Help Others In Getting Their Pain Medications Go To Care2petitionsite And Sign Demand That Chronic Suffers Get Medication Now (Page 3) (Top voted first)

Here it is, your sincere effort to help us all get back our right to having our pain medications now!! sign this petition to get action and be a part in changing the DEA'a plan that is surely not working. Give us back our lives, Let the junkies overdose is they so choose to. Go to "Care2petitionsite" now sign the petition on "demand that chronic pain sufferers get their medication now, by valerie. I thank you for your support. Feel free to share it because the more signatures that we get the sooner we can make this a reality.

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Re: Charlene (# 172)

I may have been prescribed my pain meds for over 2 d Cade's, only to be told I can't have it anymore... not even weaned off. The Doctor put me through withdrawals... they were horrible, and I never did a thing to deserve it. After almost a year, I have been in constant , sometimes acute pain... all document d. Why can't I have my pain medication?! Vintageladyhd

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I cannot get my prescription due to red tape that has had me waiting for over a week. I am weaning off fentanyl duragesic patches after 13 years at same dosage. The doctor prescribed a dose that is just starting to be made so there is not enough supply to meet demand. The pharmacy didn’t bother to tell me until 5 days had passed. They just kept saying we are ordering it. So the pharmacist recommended that the pain management doctor write 2 scripts that combined would be my new lower dosage. No one said I would need prior authorization to fill one of the scripts as it is a new dosage. So two more days have gone by and soon I will be in full blown withdrawal due to laziness of the workers at big name pharmacy (starting with a W) as well as office workers at my pain management doctors office. I am doing what I am told to do. I am complying with the new guidelines. How come no one is held responsible for getting the meds to patients on time? Looking for any suggestions here. Thank you.

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Re: Liberty (# 1)

We have been fightimg for years now but have only lost more groumd!

We are desperate now

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Re: ROBIN SHINE (# 173)

I understand, my situation is similar. I was always given 3 boxes of fentanyl patches because after 48 hrs I had metabolized all of the meds. I was told I had to make it to 72 hours and reduce the dosage. I can make it to 60 hrs when lucky. By the time 72 hours comes I have to wait 12 hours for relief because my body has little if any of the medication left. It’s like starting withdrawal every 48 hours. So for every 2 days of functioning, I
suffer for almost 2 days until I feel better. The patches fall off frequently due to the increased sweating and high temperatures outside. I have never abused my prescription medication. I had been on same dosage for 13 years until the doctor told me I had to reduce the amount and extend the dosage. Then my pharmacy delays filling my prescription for 10 days saying it’s out of stock and my insurance won’t cover the medicine anymore. My doctor wanted me to go to a Suboxone clinic rather than titer off slowly. I refused; besides my insurance wouldn’t cover that either.

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Re: What to do (# 178)

It does not seem right that all pain patients are being given the same doses. Everyone metabolizes medication at different rates. We are being treated with a one size fits all fixed amount. Additionally the amounts are decreased with each visit. Soon we will have all pain patients without medication and no longer able to function or enjoy a decent quality of life. I was on the same dosage of medication for 13 years and now I am unable to work because the pain is returning and every third day I start withdrawal symptoms. Not to mention how it affects thinking and mood! No one is considering the depression that will set in. The doctors should be fighting back as well because they are being questioned for each script written so they are turning their backs on their patients needs. One day in the not distant future pain management won’t even be a specialty. They paid for many years of education and should be able to decide what is best for each patient on an individualized basis.

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Hello all in here speaking of long term opiate use. I would like to reply to most in here so instead I will reply to all that know who I am speaking of. I resent the fact that the feds MAKE you go every month to receive them and if you don't, I've heard "Well you don't really need them then". I believe pain meds should be taken as needed.not on a methodic every day basis. What I have done had been going for about 6 to 8 months every month to receive whatever they will prescribe, then stockpile them and eventually quit going to the doctor. That gives plenty of time for the body to metabolize them. I've been doing this since 1993, I'm a little older now and take that into consideration too.

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Re: Bella (# 181)

I agree that addicts who are not selling and are not violent should not be in jail! I think the courts are trying to make this right!

I also know we had many problems previously where people who did not need opioids were getting them! I think for the most part that this too has changed! It came with severe consequences to those with chronic pain. You see I am a chronic pain patient! I have been on opioids for more than 15 years. I am 61 years old now but I injured my cervical spine while working as a flight attendant when I was about 43 yrs old. I refused surgery initially but after about 2 years when everything (traction, physical therapy, chiropractic care, diet, exercise, homeopathic care... You name it; it did not help me enough to allow me to go back to work! Finally, I agreed to do surgery; it changed my life forever! If I had been able to look into the future, I would have never done it. I was taking 2 or 3 Vicodin a day until surgery and then nothing helped me! I am a good example of why surgery should be a last resort! After surgery I did not get better instead I gradually got worse! My surgeon did not believe me until they finally found the cause! Two of the titanium screws broke in half!!! Initially, I thought if they took the screws out I would be at least some better but it was not to be! The screws are at C4 and are so far up that it was too dangerous to remove them unless they started to back themselves out then it would be life-threatening and they would be forced to do something! Taking hardware out of the spine is difficult but taking them out when they are so far up could leave me a quadriplegic!

So, after having good care for years it became difficult to get medication that my doctor prescribed. Then my doctor got a visit from the DEA and became afraid! I had been on high dose opioids; fentanyl patches almost from the start. I had been able to reduce my dose years ago after PT helped me some and steroid injections also have helped. I have been doing them for years! The steroids scare me terribly but I have to do them or I need more pain medication so it is a trade-off I pray will continue to pay off for the test of my life! When the taper started less than a year ago I could not make the cut. I went thu hell before I got a new doctor (always pain management doctors) I am still angry! I was forced into a tapet that I could not follow! I was honest but it got me nowhere! Finally medicare paid the majority of more than $30,000 to implant a pain pump in me that delivers (guess what?) Opioids to me! If you read about the dangers of the pump, I do not believe you would want it either! That is not alI, I will have to have a new one implanted every six years. I have had it only since February and have had to replace a hand help piece which cost me $650 and left me in hell again for a week!

I do not know what more I can tell you to try and make you understand that cervical spine surgery is very dangerous. No one told me before hand that about 3% of us turn out this way! It seems small unless you count everyone that has this type of surgery but even more important, even if they only did 100 of these surgeries; how would you like to be one of the 3? Then worse yet; have the care that gives you the most relif taken away from you? At 61 I now have interstitial cystitis, osteoarthritis, osteopenia, severe DDD which was probably caused by steroids I was given for about 5 years (from the time I was 25 till I was 30) for an autoimmune problem called chronic urticaria (sp). It is hives that started attacking my organs! Oh I do not drink or smoke (I have tried to live my life as healthily as possible! I do believe that there is a way to help those of us that need high for opioids and at the same time keeping them out of the hands of those who do not need high dose! What if we had to be seen and screened by multiple doctors who all had to agree? Then certify us so we would be able to get our medications for as long as we needed them; reassessing us if need be? Thank you for your thoughts, I know we may not always agree but seeing things from both sides may change the way we once thought!

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Re: Bella (# 181)

I have been experiencing chronic pain for 25 years. I spent 10 years trying meds other than opiates to get relief. I was headed for disability at the age of 30 but my family could not survive on the payments. I needed to find a way to work until I qualified for my pension. No one told me 13 years ago that the medication offered by a respected pain management doctor could have serious long term effects. I was told if you try this you can control your pain for 2-3 days without remembering to take a pil every 6-8 hours. There would be no breakthrough pain and waiting for next dose to work. It would have less impact on liver and kidneys because it was not ingested. I agreed. I stayed on the medicine working full-time and raising my 3 kids. I had little if any side effects. Then the DEA, FDA, and other alpha groups find they made a mistake. These meds were dangerous and were for short term use only. Ok - so what can you offer as a replacement? I was told the same meds from over 20 years ago that made me fat, tired, unable to work or care for my family. I feel people like myself are victims in this situation. I am weaning off the medication with no idea of what will control my pain when I am done.

I don’t think most chronic pain patients would have taken these medications if pain management doctors did not encourage it and tell them it was safe if used as directed. Now I feel judged by many as an addict. Technically I am addicted but it’s different than being a drug seeking person that doctor shops for meds or aquifers them by illegal means. I don’t want sympathy; I want understanding. I would not have taken any medication if I knew the truth. I waited 3 months to get an appointment with the well respected pain management doctor employed by a well respected hospital in NY City. He offered relief, I took it because I trusted his expertise in pain management. Afterwards I was seen by a local pain management doctor that kept me on the same dosage for over a decade with no changes. I never abused the meds, felt high, or asked for more. This crisis began as a result of big pharma giving perks and incentives (financial as well as trips, etc) to docs that would prescribe these particular meds. Big money has been made by pharmaceutical companies and doctors because of trusting patients like myself. This is the story that deserves to be told.

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I don’t think it’s fair for people not to get their medicine when they need it

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Re: Mare (# 222)

Shameful, if you lost a child to anything, how would you feel if someone told you to get over it. Also please remember that addiction is a disease and does not make a person bad but instead makes them do bad things! It would be helpful to offer a hand instead of a slap to Bella who is obviously very affected by the loss of her nephew! Yes, I am a chronic pain patient who has been put thru hell after being put thru a forced taper and then denied to me altogether! This was neither Bella's fault or that of her nephew! Please, can we not try and help one another even if our problems are different?

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Re: Focked (# 228)

Yes my email prompted me again and I was afraid to look but I see you understand my pain more so after your own loss. I’m so sorry. My cousin also passed long ago from alcohol and he worked and played guitar... for some reason some not all blame a parent for the overdose death or any death associated with addiction. I share my story and my speech about grief and the stigma of addiction is next month to 25 couples who this has happened too. So I only hid it on this site because people were suffering. But then they got hateful and I had to blurt out my nephew because I could not bare the sting of anyone speaking bad about my child. I do speak at churches and schools because what the hell I'm gonna suffer anyway may as well try and help others. Addiction is a disease the AMA said so in 1962 I would not lie about that. I saw how it became one. My son was a smart handsome nerdy type of kid. I have heard other parents I meet at the cemetery as I never missed a day in 5 years, that their kid started with mostly pills on the street then went to Heroin. My son never did needles he was afraid of them go figure. Anyway sorry for the rant but The Fentanyl is coming from China over the Mexican border, as there was just a sudden bust from there. Chronic pain sufferers are having a major problem but it’s nothing to do with kids that are addicted. If your an adult with a definitive diagnosis that causes chronic pain, you should be able to get pain meds. If not it’s your doctors fault. They are afraid of malpractice, they don’t no who is telling the truth or not. I’ve heard it all. Doctors do not give out Heroin or Fentanyl. We have a Heroin crisis with needles. The opioid excuse is simply that... just today Johnson&Johnson has to pay out $575 million dollars for drug rehabs etc... I do hope people on here research instead of pointing their finger at a kid who is stuck yet cannot get out no matter how hard we tried. I would of died for him.

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Re: Vintage Lady (# 175)

Hello, vintage lady, I'm not sure what you're asking me...I'm not sure why you can't get your pain medication?...I have to wonder though? Could it be the state you live in? I'm in southwest Florida, my son visits a pain management doctor. The same one I used to visit years ago, he doesn't prescribe like he used to but he still helps out with pain..three lortab 10s a day, or three percocet 10s, when I had a visit with him last June he started me out on 3 percocet 10s, he said quietly that's all I can give, then the next visit with him I mentioned I had to take a 4th one a few days..so he just increased the next script to that, the visits are every 3 months and he does do a u/a around every 6 months or so, I truly believe every state must be different, idk...but these doctors went to school and paid a lot of money for school, only to end up being afraid to treat patients the way they were told to....I read so many sad stories about people in so much pain...I'm hopeful for change. But if it happens...it's a long way off...I also wonder what some big shots with money, does there family members get treatment? It would be very interesting to know.

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I'm surprised this is an issue in Colorado. You cannot get the meds you need? So your doc just stopped giving it to you?

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I just made a new one for distribution to each state house and fed congress:

thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/242/062/280

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You are not a "junkie"!! If you need the medicine for pain, you need it, period, to live a semi-normal life. I'm sick to death of people referring to chronic pain patients as being addicted as physically yes, we're addicted, just like a diabetic is "addicted" to the insulin they need. But the diabetic and myself both would easily give up our insulin and pain pills if I had no pain and the diabetic didn't need insulin; that's called mental addiction..... then you're only a junkie if you're taking it just to feel high but have no pain. I never dreamed the government would interfere with certain pain medications as to be honest, none of us want to be on them; I know I don't but if I don't take my pills, I absolutely cannot function. I wish those government know it all's could walk in my shoes for one day or even a couple of hours. They'd soon shut their mouths and sink back to wherever they came out of the woodwork.

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I feel that by signing a petition without the firm agreement and support from each states Senator, will not change a thing. The real concerns of those of us with legitimate chronic pain issues is getting mixed with others who look like junkies and are using this forum to find drugs by any means possible. There are some websites that already have movements and support that are working to make changes that will have positive results on the regulations put into place by the CDC, and over enforced by the DEA and unfortunately are having negative impacts on the doctors we need. Get involved with one of those organizations where your efforts will be of a benefit.

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I had to go to a pain clinic because the Dr.'s in my area are scared to death of losing their licenses. The pain clinic dr. doesn't care about how much pain I'm in, only about giving me spinal inj's., which he does in his office and gets paid 100% of the charges and only 45-65% for office visits, which is what would be needed if it was just meds. He even told me he didn't care about my 84 year old father's well being because he isn't his patient. I told him up front I couldn't do anything that would take me away from my house very much or for very long because my dad stays with me during the day and has Dementia and has fallen 2 times while I was at a dr.'s appointment. My Dad is very important to me so I don't understand how this guy can say he doesn't care about Dad when anything that happens to my Dad has a direct affect on me. Pain clinics want to tell you that you have to jump through hoops to get a small fraction of the meds you had been taking and get their money. They don't care about how the patient is doing, and to quote my Pain Dr. "doesn't care about my quality of life, only wants to get me off meds because Americans think there is a pill for everything- he is American."

I say "they" because I have several friends and you can see that the bads ones, and there seem to be a lot of them, don't care about quality of life which to me means they don't care about the patient because there is no life if there is no quality! I also believe that pain meds are helpful when you have a condition or more likely conditions that are so painful you can't get out of bed and just want to die, until you find that Dr. that cares and gives you pain meds, at a dose that won't kill you but will give you quality of life. But those Dr.'s have their hands tied and their licenses held hostage because of those that take them illegally, don't follow directions, and/or buy impure drugs off the street and die. I feel bad for them but I don't think my life should be ruined because I haven't done anything wrong and didn't ask for these painful illness's, like ruptured discs, bulging discs, degenerative disc disease. spinal stenosis- narrowing of the spine so all the nerves are smashed together, arthritis in the spine and other places, and list goes on but you get the point! I pray something will be done to stop this madness and also hope they are keeping track of the number of law abiding people who can't take anymore pain and the dr won't give them anymore meds so they think the only relief is death and kill themselves. But maybe we aren't as important as the people who get the meds illegally and overdose or get poisoned by what was mixed with the street drugs and no one will monitor what happens to us.

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Do a search for opioids on Care2petitions. There are many petitions to sign. 1 petition is 1 too many. Another website that keeps patients up to date is Countable.com. It is the newly written and passed bills that you as a voter can go and vote. It gets passed directly on to your REPS. Comment on why you vote the way you do. They work for US, not the other way around. Type in opioids in the search and there are many... every bill they pass for the opioid crisis they are taking away #UnitedNPain patients meds. Also keep up on pain blogs, they are so spread out that it is hard to organize... National Pain Report is very informative! There are doctors and patients fighting for our rights. I tweet Trump about our plight, he talks terrorism and I post about pain patients and the terrorism being done to them here in the USA by Gov., dumb docs and media, pharmacies, nurses the list goes on. Trump complains about fake media stories. I tweet to him the fake stats and media reporting opioid crisis people are being misled by. My mom is one and she thinks it's the mishandling of scripts/overdoses. I told her it is illegal drugs causing overdoses. I have written letters to Doctor OZ, the doctors tv shows, mty Reps. Do you think I have been written back too? No. But I put them out there. The messages need to be spread on social media. Hang in there.

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Re: matt (# 30)

I would be surprised if Medicare approves a pain pump. Aren't they very expensive?

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Re: sandy (# 41)

I feel for you myself being a patient and suffering after chemo, treatments from nerve damage I can not image going through what you must have to.

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