Big Pharma's Lockdown On Legitimate Chronic Pain Patients (Page 3) (Top voted first)

Is narcotic pain medicine becoming a thing of the past?

Why are doctors across America phasing out the practice of prescribing effective pain medication?

Will big pharmaceutical companies ever truly understand what it's like to face the other side of the coin?

Lately there's been a musty scent in the air surrounding the use of prescribed narcotic pain medication. Many doctors appear to be running scared as the DEA scours through fields of medical records, inspecting prescribing pads like a mouse scavenges for food in a dimly lit cellar.

Should the day come when doctors recommend Ibuprofen to a feeble man who's been involved in a terrible car accident (breaking several bones / requiring extensive surgery), is this doctor at risk of malpractice when there are more effective options available that they choose not to pick, out of fear? Fear of what? Doing the right thing? No, I don't think this is the reason... Somewhere along the line, in the not too distant past, doctors were loosely prescribing narcotic pain medication as if it would never go out of style. Nowadays, the harsh penalty of potentially losing their license for writing any unknown number of opiate prescriptions over so many calendar days or some other form of strict criteria, has been enough to prevent many physicians from taking even subtle "risks" with patients who are expressing obvious signs of pain and discomfort.

The unfortunately unique problem with pain is that it's not a physical object and in order for others to detect it, they'd have to rely solely on the backbone of our body language using their intuition - something that's gone missing in western practice. If more doctors took the time and really got to know their patients front to back, then they will be their own best judge of deciding what the right thing to do is, regardless of what the DEA thinks about their decision or what their drug representative wants out of the deal. Sadly, until patients are put before profits, the foundation of America's healthcare system remains in jeopardy like an iceberg affected by global warming.

While I believe that the vast majority of human beings in their right mind would choose to do the right thing, we must all work together to become the change we wish to see within every aspect of our lives; and knowing that by doing so, it will shine light on those crossing our path that need it most.

In the meantime, some patients may have to find another way to manage their pain without putting their life or health at risk. Others are turning to natural alternatives such as kratom, cannabis, turmeric and/or implementing various lifestyle changes into their daily regime... But the key is to never give up hope.

What will you do?

Warm regards to all who face life's challenges head on.

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REPORT

Thank you for your article. Three of my immediate family members committed suicide because they were not able to get the proper care and management for their intractable pain. Two had end stage cancer, one had AIDS. Shame on people for the judgements against the helpless infirm. Cowards come in all walks of life. I am ashamed of my own inaction and wish I had been a better advocate.

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Hi everyone,

I'm the OP and I just wanted to give a heartfelt thank you for all of the genuine comments & contributions everyone has made to this impactful discussion. It gives me hope and reassurance that no matter what personal challenges or political storms we face, the vast majority of us still retain our inherent integrity and compassion towards one another.

I get the sense that more of mainstream America is finally waking up to what's really going on in this country (ethically / morally / politically / financially) and that it's only a matter of time before a larger percentage of citizens reach a breaking point. Preparing ourselves for change mentally and emotionally as well as surrounding ourselves with loved ones are probably two of the most important things we can do to keep our physical pain in check during these challenging times.

I wish everyone a pleasant weekend and peace of mind in our journey through life.

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Re: Ktb (# 456)

Ktb, I sure do know how you feel. It's become very humiliating to be users of that which we hate to mention, even to our doctors. I too feel like I won the lottery after picking up my script. Funny, even though it is not nearly as potent, even the little effect I get, I am looking forward to each month. I know many think we should be grateful, and I am, but I am also angry. Angry about having to carefully approach the subject with doctors, angry at how I have to be careful at the pharmacy, angry that one misstep, one wrong move and my care could be taken away. That makes me angry. Our well being is so fragile! Hope you doing well. JMJ

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I got kicked out of my doctors office because my husband was dying and i took a valium to calm me down. Naturally it should up in my urine and he kicked me to the curb without letting me explain what happened. After being his patient for over 10 years and never failing a drug case. My husband's is on hospice now and i am his care giver. I have ataxia and it involes alot of pain and muscle weakness and now i have no pain medication because of this. What has happened to human decency. To actuality care about their patients. They took an oath not to do harm. Well this has harmed me. Not only do i have to watch my husband die but i will be in severe pain trying to take care of him

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Re: char (# 760)

He sounds like Jeff sessions huh? I couldn't believe sessions said that cannabis was 10 times more dangerous than Heroin... He's an *****.

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Re: madashell (# 765)

Recently found out there are manufacturing limits on most perhaps all controlled substances. There is also a cap on how many units a pharmacy can order per month to sell to customers with prescriptions from their doctors. Physicians are also investigated if government agencies think they are writing too many scripts for certain medications.

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madashell (# 991) --

I see you copied and pasted a few sentences off the FDA website. I went to their website and I have never read a bigger line of crap posted on any webpage. They claim that generics are the quality equivalent of the name brands. Most people that have taken both has noticed a big difference in quality especially since 2018 started. Everything started to go downhill when the manufacturers tried to reformulate the pain meds to try and remove the qualities of the pain pill that cause a person to get a “high” effect. The problem was as they removed this quality they reduced the effectiveness of the pain pills to no more than a plain Tylenol, aspirin, or ibuprofen. Many would say “that is what we want. Pain relief with no “high”qualities. The problem is there is no pain relief left in these pills. Other than that which you would get by taking a plain Tylenol.

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Re: LauraThe pain docto (# 1414)

I altered the pain that is constant 24/7... oh yeah makes it so much easier to care for my 86 yr old Mom at 62. I have to live for her and myself, and take care of her like an autistic child. She has at least 50 lbs on me... and though I have height, my weight is not anywhere near what it should be. Can't even wear a size 00. And not by choice. I was at least 115 consistently when I was taking my good prescription for pain... even worked the floors an associate at Goodwill in Gainesville, FL while baking orbit pain. After the husband and I separated in 2008, pain pills started going away... life is not even hardly a little fun anymore because it hurts too much. Pain level generally around a 5 on GOOD days... please back off the legitimate opioid pain patients... Listen to us... PLEASE!

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I have always said to myself why aren't the patients with legit pain fighting for their rights. I'm sure if we organized a protest and took it straight to Congress or Albany something would be done. If anyone reading this knows of an organization that will protest, it's time to stand up.

{edited for privacy}

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Re: Tommy (# 197)

Hi. I live in Georgia and I hear so many say different things too but I will say it's the DEA that's running the drs because I couldn't take hydro or oxycodone and basically I could only tolerate morphine which isn't good at all in long-term pain and I had no more than 60 mg and now it's 45mg, which helps on bad days and the other stuff made me feel terrible (dilaudid) so I couldn't take that and they changed the tramadol which mostly helped me with energy and mood. My dr says he can only give one opiate now. It's really crazy! I sign all petitions and call everyone that's needed because I feel this goes further whether one takes opioids or not. It's against our rights and so many were lied to! There's not a true opioid crisis! It's an illicit drug and government crisis! Anyone with common sense knows you can get addicted or overdose on ANYTHING! I don't like this at all and I hate it so bad that some families have had overdoses but that's not to do with pain patients. It's other factors. I had two cousins, ages 28 and 24 die 1 year apart. My uncle's only boys. Good home, good jobs, bad choices! Both overdosed, but alcohol and other stuff was found. It wasn't high levels of anything chronic pain patients take, it was other stuff. Yes, I'm saddened and they weren't poor either. They were both healthy middle class men. I've never told this on a forum but I felt I needed too. The government is going about this wrong and they can gather up all pain medicine and that's not stopping people from choices they make. My uncle doesn't blame opiates and he absolutely hates the commercials. It's illicit drugs and lack of common sense killing people!

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Re: Susanna (# 205)

There is no way for us to contact you as I believe we aren't allowed to give out personal info on this site, not even our real names. I would love to see what you have come up with. I have been a pain management patient for approx 17 years. I got put on a very potent med that before the doc would allow me to start it, he wanted me to think about what the med would do to my normal life. I thought about it and decided to try the med and I have been taking it for probably around 8 years now. Now all of the sudden I am being cut down on my meds which make it possible for me to live a semi-normal life. I have not cheated and taken any meds other than what the doc said was ok, now he says that I am gaining weight (going thru menopause so of course I am) and have not quit smoking. I have no idea what smoking cigs has to do with how my med is working. So frustrated cuz I kept up my end of the deal and now the rules are being changed for no reason that makes sense at all.

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Re: w john (# 361)

This was a very good explanation. Addressed to Mark, but we all benefit. Thank you. If politicians desire to create a black market for opioids, they are going about it the right way. If opioids are banned for your worthy CP patient, I guarantee customers will be lining up in dark alleyways and will buy their meds off of shady dealers. Upstanding citizens, side by side with the addicts. Prisons will have to build whole new structures to hold this new genre of "criminals".

Sound like exaggeration? Maybe, but I don't think so. Hospitals will be treating more drug poisonings, and not just addicts. Suicides will double, and depressed, sick and disabled will be our newest demographic. Self-inflicted injuries, for the chance to obtain meds for chronic conditions, will be common...this too will be made a crime. Desperate times, desperate measures. Look...banning alcohol, an unnecessary, but desirable, enjoyable accent to life for many, required detectives, squads, law enforcement personnel in great numbers, just to curtail consumption and sales.

Pain medicine is an integral ingredient for many, to ensure mental as well as physical productivity. Take it away, hurting employees will not be able to make it to work. A forty hour week may be too much for the untreated, suffering masses. Again....sound like exaggeration? Hardly. It's not just old retired people hurting, with very serious conditions. The young laborers, those that make a living doing physically demanding jobs....take their med away and see how much they get done. Oh, they will try to stay on the job, try not to risk their freedom, their reputations, their family's reputation, but out of desperation, they may end up in jail for "seeking" the med they've been deprived of. Yep, a slippery slope, an easy slide...from Joe upright citizen...to jailbird.

I am now seeing a possible scenario that scares the begeebers out of me. Heck, it's in the works now. Well, no kidding many on pain med are abusers, no kidding meds are falling into the wrong hands, heck yeah we have addicts looking for their fix. That is nothing new. Always have been, always will be. What will be the new criminals? Moms, dads, grandpa, grandma, coaches, caregivers, librarians, etc. Your friends and neighbors. Gee, where will we put them all? Just think of the revenue raised by first offenders who are fined. No, I see no good end here. Follow through with this war on pain medications and the repercussions will be impossible to estimate. There has to be a better way than this. It's sheer madness, for the sake of curbing abuse. Yes, abuse should be addressed. Better regulations could be made. That does not mean stricter, just a more functional common sense approach. WHICH DOES NOT INVOLVE DEPRIVING CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS!

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Mare (# 378) --

Unfortunately, the insurance companies deny a prescription all the time. I am appealing their decision to deny me what I am prescribed because their alternative is cheaper. Funny, they will also approve a pain medication that is much stronger than what I am asking for. Makes no sense. I have an inoperable shoulder issue where TWO Neurology practices gave me the same prognosis two months apart. They BOTH said they can improve my shoulder with surgery and months of rehab but one guy was honest with me and said it may only improve 10% and that is after surgery, months of rehab and a scar that will last a lifetime. I asked them my options and I was told I had three (1) surgery, (2) shots or (3) take my meds. Given the options I chose to take my meds. Everything was fine for the first 12 years until the manufacturers decided to change their formulations and I was told by TWO pharmacists from TWO different major pharmacies that if I wanted something that would have a standard efficacy that I should ask for the NAME BRAND medication and not the generics. I asked my insurance company to change to the name brand and they said no. I am currently appealing their decision as it is totally nonsensical. The point is the insurance companies make the most insane medical decisions without ever examining you. Surgery would cost major money and require hospitization. Shots are expensive and I would have to take them until I die at least twice a year. The pain medications that I tolerate perfectly is the easiest and least expensive way to go but the dumb insurance companies can't figure that out.

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Re: JMJ (# 394)

I have been fully disabled since 2003. I saw an orthopedic surgeon & he said I was inoperable. So I’m stuck with pain management. I have my all opioids taken away & had a pain pump implanted. Not sure how much this helps because I still have chronic pain. The only medications I’m given are Soma & sleeping pills which help a little. I waiting for them to take those away. If Workers Comp would approve an operation, I could have been cured once & for all. But the insurance companies seem to be ones who say what you can or can’t have and it comes down to money. They claim that they don’t want drugs ending up on the streets. Really? I don’t know one chronic pain patient wanting to sell the only meds that help them. On my last refill, Workers Comp denied my sleeping pills that I have been given for over 15 years. Since this injury, I hardly go out at all except to go to my dr appointments. My quality of life hasn’t changed since it happened. If my meds are taken away, there is no reason to continue fighting anymore. I refuse to live in absolute pain for the rest of my life. If they can’t fixed the illegal drug trade, we are the next option they can control. I wished the government & health care companies would take a survey of all chronic pain patients so they would see the problem is not coming from us.

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Re: Carol (# 429)

Carol.... unfortunately, as you have found out, Doctors now will NOT stand up for their patients. They are too worried about their prescription numbers being "audited" by the DEA and/or they have bought into the CDC "Guidelines" as their new Bible of how to treat chronic pain patients. What is REALLY outrageous is that these Guidelines were meant for ONLY opioid naive patients in Primary Care practices! However, the 90 Morphine Milligram Equivalent (90 MME) cap was supposed to be for PCP docs ONLY....but now because of all the news coverage of the opioid epidemic, pain management practices across the country are adhering to the 90 MME cap, or not prescribing opioids AT ALL!

Here's why.......the PM docs can treat less patients and make MORE money. Think about it. For an office visit my old PM doc billed my insurance company $350. He received $50 from me as a copay and $81 from the insurance company for a total of $131. My appts. lasted 5 minutes. His assistant printed out my scripts while I waited in the waiting room and he signed them with a single letter signature. He did an epidural inj. on me one time. That shot was EXPENSIVE!! The doc charged $3,500.....The nurse who started my IV and gave me 2 mg Versed charged the ins. Co. as an anesthesiologist $2,500 and the outpatient surgery center (which the PM doc was a part owner) charged $3,000 for use of the facility and floroscope (which the PM doc also partly owned). Do the math. Instead of having to see patients every 5 minutes to make pennies on the dollar, he now no longer prescribes meds at all. It's inj's., spinal stimulator or pain pump. BTW, docs get commissions for every spinal stimulator or pump they implant. Imagine the medical charges for these implants....it is ALL ABOUT MONEY PERIOD!!

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Ktb (# 445) --

Ktb, probably not able to keep my big mouth shut on this forum anyway, lol! Yep. Head down low. Never complain. Don't show your pleasure if they do bump you up. Don't ever talk about "feeling no EFFECT" from your med. Effect equals "high" now. Effect is bad. Used to be my guide as to whether they were working or not. Now, there is no "effect", to deter abuse I guess, so it's time that tells me if they are working. If I don't feel better in 45 mins, they are not working. I had euphoria for many months when first beginning chronic pain meds. I won't lie, it felt like a shot in the arm, put a boost in my step. Now that is gone, and I will admit, it is not necessary for my well being. I, like everyone else, just want to feel better. Please. Just help me be productive and useful. That's all. My overall health is not bad. Yep, stroke and aneurysm, but both treated and non-threatening now. It's my joints, RA, neuralgia. Not life threatening, I know, just life degrading. It's not noticeable to anyone but me, and maybe my husband, children. They know what I was, what I am now after the stroke and joint breakdown. Oh well. It is what it is. Just need the help as of now, I receive, but may not at any given time. God bless.

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Re: Carol (# 491)

You caught my attention when you said, palliative care! There's an excellent article I read the other day that everyone here should read. Go to google search type or paste this:

Medium When Does Pain Treatment Become Palliative Care Treatment? A plan for doctors

Medium Daily Digest is a good informational website with articles about the opioids crisis that you can sign up for emails.
There's other articles about palliative care too on their website. It seems that palliative care could be away around this prescribing delima, but you know that once the federal/state governments got wind of it being used to get around prescribing guidelines for alot of patients. They would all of a sudden write alot of new laws to stop that avenue of labeled treatment of palliative care and redefine palliative care to fit their narrow minded mentality!

Read the articles and let me know what you think about palliative care and the 3 criteria for becoming a patient of palliative care. Does it fit your pain situation? Read about my situation and they said NO!

Here's a synopsis of my destroyed body: I had a bad epidural abscess. The nerve bundles from L4 to S1 both sides are scarred, pitted and encapsulated with scar tissue. My dural sac (contains spinal cord) is severely scarred at 3 levels and pitted. The medical term for that is peridural fibrosis. Several vertebrae are pitted up from the infection eating on them, so I have bone pain too. The L5 S1 disc was basically devoured by the infection. They put a bone plug in from a bone bank. It scarred the nerve canals both sides L4 to S1. Imagine decades old hard as a rock scar tissue & pitted vertebrae rubbing on 6 pitted up nerve bundles and the same scar tissue rubbing in your pitted spinal cord at 3 levels! It happened in 1989 from a horrible staph infection after a back surgery and the hospital gave me steroids for 10 days with this staph infection. Superbug from steroids! I'm lucky that I lived, but sometimes well ok alot-alot of times I wish I'd died! I was on 2 different IV antibiotics for 96 days Claphoran & Timentin and then antibiotic pills for 45 more days. Yeah that's an INFECTION!

Then in 2005 a person drove the biggest Uhaul fully loaded into the back of my car going 50+mph on a freeway exit ramp! I was stopped at the light. I had a spinal cord stimulator implant that my seatbelt perforated my liver basically in half almost. The 3 sets of stimulator leads didn't release like they're supposed to & ripped my insides out in my Thorac (upper back) now I'm scarred and they're really bad too. My C3 disc and vertebrae moved about one third of an inch forward severely hitting my spinal cord and denting my spinal cord. The L5 S1 bone plug was destroyed and could not be surgically repaired because any surgery back into that area would more than likely destroy major nerve bundles because they're encapsulated in scar tissue, so I'm bone to bone at L5 S1. There's absolutely nothing surgically that can be done for me! I have nerve ablations every year or so C3 to C6 both sides menial branch nerves, L4 to S1 both sides nerve ablations menial branch nerves & spinal cord stimulator implants as needed when the batteries no longer recharge. I now have surgically implanted leads instead of the percutaneously inserted ones because of the Uhaul accident ripping out those leads... Yeah that's a lot of bad stuff happening to my body for sure! My pain meds haven't been reduced even though I'm on a lot more than the guidelines suggest and my doctor says he can justify it easily to anyone who questions him about his course of treatment and will increase them as my situation continues to get worse as I age! I'm 59 now and still can't believe that I have lived this long. If not for my wife I wouldn't have made it by the first 6 months!

Having this epidural abscess is like having a cactus inside you poking nerves and your spinal cord. Just a hard cough will cause the scar tissue to engage nerves so severely that the extreme pain will make me become urinary incontinent(wiz on yourself) because the pain is that severe! THAT'S PAIN! I get muscle spasms so severe that my calf muscles. There's 2 major muscles there. It locks down into a V down the middle while my wife or I rub it & squeeze trying to get it to release and usually lasts from several minutes to 20+minutes. My thigh muscles do the same thing. A big V going down my thigh! The pain is unimaginable when large muscles lock down for extended periods of times like that! You'd think all of what I just told you about would easily qualify me for palliative care, but so far it hasn't! I get rather large amounts of opiates both ER & IR, but since they're justifiable they say palliative care isn't a medical option at this time. So yes there are medical conditions that allow a qualified pain management doctor to prescribe large amounts of opiates even with all the fake BS going on these days. BUT alot of times I pray for the lord to just let me go to sleep and not wake up to this! I would never take my life because I couldn't do that to my wife. If my wife should die I would never use my medication to take my life. I would never betray my doctor's trust nor would I hurt all of YOU! Which of course the CDC would use it against all of you who remain here!

My word is all I have left. Everything else has been stolen from me. I'm sure most of you can easily relate to that!
Everyone's pain is different, just because mine is in lunar orbit doesn't mean yours isn't too! Pain is an equal opportunity destroyer of life and until you've experienced it in its most raw severe forms you have absolutely nothing to say about people who have to take narcotic analgesics to be able to tolerate it instead of taking their lives! No one and I mean no one should be making any policy about patients and medications until you've spent a whole entire year wearing our shoes of severe chronic pain or a qualified pain management doctor with decades of practice whose seen the other side of suffering life that most policy makers could never ever dream of or even comprehend!

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Re: Brandi (# 493)

Wasn't but a month ago I went in to check blood pressure and the first thing out of the doctors mouth was I don't give out pain pills! !!!! I was fit to be tied but let it go. .all I said was I just need my blood pressure checked. .just saying that this is getting out of hand

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Re: etech (# 497)

What the pharmaceutical industry was being "damned " for was because when they were heavily promoting the first opioids they were promoting them to Doctors and telling them that they had no addictive qualities. ALL tobacco products are known carcinogens. They kill or heavily contribute to the death of millions of people annually. Why are they allowed to continue in the market place? Because of the profits brought to the farmers, manufacturers, and retailers that's why. I do not like that chronic pain patients who have gotten their prescriptions legally and use the product as directed are caught up in this insanity. To blame one person or party for the mess we are in is nothing but partisan baloney. I can remember back in 2009 when this problem was being published heavily that no one called out obama for this issue. Why? Because he did not start it and was not contributing to the issue. This is a heavily mass media controlled issue with all of their negative publicity and flat out lies about "opioids". Just a few weeks ago a college student died from an overdose of cocaine and what did the headline state - "College student caught up in the opioid crisis"! Since when is cocaine an opiate? It isn't but that did not keep the mainstream media from publishing a lying headline. Keep your partisan comments to yourself. They do not do anything to fix this issue.

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In the state I live in pharmacies are now required to put a red label on all prescription bottles for opioids that has a skull and cross bone and says Caution: Opioid. Risk of overdose and addiction. I wonder if they ever thought that they are literally putting a red flag on the bottles and will make it easier for addicts to know which ones to steal. Once again the government is helping addicts and harming responsible chronic pain patients

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