Chronic Back Pain With No Help
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What are the people with chronic pain going to do now that Drs will not prescribe pain meds they need and are in legitimate pain? Drs think you are a drug seeker if you ask for lortab even thought you really are in pain. What is going to happen to these people. Pain can cause other things such as high blood pressure and depression yet most Drs will not treat their pain because of all the drug seekers. What can be done about this. There has tobe a solution. The Physician's Oath says"First do no harm" But when they let someone in real pain walk out the door with no pain meds they in my mind are doing harm. There has to be a way to work this out so that people in real pain will be treated so they can have a quality of life. When you are in real pain you have no quality of life. You become depressed and cannot do nothing. But somehow the drug seekers seem to get the pain meds. What's going on here?

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Re: Verwon (# 2)

Thank you for your input. But I too am a chronic pain advocate. My doctor has sent me to pain management, they're the ones that cut my medicine in half. My regular doctor was giving me 120 Percocet 10 and when he sent me to pain management they cut me to 90 Percocets and I just can't get by with 90. I run out before time and am afraid to ask for the 120 back, because I don't want to seem like a junkie. I also have documentation of sciatic nerve, deteriorating disc and more. I just don't know where to turn. I had surgeries and just can't take anymore. I have 3 beautiful granddaughters, I love to let them help me cook and bake, but that part of my life is put on hold when I run out of meds, and I take Goody's to replace my run out of meds situation and that's giving me problems with my stomach. But the Goody's are the only thing that helps just a little. I'm actually scared, I hate the real junkies who have caused the ones that really need them to be unable to get them without seeming like we're part of the problem or being treated that way. North Carolina is in trouble. Thanks to the junkies.

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Re: Vick (# 1)

I'm so thankful you wrote this. I have saved this article. I feel 110% the same as you. I was in a terrible car accident and really messed my back and neck up. It sounds like you and I suffer from a lot of the same things. I'm in a pain management facility and was on 120 Roxy 15's. Now they've put me on 90 a month per 10's which do nothing for me, they cut my medication. So I have to take 2 perc 10's when I first wake up, one after lunch and one in the evening or I will be in pain. But I run out before the end of the month and YES I go into withdrawals and it's terrible. If I call and tell them I'm out they say I'm abusing them. And I'm not. I've been taking pain meds for 10 yrs and my tolerance takes a higher dose than someone that's only took them a yr or 2. So again I'm glad you wrote this and I got to read it. I FEEL YOUR PAIN AND KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE SAYING.

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@Vick idk why but Dr.s recently have shyed away from oxycodone /Percocet same with a number of ppl on here in the same state. My doc will increase my MSCONTIN and give me 3 hydrocodone aka vicodin but refuses to write me oxycodone. I have legitimate problems , so I'm not red flagged, I've not been in trouble Dr shopping or trying to fill early...so this is happening with the It oxycodone to a lot of pain patient s.

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I am in Lebanon TN about 30 miles from Nashville. You are right about asking upfront for pain medicine.so the last Dr I went to I didn't ask. I showed him my records and he did help me with my anxiety and gave me klonopin but referred me for an MRI and then a pain specialist.

I didn't ask the pain Dr either for pain meds. He just looked at my MRI and my records and gave me hydrocodone. But the reason I wrote the post is because it took me 6 months to find a Dr to understand and help me out.

And I was stuck in the Philippines for 2 and 1/2 years without pain meds. I did get some once but meds are extremely expensive there so I couldn't afford them so really I was in pain with no help for 3 years and it was a nightmare. T

hen I came home to the USA and thought I could surely get help but no Dr would help and it sounds like I am a drug seeker because I left that dr and tried another. Most people in n real chronic pain do seem and act like drug seekers because they are in pain and the drs will not give them anything. So it catch 22. I

t's like you have to prepare what exactly you will say and practice before you see the dr. So now I am on PT and the pain Dr gave me pain meds that help but the only thing that totally takes my pain away is Percocet but I will not ask him for it because. once again I;m labled a drug seeker. And I still worry that he will not renew my hydrocodone.

That's my anxiety coming out in me. And Thanks for your sympathy. I appreciate it. And thanks for replying

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I am very sorry that you are suffering, this has been happening a lot recently and it is awful for the people left in pain to be miserable.

And though I hate to say it, you may be creating part of the issue yourself.

If you're actually asking doctors for a specific narcotic medication, the can raise a red flag to them, because they are usually taught very early on to see that as drug seeking behavior.

It is usually just best to let your pain and medical records speak for themselves and then let the doctor suggest treatment options.

Another problem may arise if you're just seeing a regular general practitioner, since the DEA is trying to transition them away from treating chronic pain on a long-term basis. They are trying to move people into pain management, where they can work with someone that is specially trained to treat pain and the associated issues.

What is your general location?

Knowing that may enable someone to suggest a good doctor in your area.

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Back to my post. The way things are today every time you walk into a Dr's office and you have a history of chronic pain you feel like a drug addict even though you are really in pain. The way the powers that be have gotten stricter and stricter on pain meds makes you feel like a junkie. In fact even though I am in chronic pain with my lower back the way the institutions of medicine have tightened up on prescribing pain meds I myself think sometimes that I am nothing more than a drug addict searching for drugs.

You know it's getting bad when you have documented MRI and Mylegram results stating you have 3 herniated disks and the sacral pinching a nerve root and they have you thinking you are a drug addict. It's like they are using reverse psychology on Patients so they can prescribe the outrageous prices of the new drugs that keep coming out every day.

Pain pills like Hydrocodone have been around a long time and are a lot safer than some drugs like NSAIDS. like Celexa that can bleed you out and tylenol that eats your liver. The old opiates are tried and true and with these new meds there is no way you know what side effects it has until it's been around a few years .

It makes me think that the medical institution and not just the pharmaceutical companies but the Drs too make opiates and other pain meds seem so awful is because they are so cheap. A script of hydrocodone for me is $12 but my doctor put me on this new drug that is extended release neurontin called Gralise which is over $200 a month. And of course it's' not on my formulary and if I get it approved for my formulary I have to pay the highest tier co-pay which is $45. Everybody knows it's all about money and not about the patient's well being.

Because if they cared about the patient they would prescribe him the pain meds that actually work and that cost nearly nothing than prescribe them $200 meds that they have no idea if they work because they are too new.

What's funny is while I'm writing this I am thinking that the people reading this are thinking I'm a junkie. They have brainwashed not only the patient into making him think he is a junkie but also the people around him like his friends and the people waiting in line at the pharmacy.

So what do you do. Do you live in chronic debilitating pain with no quality of like or is there something we can do to make the institutions relax their restrictions so people like me can have a quality of life I believe I am entitled to just like every body else

I would like to add one more thing. Even if a person who has chronic debilitating pain that prevents him from doing the regular activities and even more, like playing catch with his son even if he does get dependent on the drug. Which is worse? Living a life where you can't do anything not even play with your kids or regular housework or take the meds and maybe get dependent but are able to have a quality of life and do things and play ball with your son.

One thing that makes you feel less than a man is to tell you 9 yr old son that you can't play catch with him.
Thanks for listening
Vick

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