure some work for some people but mostly they do not. They are just a money maker for the clinic.
So here we are pushed out to a specialty clinic that isn't interested in fixing the patient. Now there are some doctors out there that really do care. They want to help their patients return to as much of a normal life as they can. Here is the problem. Doing that doesn't bring in the bucks. It doesn't pay the bills. After a while the caring doctors are pushed out or sell their clinic to a group that brings in the pushers. These pushers are just as ba as those that stand on the corner selling street drugs. Okay that is my own opinion but look at it. Just like the guys on the corner they are selling something that is supposed to make you feel good but in the long run does nothing good for you and can do a lot of damage. These pushers have a title all their own. They are PAs or NPs. They are not doctors. They are much cheaper to hire and keep than a real doctor.
These PAs and NPs see the majority of the patients. Their main job is to convince the patient to get more shots. They seem so reasonable when they are pushing this shot or that. They make it seem like these shots will cure all that ails the patient but when that doesn't work they turn to threats. This is really underhanded as the patient is threatened with dismissal from the practice if they don't do them or that they will not get refills on their meds. This is a very real threat. Most times once a patient is dismissed by one clinic they can not get into another. Doesn't matter that they have a very real issue causing pain. So the patients agree to become pin cushions and the claims go out to the insurance company. They can do dozens of these shots every day and each brings in a nice hefty return on the odd 15 minutes it takes to administer them.
So what is a person in pain to do ? We are humiliated and scorned by society. The very people who we turn to to treat us most likely are not in it to bring about pain relief but to make money. Finding a true caring doctor is almost impossible. Politicians just want to look like they are fighting the war on drugs and in most cases the laws do nothing but make more money for pain clinics by requiring more office visits and throwing obstacles in the way of people in pain getting treated. we allow unneeded medical procedures just so that we can continue to receive medication that does not relieve all of our pain.
In any other branch of medicine, when a doctor is caught doing unneeded medical procedures they lose their license. In pain management it is part of their business practices. It goes on every single day and not one doctor is called out for doing anything wrong. Just how nuts is that ? These clinics do more harm than good and yet what choice is there for someone who needs opioid pain medications ? Most doctors will not prescribe them or if they do they will not do it for a long term. After just a few months they push these patients out to a "Pain Clinic". Heading to the ER will give us short term relief but once again that is a short term solution and it just lasts one day. There really is no solution at this time for this.
What is so shameful is that this is allowed to happen. No other branch of medicine treats half the issue. Break a leg they don't give you half a cast. Go in to have your appendix out they don't leave half of it in. For cancer patients they don't use only half the radiation or chemotherapy drugs. So why is it ok for doctors to allow people to live with half their pain ? What is wrong with ridding a patient of all of their pain ? Why does society insist on allowing this ? If living in pain is such a great thing why don't more people volunteer to do it ? If this is so acceptable to society than society can kiss my ass. I hate living with my pain. I challenge any of these jerkwads who say living with pain is okay to live with my pain for a week. I don't mind doctors making a living. I do mind doctors making a living by exploiting pain patients and it is exploitation of their patients. They are not working to cure their patients. They are working to keep their patients coming back week after week and month after month. This must stop and quickly. I have no hope of anything changing quickly but I dream of it. We need to band together and stand up if wee can and demand our rights as humans. We need to demand our right to a pain free life if it is possible. We have the numbers to be a force for good and to change these policies but only if we are standing as one. One person can not change this but we can make progress as a group.