Pain Medication Shame (Page 2)

First of all, I hate taking pain meds but I was almost completely bedridden for 2 yrs. They gave me my life back and I'll be grateful for the rest of my life. My insurance company dropped me right before I was gonna have surgery to get some relief. So I had no choice but to go with the pain meds. I've been on oxycodone 30/150 per month (5 a day) and MS Contin 200mg 2 times daily since 2009. Had breaks when I could. My point is, nobody knows what my daily life is like. I feel ashamed every month getting refills. Maybe it's in my head but the staff at the pharmacy gives me that "pill seeker" look. I guess all that matters is my doctor trusts me and he knows my complete history. I know I'm not taking them for fun. I'd much rather be normal. Can anyone relate to what I'm saying?

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Re: Brandi79 (# 13)

Hey brandi I am in the same situation. I have chronic pancreatitis and panic disorder with agoraphobia. It is horrible to try and choose because you can't. I have the most awful psychiatrist in the world who treats me like dirt but I keep him around because he will give me a small dose of klonopin with my pain meds but it is really minimal. I can't complain because at least he will give me something. Everyone else I talked to to try and switch said they wouldn't be able to give me anything for my panic. I understand the danger in mixing the drugs but I was already on both in high doses in the pat and was just fine. So those new reports don't even apply to me. Doctors just don't want take a chance anymore and it is a shame because sone of us like you and I are in a real bind.

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I'm in the same boat, but after all these years they are taking life away from me. I have gone cold turkey on oxys and Klonopin. I've been on 180 30's a month for years, but thanks to donald trump I get none of either. So I spend my days in bed doing shots of tequila to kill pain and I haven't drank in 20 years. I guess I should smoke too for anxiety.

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Re: julie (# 18)

Hello Ms Julie are you sure physical therapy with no help from pain management will make us better? I had three back surgeries two was cervical which the second surgery the doctor thought it would be better to use my bone from pelvis...he said I will use just a very small piece. I was afraid i wouldn't walk afterward for some reason and the doctor assured me that would not happen but i still was concerned and. I canceled surgery so a few weeks later after seeking more info I went on and had the surgery. Surgery was a mistake I bled horribly from the bone being removed and could not walk by myself horrible pain. Went home and two weeks later i started trying to walk on my own and took a step bone fractured. To ER i was carried and returned to doctor in wheelchair and was told by ER the bone that was removed was more than i was told. The Surgeon told me OH YES I Had to remove a bigger piece than expected. I was going to pain management for seven years now. Today the pain management obviously thought i need to try suboxene instead of norco. How do they overlook my pain the doctor ruined my life. Live in pain so if physical therapy and exercise going to give me my life back as you're saying...please tell me how. I have a lumbar surgery as well botched and still in pain.

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Re: Precious (# 23)

I agree with you! Yes Julie, explain to me how physical therapy is going to help me since I had an epidural abscess from a Lumbar surgery. It scarred the dural sac (contains the spinal cord) L4 to S1, 2 levels of nerves bundles both sides from L4 to S1 and the epidural space from L4 to S1. Any activity from a cough, sneeze, bump, movement, riding in a car, etc. irritates my condition into IV level drug pain, but all I get are high doses of ER and IR pills. I have a spinal cord stimulator implant too. Every nerve that can be terminated without causing paralysis has been terminated... So much for your physical therapy BS Julie! Surprised you have no idea what you're talking about. You sound like a one size fits all government brainwashed internet troll!

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Yeah I can relate. I got hit by an 18 wheeler in 2008. Had 2 back surgeries have 7 Titian rods any back.. they had to pull me out with the jaws. I stayed in the hospital for 6 most.. That ended my nursing career. I am in constant pain

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Working in a pharmacy I know first hand what they think about people on C2 pain meds. They always say here comes so and so first thing in the morning right when we open the doors to pick up their pain meds. They do act like everyone that gets these meds are just addicts and they don’t really need them. They think people shouldn’t need to be on them. And once I asked my boss about someone that only wanted a certain manufacturer of oxycodone and he said we don’t want people like that coming to our pharmacy! I’m thinking wow that’s great! I ask my pharmacy for a certain manufacturer on my Norco cuz I hate the Amneal brand that they were giving me. I always go in the morning to get my meds cuz that’s the best time cuz if they have any problems with my script then we have the entire day to figure it out. Every time I go to get my meds I dread it cuz I’m wondering if they are saying to each other here comes so and so getting her pain meds right at opening time, just like clock work, she’s got to get her fix! It sucks!

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Feel the same way you get looked at like ur doing something wrong n ur being judged n some pharmacies wont fill the scripts for ya its sad how we are judged n now being cut down how are we supposed to have any quality of life

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Roman, I have had spinal cervical fusion along with 3 herniated discs and degerative disc disease for a number of years, and have been imon pain meds now for at least 10. I was told some time ago by someone who worked at a locally owned mom and pop pharmacy in my town the she couldn’t understand why I put that stuff ( pain meds)in my body. I detected the sarcastic undertones in her comment, and politely replied that maybe if she could live a week in my shoes and see how hard getting out of bed was, she would understand. It shut her up quick. I get the shame, but also get that the meds are the only hope I have I’ve some kind of a normal existence. Weigh the two, you’ll see what I mean.

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Re: julie (# 18)

LOL, but not funny. Who are you to tell someone they should not be bed bound. Really. I'll say this, I hurt my back in 2005 really and discs was pushed together on the nerves and other ailments to my body that gave me chronic pain. I was on Methadone and Morphine, and Oxycodone for years. Then they started with the pain meds stuff and I had no choice but to go on Suboxone, and for me it changed my life. My point what works for others may not work for you. We are all different damn. I hate that one remedy works for all mess.Yes, moving around help, but damnit, when your in chronic or horrific pain who can do that? People like you get on my last nerve telling people that. Like that's putting them down. Stop it, your not their doctor. Please don't listen to people like this. Write to you alderman and congressmen. Tell them your story, you may think it's falling on death ears but they are hearing. Join organizations that are for the pain patients. We are not just seeking pain meds we are seeking relief. Make some meds that aren't addictive. I'm still on a pain med. But guess what this cost 500% more than the old pain meds. Think about that also.

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Sanmarie (# 27) --

Girl I'm with ya! My husband has RSD/complex pain syndrome (I think it's called the latter now) caused by a major stroke. He was never a medicine taker and still hates it now. He gets morphine and percocet every month, refuses the morphine most of the time but will take the percocet. He lives his life in incredible pain on the entire right side of his body. Thank God he has a great neurologist (at least for now --rumor has it that he's going to stop writing narcotics because of all this political bs) and a wonderful pharmacy. He would even be willing to take cannabis oil or smoke marijuana if it was legal but we live in Virginia and I don't think they'll ever ok it. Anyway, I just wanted to respond to your comment :)

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I so agree with you. My pharmacy is good for the most part, but I understand what you are saying. You are right, all we should care about is what our doctor knows; however, we do feel in our minds that they judge us. They just don't understand the pain that we go through on a daily basis. I can not live life and enjoy any of it without taking my meds. I do not like taking them either, but unfortunately, I do not have any choice. Good Luck to you!

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I can relate to you 100% I also am on pain pills I take Morphine Sulfate 30mg tab 2x a day and also take Hydrocodone 10/325 4x a day as needed. I don't care what looks the pharmacist gives me I'm the one in pain not them. I have to have approval from my insurance co. for the morphine and the dr. has to fill out papers to them. I wish I didn't have to take this medication I want to be normal to be able to do things like I use to do I hate being disabled and not be able to work.

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Anger
Frustration
Fear
Hopelessness

Anyone out there know where you can find sympathy?

Look in the dictionary. It comes between s*** and syphilis. Going in for another surgery on the 19th this month. Had an exploratory procedure performed on 10th October to determine just how much further my shoulder problem has degenerated. Arthroscopic. Long & short of the follow up of my "pain management" (this term being one now,to me,meaning just how much pain they can manage to keep you in). What a horror show, I won't get into finer points of it. Went to orthopedic Dr. office yesterday to get things in place for the 19th. P A came in with paperwork for me to sign verifying that everything was set up for procedure to performed on my shoulder. My left shoulder. Mind you, I'm the "agitated right shoulder oxycontin guy". Had a flashback to when I was admitted to hospital while in the service. Kid in bed next to me was recovering from knee surgery. See, he had to recover from that one so that they could then do the procedure again. This time on the correct knee. That was over 25 years ago & this crap is still going on today. At least I'm not having a VA facility touching me on the 19th.

I AM SCARED NOW, OR SHOULD CLARIFY, MORE THAN EVER OF BEING PUT UNDER THE KNIFE AGAIN!!! Too agitated & angry to continue with this post any further. God Help All Of Us Chronically Mismanaged Chronic Pain Sufferers.

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I'm in the same boat as all of you. Except it's my nurse practitioner who makes me feel guilty. I had a great practitioner but she left. The person I'm with now only cares about what happens to her. I cry at most appointments. How can someone in the medical field make a patient feel guilty like that. When did taking pain meds become the devil? Why is it legal to buy marijuana in my state but not ok to take pain meds? I sometimes feel like giving up.

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Re: Precious (# 23)

I agree. It is terrifying to be a chronic pain sufferrer these days with all the new laws and legislations and dr jailing going on. People in serious serious pain are going to go out and drink themselves to death or go die from an overdose or something. it is terrible and frustrating.

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I have been on Oxycodone since 2008. I live in Illinois and the state has these doctors scared. Here you have to see a pain clinic. Most M.D. will not prescribe any pain meds here. My pain doctor had a family emergency and had to leave the country for two months so his office called my family doctor and asked them to take over my pain medications until he returned. When I went in to see him he told me that he wouldn't prescribe the amount that I had been taking since 2013. I had been on 20mg oxycodone 6 per day for 3 years. I was also prescribed 30mg morphine ER 2 a day for long acting for the same amount of time. So 200mg a day everyday for 3 years. My family doctor said he would only prescribe that amount to a cancer patient. I asked him if he ever had a major back injury with permanent nerve damage and his answer was No. I then asked him of he had ever had cancer and his answer was No again. So I asked him how could he tell me that my pain isn't as bad as a cancer patient if he never lived either one. He couldn't answer the ? I ended up leaving his office with 7.5mg hydrocodone and 4 a day. So he gave me 30mg a day when I had been taking 200mg a day for 3 years. He sent me home with Nassau medication and a antidepressant that he said would help with the withdrawal. It didn't help. So I went to the emergency room and explained my accident and gave them the letter from my pain clinic telling the situation. I told them the amount I had been taking and for how long and explained I was going through withdrawal and needed help.

The nurse said she could tell I was having withdrawals. The E.R. doctor came in didn't even get to the foot of the bed and said I cannot prescribe any pain medications to you. I said I'm not here for pain medications I'm here for something for the withdrawals. He said he could help with that and left. Nurse came in with my discharge papers. I said he was supposed to have given me something for the withdrawals. The hospital is Brommen in Bloomington Illinois. Every night on the local News they talk about the opiate epidemic here but a person can walk in to the emergency at the hospital here and can't get help. Now I have had a major back injury with permanent nerve damage. I have never filled my prescription early. Never took more then prescribed and never sold my meds and couldn't even get help when I asked. Illinois act's like they're the only state with this problem. Now I'm sure there are people who abuse it and sell it and there the ones who make it hard for the ones who really need it to get it. A doctor in Idaho told me that most doctors now forgot their code of ethics and compassion. He said most have sold there souls to the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. I really couldn't believe I couldn't get help from doctors and the hospital here when I asked for it and had documents of why this was happening. I would like to see one of those heartless bastards walk one day in my shoes and I guarantee their biased opinion and labels would change.

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Re: Mark (# 24)

I certainly wished...no i dont but if they could live in our shoes one day they would scream bloody murder. Yes we should all write letters to congress i guess because this is ridiculous. See if that helps doubt it but never know. Let the flood gates open. So sorry to hear all these tragic stories. I would much rather be working like normal people if there is such a thing.

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Re: Precious (# 37)

Writing to congress is a great idea but I don't think it would help. Right now the climate in the U.S. is very anti-drug. As long as they think reducing the medications given to patients will reduce what's on the streets I don't think they'll listen. Unfortunately, there are people that sell their medications for whatever reason and that hurts everybody. People like that make it so hard for legit patients to get the meds they need. I wish there were an answer.

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Re: Steve (# 36)

Geez Steve, so sorry you had to go through all that. That sounds terrible but not surprising. The doctor I was seeing lost his license for two years because he refused to bow down to the FDA and continued to prescribe for his patients. I can't see things changing. Once the gov't starts down a path it's near impossible to turn it back.

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If you research how many people can no longer get their pain meds and are now forced to live with chronic pain you would just count your blessings instead of being ashamed or caring what others think. Be grateful that your doctor is willing to stand up to the scrutiny of the government and now even the pharmacists are allowed to say no to the patients and even question their doctors. I am not one of those people but my heart aches for them.

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