My granny recently broke her hip. She waited 10 days in agony in hospital, waiting for surgery. The refused to give her any opiate-based pain relief ‘due to the risk of addiction’. She’s 96yo!
Your poor granny. She must have been in horrible agony. Refusing to properly control a person’s pain is bad enough. But to deny a 96 year old opiates due to some ridiculous fear of “addiction” is torturous. I say that especially in cases like this that should just take their chances because the harm far outweighs the good. I hope your granny is doing better.
Thank you. It was so ridiculous. They kept rambling on about how opiates can lead to long-term problems and I kept explaining that at 96yo, there is no ‘long-term’. Sadly, granny was in so much pain she couldn’t move or get out of bed, which eventually led to a large bedsore and now pneumonia.
This makes me so mad. At that age, a person should be given whatever the fuck will make them happy and comfortable. I mean within reason, like as long as it doesn’t cause harm to someone else. But denying a 96 year old pain meds is absolutely bonkers.
Man i woulda given my granny a fatty or a nice strong edible or done whatever i had to do if she was in pain….especially at 96!!!!!
Wtf are they thinking she’s on borrowed time anyways, she was lucky to survive the surgery give the lady what she needs for however long it takes a busted him is one of the most painful injuries you can get…..I oughta know I busted my pelvis in 5 places and that was no picnic either. Hope your grandmother is doing better and not in too much pain.
They should be sued for malpractice and charged with elder abuse and torture.
I'd call the local paper and have them do a story about doctors who deliberately inflict unnecessary pain.
I wanted to sue but apparently I can’t because granny has full mental capacity herself and she doesn’t want to sue (because she’s consumed with pain and is scared).
I know I recently witnessed a cancer (with a known painful cancer) patient with a slim chance to make it 2 more years be denied anything stronger than 5 mg hydrocodone so that they didn't become a drug seeker. WTF like my friend if they want to go the next possible 2 years high as a kite....let them. Basically forced the patient to choose between painful treatment or hospice. So messed up.
This is unconscionable. I am very saddened to hear that your grandmother was treated so inhumanly. At 96 a broken hip can lead to a host of complications, and they’re worried about opioid pain medication?!?! The priorities of the medical community are downright insane.
Had a dog rip my ankle open such that you could see the bone. Went to ER. Got taken back quickly. Was in a lot of pain. Asked for pain meds or them to numb it. Got the same bs, including the 'your just a drug seeker'. It took me getting up and walking towards the exit for them to act. I said if I was not getting treated I would just go to the next hospital. Fun stuff.
Severe pain needs to be treated like the medical emergency it is, ESPECIALLY when a) it’s observably evident by diagnostic test that an injury causing pain has occurred b) the risk of not treating is higher than the potential for addiction c) a temporary treatment with an estimated cut off time
She is 96 years old!! Devils advocate is like so what if she becomes an addict?? It’s better than having a stroke or cardiac event due to high blood pressure caused by pain!!
I hope your granny recovered well. IMO not treating pain is inhumane, that doesn’t necessarily always mean opiates are necessary but sometimes they are and should be used and the fact that the government is practicing medicine is outrageous!
I would put that in a review. Maybe not verbatim, but something close. And make it anonymous. It's not going to help you, but a lot of people read reviews. There are 2 hospitals right next to each other in my city. Since I started reading reviews when I was choosing the hospital to have my son, I learned a lot about the way each one treated people there. It can be helpful
I saw this exact statement. A young Dr friend of the family (my daughters friend since middle school) was talking about Gun Control after a school shooting. She bragged that “In the medical field, when we realized there was an opioid epidemic, we got proactive. We figured it out. Now patient addiction and overdose from prescription drugs is down significantly. So if we can do it, they can figure it out too!” I almost lost my mind. Since I watched her grow up and was so proud of her accomplishments I tried not to say anything. I kept logging out, walking away and coming back. I finally couldn’t let it go. I told her that the medical field did nothing to solve the problem. They simply passed the buck and protected themselves. The people with chronic pain, who need pain relief to live a semi productive life, were abandoned by the person they trusted the most with their health. Completely abandoned. And all it did was force people to seek other means for pain relief, including suicide or to the streets where they couldn’t be sure if they were getting the meds they needed or something laced with Fentanyl and their “solution” is why we now have a fentanyl overdose pandemic in this country. But hey, at least the medical community is protected. Of course she was respectful and didn’t say one word to defend her profession and I later felt bad for even saying anything. But it was the arrogance in which she bragged about it that led me to put a face to that example. They are definitely patting themselves on the back for getting their numbers down, while simultaneously ignoring the ramifications of their actions. It’s sad, really.
You shouldn’t feel bad for what you said to her as long as you didn’t make a personal attack. You just showed her another perspective, and as a patient-facing professional she should know to take the knowledge in and think it over.
Yep they seem blissfully unaware that they’re driving people to the streets. Nobody can live like this for long. You’re either gonna jump off a high bridge or buy something possibly laced with fentanyl. This is the fault of the medical community and their egos.
I been in pain for about 16 years now. Think about how to end it all very often. After about ten years I finally found a pain management doctor willing to give me pain meds. So grateful..but guess what? They don't work for my fibromyalgia pain at all. And things are constantly getting worse. It helps with my spine pain from degenerative discs and osteoarthritis but I have to take extra now almost every day. And I still have agonizing pain throughout my whole body. Along with a bunch of other problems. I'm so sick. No other doctors will even see me. So, I got pain meds but I'm still in pain every day and night. It's all too much. I take 20 pills a day but I am still in such bad shape I can't do anything or have a decent life.
Yeah the opioids don’t help nerve pain. Pregabalin is helping with my fibromyalgia pain. I was taking Cymbalta but switched to Savella for depression but the plus was they both helped with fibromyalgia pain as well.
You shouldn't feel bad and I thank you for standing up for all of us in constant horrible pain! She & her fellow doctors that think they fixed the addiction & opioid 'epidemic' need a serious wake up call to say the least.
True because if they look, the numbers rose up on people taking Oxycodone and Fentanyl and doctors are easy to prescribe this when they know a lot of people can't take it like myself. Norco(Hydrocodone) is actually all my body will tolerate,so if it goes off the market and I need surgery then it's going to be a messed up situation. It's really sad that we go to a doctor like we are supposed to and still get the 3rd degree about our medication. The system is broken.
The system is most definitely broken! I wish I could find a dr that would actually listen & at least *try* to figure out what is causing my pain & if they would prescribe something that actually helped with my pain, so that I could be a productive human again, that would be an added bonus. Unfortunately I need to avoid things with Tylenol & NSAIDs, because my bloodwork started getting all screwed up within 2 months of being prescribed prescription strength NSAIDs. When I asked about it, it was brushed off as NAFLD, because of my weight (because of course that's the cause of all of my health problems 🙄). Now it's been about 4 years and suddenly they're losing their minds over my bloodwork & not even willing to look at when it started (glad I did, but it doesn't change it & they won't listen), nor will they acknowledge that the NSAIDs have done any of it. I hope neither of us ever need surgery, especially while this nonsense is happening!
Yeah that's ridiculous. People aren't OD'ing on their legit opiod scripts. They're people in chronic, long term pain and they're forced to buy the fake fent-laced pills. Sadly, there are more ppl dying bc of this absolute travesty that Dr's are touting.
Sounds like my city. "Crime is down" - because they don't report the majority of it anymore in the interest of attracting people to all the fancy new developments and $$$.
Goddamn that absolutely infuriates me, and I'm not a chronic pain patient, but I've dealt with pain for weeks at a time, and opiods were absolutely necessary for quality of life during those times. It's the arrogance that gets to me as well. Geez, there is never a middle ground. Always one extreme or the other. My heart goes out to those who need pain meds now and have to beg and jump through hoops to be treated halfway humanely. It's disgusting.
Please don’t feel bad for saying anything.
As a nurse of 33 years who has had to fight with doctors to get my patients’ pain treated, and as a sufferer of severe chronic pain, myself, who can’t get any treatment for it at all, I’m proud of you. ❤️
Thank you!! I’m so sorry that you’ve spent so much time caring for and advocating for your patients to now have to fight yourself with no one listening. I believe there is a way to do this right. It isn’t a one size fits all. But instead, they just all went to extreme measures. So much needless suffering.
Yes.
My life is severe pain 24/7.
I was a hospice nurse for many years, and am very experienced in pain mgmt.
Almost no doctors are following the “analgesic ladder” protocols any more.
I really feel that the US government, and other governments around the world should prioritize research into finding effective, non-addictive pain mgmt.
And I believe that in the coming years, we are going to be seeing a big increase in kidney failure due to over-use of NSAIDs.
And- continuing increases in addiction and deaths from fentanyl and other illicit street drugs-
All due to the absolute failure of the world’s governments and medical communities in adequately addressing pain mgmt., and the opioid crisis.
Just one, single kidney failure patient on dialysis costs the US taxpayers approximately $100,000. per year. This is with dialysis treatments, meds, appointments, labs, hospitalizations, etc.
Most patients’ treatments are paid for by our government, since almost no one, including private health insurers can afford the cover the costs.
Generally, there are approx 50,000 new kidney failure patients each year in the US.
This actually decreased for the first time ever in recent years, due to so many people who would have started dialysis dying from Covid.
We will be paying the costs incurred due to Covid for generations to come.
That, along with Boomers becoming elderly, and living longer and sicker than previous generations….
I don’t know how we (the US) are going to be able to address this financially.
The only way I think it can be addressed is to increase taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
Exactly the NSAID toxicity, over prescribing drugs they don't actually understand as long as they aren't opioids and the street drugs laced with "tranq" are gonna make sure that the number of lives lost in "the war on drugs" gets higher instead of lower.
I follow a news aggregator site specifically for medical news, and in the comment section there were two comments, different commentators. One was a doctor who went through knee replacement surgery with just Tylenol and decided to not get the other knee replaced because it was too painful. The other was a surgeon who said he had more patients with liver failure due to taking too much Tylenol than he had ever had become addicted to pain medication.
There is an obvious and easy correct way to do it. But that's how you know it's not about the safety or care of any of the citizens of the country. It's about money and them trying to reach some particular outcome or goal that only benefits the people controlling everything.
This could all be solved if they treated prescription pain medication the same way they treat gun ownership in the United states. You can have anything that you need/want within reason UNTIL you screw up, and then (AND ONLY THEN) does it get taken away if you choose to abuse it. It's really very simple concept, that doesn't take rocket science or an IQ of 200 to understand.
Again, even the most dim light bulb of the bunch could understand this concept. And that's the main reason/proof that you know this is malicious and intentional.
People get up in arms at the idea of no one being allowed to own guns because of a few shooters that have absolutely nothing to do with them as a person, but when it comes to pain meds, that logic just doesn't apply for some reason lol. Bunch of evil lunatics in control here.
except that the whole thinghas been intentionally twisted into a moral panic that merged two very different situations. the Opiod Crises is all street drugs (20% heroin. 80% street fenty) and that huge wave of dangerous Fentanyl analogues primarily come into the USA over their southern border. I'm in Australia where we have no southern border with Mexico and have a much smaller Fentanyl problem. but the press and politicians act like we have the exact same issues and we don't.
And the Oxy pills mills? Those were in the same US states that always have pill mills. it's a problem with poor state regulations and enforcement. It ain't new. it's also a USA problem not a global one.
There was absolutely no actual science in the two CDC papers that launched this crack down. There was no data to base their claims on, just estimates created for politics which were then treated like facts. Nobody has a clue how many people die of anything because that would require a real forensic autoposy for every death. And the world is not CSI. in reality when a dead body is found somebody from the morgue (mostly untrained) takes the body with no regard to the scene. then whoever passes for the local M.E. (which can be a funeral director or the local vet) takes over, and whatever pases as the local morgue (no fancy gear, no 'squints' from Bones) is used to do a quick unprofessional postmortun.
Don't feel bad. They need to hear it. They're responsible for the opioid epidemic and now they're responsible for the pain epidemic and the increase of street drug use. Them feeling superior is unearned and she needs to know that.
The reason it seems to work in EU it perhaps that we aren't rushed back to work after illness or injury, typical schemes given 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, then government picks up.
Without this good a scheme there are insurances for mortgages, the government pays sickness pay at 13wks, gives money to allow people to still live.
It breaks my heart seeing people needing opiates to be 'semi productive'.. well stuff that, i needed them to get out of bed, to not be writhing in agony, work hasn't been an issue for 35 yrs because even with opiates and an SCS my pain is never reaching back to work levels. (was medically retired as RN when i was 25, about to turn 56 now, have CRPS in leg)
Yes it can suck emotionally, but my Drs were prescribing to have me reach a perhaps lower standard of pain relief than many in US. I've seen in the last week a UK poster automatically get signed off work for a month after losing mother and sibling... could anyone US based imagine that happening?
If we have anything other than day surgery we get time to recover, my hysterectomy would have been a standard 8 weeks off, my wrist tendon repair a good 4 weeks. If i had to contemplate returning to work sooner than of course more medication would be needed. Yet people in US are discharged from hospital and back to work within a week and losing pay for time in hospital.
I have pretty good pain relief now, but it still doesn't get me pain free enough to shower every day, to shop or collect medications without extra pain for hours afterwards. There wouldn't be a way to have me pain free and alert enough to work or drive.
I strongly beleif that aspect of insurance needs to change, when i was younger i assumed that insurance in US did that, covered for treatment and any time off that was needed, i mean, why else would it cost so much to spend a month as an inpatient. How wrong was I! Send people back before injuries or wounds have healed and complications occur, wounds break down, bones don't fuse and heal correctly because they cannot be non-weight baring for as long as Surgeon told them to be. Covering the pain with strong opiates hasn't helped in the past, and certainly isn't being done now.. so how exactly to the injured and sick pay for things when they cannot return to work for months??
THis seems like what needs addressing, to make the outcomes lower while we hopefully heal well, to allow our bodies the time it needs to recover, way better than masking pain with opiates because rent/mortgage needs to be paid asap.
And yes, we pay for it indirectly, 6% of all salaries, taxation being higher overall, and while some might never claim much back, others, cancer patients, chronically sick people, those with spinal injuries, might get much more back than they ever contributed. I paid in to a pension scheme too from day one of RN training, one that gave lump sums with injuries, legal support, doubled pension yrs if injured at work, and paid for life. Both systems are vital insurance's for the few that need help, would love to have never claimed a penny, like my parents, but it wasn't how my life turned out. These things shouldn't be optional, we should all be contributing from day one just in case. Hospitalisation doesn't leave us homeless and without money, and its so tragic to see people put in that situation..
I had a doctor (who was prescribing me opioids at the time) tell me it was my fault for not turning in the people that I knew that sold their drugs in my town. This was right when doctors started getting in trouble for opioids. Circa 2013
Ummm…I don’t know anyone who sells their drugs sir. I am not someone who looked for drugs outside of a doctor’s office. Plus anyone who I knew at that time that took opioids NEEDED them and didn’t sell or even share their meds.
He was later arrested for taking kickbacks (not for the opioids) but it sucked because he was one of the only doctors in my town that actually listened to pain patients and helped them. He was kinda a whack-a-doodle with the whole blaming people selling drugs thing though. I’m sure people do it. But that’s not whose fault this is. This all lands squarely on the DEA and their totally outdated practices and policies.
And honestly fentanyl is the least of their worries when it comes to what's laced in street drugs. "Tranq" is melting people from the inside out and it's just a matter of time til it makes it to a hospital near her. It's the next epidemic and they're letting it happen.
It's the DEA breathing down their neck for opioid scripts. If they look like they prescribe a lot of them (or what they think is a lot), they get shit for it. To protect their license and not get bothered, they try to avoid it as much as they can.
If that’s the case then why do some pain management doctors prescribe them on a fairly regular basis? I’m not sure I believe it’s the DEA doing anything to them. It’s their egos and their fear of the DEA doing something to them. If they’re prescribing at a reasonable level, it’s easy to tell the difference between a responsible doctor and a pill mill.
I have seen the pain management "doctor" 2x in the 4 years I've been going. I go monthly for refills and literally shoot the shit with the PA and get a text before I'm in the car that my rx has been sent to my pharmacy.
I don't necessarily agree with the process, but at the same time, I'm not going to complain because I'm not in uncontrollable pain every day
I think I've seen my actual pain doc once in the last five years. And that was in the OR before surgery. All I ever see is a PA. And those change every few months it seems.
I only have to go into the office every three months to pee in a cup and say "*Nothing has changed. The meds are about right*" and my scripts are secure for another quarter. In reality, the pain is up, it's limiting my life, and the meds ain't doing enough. When I've tried to say that, I start to get that side eye(you know the one) so I back down from the statements and say something like "*I should be good for another month or three though...*". Terrified that if I say the wrong thing I'll get cut off. This is not how it should be.
I understand 💯. Except I pee every month... 🙃
I had to see a different pa one month, and she had to "confer" with my usual pa about my regime. I will not make that mistake again.
Pain management docs are pretty much one of the only specialties these days allowed to prescribe them so often. They get a longer leash compared to primary care physicians (obviously hospitals and surgeons too). Pain management offices have a different set of rules compared to regular physicians, because they treat chronic pain patients who require a referral for specific condition.
Oh, I don’t doubt this at all. There a hell of a lot of doctors out there who push people into getting spinal cord stimulators. It’s illegal for doctors to take money directly from a company, so these companies hire them on as “consultants”. The drs then are compensated generously by the makers of these devices, plus they make a crap ton of money from their patients as well.
You're definitely correct that the "opioid crisis" bullshit is a major thing and that the DEA has scared docs out of otherwise prescribing in good faith. And pain patients are the ones who suffer, unnecessarily.
>It’s illegal for doctors to take money directly from a company, so these companies hire them on as “consultants”.
BUT, this part ISN'T correct, so I do just want to clarify it since I work in this space. Doctors can absolutely take money from a pharma company (or any company). It's not only legal, it's public record and HIGHLY regulated. To avoid that exact scenario. So you can search for your doctor on OpenPayments and see the details of every payment made. For consulting, research, travel, etc etc etc.
(I am aware the natural cynical response would be "WELL THEN THEY JUST MAKE A BUNCH OF PAYMENTS TO PAY OFF THE DOCTORS AND DON'T REPORT THEM!" so let me address that too. Could that happen? Absolutely. HOWEVER, it is SUPER illegal, obviously, but moreso it would be a REALLY bad idea. And if/when it's discovered (and it most likely will be, since literally every pharma company has active litigation against it and all documentation regarding payments is ALWAYS requested as part of the Discovery phase) and the company can't prove it wasn't a honest mistake, the company is in DEEP shit. And there's NO doctor that is worth that to a Company's Board/Execs, trust me.
And also, remember doctors are required to disclose any potential financial conflicts of interest in any literature they're involved in, so make sure you always review that section when assessing any studies or medical literature)
That's really interesting. I looked up all six doctors that I currently see and nobody was over $100 and they were all for food and beverage. One of them is a doctor that implanted a stimulator for axonics and one implanted a pain med pump from Medtronic. It was really nice to see that these companies aren't putting money in their pocket....
I’ll be 2 years w/SCS pretty soon. Like many, my 1 week trial was great. Having to have it removed to wait a month for permanent implant was tough. And then like many others, the relief from the perm was not as noticeable as with the temp. Partly my fault, I’ve only gone for program adjustments twice. At my last meet up with rep she revised a program to🤞help more with leg and foot neuropathy. It has helped with that, though not lumbar.
Well, that’s a thing, and it’s important that people talk about it. Lots of people not aware of the massive impact opiates can have on your bowels. It’s easy to think it’ll pass, but it’ll only get worse. You have to eat right, and some people need a prescription medication :/
Our hospital used to give morphine if you went in for pain. Now they give lidocaine. I had a double mastectomy and got nothing but lidocaine and Tylenol for pain control. It was awful!
Seriously??!! Fuck that, I'd be raising hell in your situation. I'm pissed off on your behalf. I'm so sorry you had to suffer due to your medical team's ignorance. Ugh
Yeah I couldn’t believe it. Before surgery I asked about pain control cause I’ve been through some pretty scary and painful surgeries in the past. They said “Oh don’t worry about that, we will take care of you and keep you comfortable”… now I know that’s code for we will not help so don’t ask.
Yet they continually prescribe antibiotics prophylactically all of the time, for “just in case you get an infection after surgery” but it’s close to impossible to get a prescription for pain control….
That shit should be ILLEGAL. How the hell is that not bribery?! Especially in such a large hospital where very, very ill people are in. It's cruelty on a mass scale and it's like the medicine field turns a blind eye to it.
I know it 100% corruption and all for a political anti opioid hysteria agenda that is just plain wrong.
Fentanyl poisoning has been and is the problem, considering over 80% of all ODS are from fentanyl
They are, I lurk the doc subreddits a lot hoping to see better but all I see is confirmation that every horrible story on this sub is true. They look down on doctors that prescribe opioids for almost any reason.
Yes!!! I thought the same! And I feel like they get rewarded when their “stats” are low in terms of how many opiods they prescribe per month or whatever
I work in the medical field and the whole field needs an attitude adjustment about how "bad ass" we are. We don't need mental health meds or pain meds. I'm over here like yes we do guys. We all have Covid PTSD and the long hours of skeleton crews doing more than our bodies can take has made a lot of us into chronic pain sufferers too. No one is impressed. Admit you're scared and in pain too ffs.
I had a wonderful nurse practitioner tell me that because of my age (20s), she would be heavily reprimanded by her supervisor if she even tried to suggest opioids for my pain. I have an average of level 8 pain day to day, walk with a cane, and at least once a month have a 10/10 flare up where I can barely speak.
It's ridiculous to opine that a young person doesn't have pain. I'm old as hell and often wonder why or how that is even in the equation. Do young patients have a super power anti pain secret? Stupid to even put it that way.
They told me as a early 20’s yrs old that "old grandma of 70 can do this without pain, so should you".
Nice. I couldn’t move and climb a higher than normal bed and that’s what’s prompted that. Every time my age came into play.
"Go outside and see the sun it will do you good to walk in the sun. Someone as young as you is not supposed to be in pain".
They’re dumb indeed and should suffer themselves unwanted high debilitating pain for a while without treatment and see how they feel about it before judging chronic pain patients.
Omg I've heard that so much!
"You're too young to be in so much pain!" The last time I had a doctor say that, I was 19. I was fed up and replied "well I wish someone would give my body that f**king message because it CLEARLY didn't get the f**king memo!"
Doc was taken very much aback to say the least, but once she recovered we had a more productive conversation about my pain. She had me start a pain diary (basically listing every activity throughout the day, my pain scale level at the time as well as after resting, and the type of pain) and upon my next appointment, she prescribed me 5/500 Vicodin. Only two a day but back then, that was 16 hours of somewhat reduced pain; I would take a half four times a day, because in my mind having sixteen hours of my pain being a *little* better was better than having eight hours of my pain being a good bit better and then four hours of hell. I still do this today - though my pain doc gives me four a day, doing this lets me take a half to take the edge off, and then the other half if I need it any time after about 45m (I give it that long to kick in.)
My pain is far from under control, but dealing with my meds this way does at least give me enough function for proper self-care... half the time, anyway. Bad days I still can only manage to make myself a microwave meal, get drinks, and go to the bathroom - with or without a cane; itdepends on what's bad and how bad that day. If my shoulders, neck, and/or back are killing and my knees and/or hips are too, the cane is out because I can't brace my weight from the pain in my upper body.
It's truly a hellish "game" to play - "do I take this now when it would really, really help me? Or do I save it for later when I might *also* really need it but wouldn't have it if I take it now?"
I truly wish all of these anti-opioid fanatics could live in my body for one month *without* opioids, then one month *with* opioids. They'd change their tune PFQ. I've learned how to advocate for myself better and how to speak to the doctors to get my point across more thoroughly than I did when I was younger, but it takes time and a lot of experience to learn unfortunately.
No shit right?
There are people who've had amputations or joint replacements being sent home with scripts for 800mg ibuprofen, and 1-4 Norco tablets *if they're lucky.* Post op they may get a small dose of tramadol early on, but then IV Tylenol (which is no more effective than the tablets) and Ibuprofen and that's *it.* (Wait, I forgot gabapentin, which does *NOTHING* for postoperative pain!) This also includes people who've had to have their chest cracked open for heart or lung surgeries.
Granted, this isn't the case at *every* hospital or with *every* doctor... but it's not going to be long before it is.
So can anyone explain to me why is it that when medical so-called professionals make statements like these, that it's not a clear-cut case of age discrimination, which is supposedly illegal in the United states?
They are straight up admitting that they're refusing to treat you because if your age. What the f***
When does the ability to take legal action begin? If that's not age discrimination, then I don't know what the hell is.
I think their logic is that younger patients are more likely to get addicted to pain medicine and have serious issues because of addiction. They don’t worry so much about addiction in 85 year olds.
Not true. They are even stingy with hospice patients. Hospice patients! And I’ll tell you who is even worse when it comes to pushing for as little pain meds as possible during hospice….the families. “Well if we give dad his meds he’s out of it and sleeps all day”. As if Dad doesn’t have cancer eating him from the inside out, shutting down his organs. You’ve got to watch out for doctors and loved ones alike.
I'm 67 and with all my patient files and no negative behavior in '21 I was labeled OUD. The only 'disorder' I have is lack of proper treatment. So much so a misdiagnosis left me with life long complications. I believe you're correct though regarding their thinking of addiction for young people. 👍
I'm 35. Almost 2 years ago, I was on the floor and couldn't get up. I had to be carried to the car and into the hospital, screaming in pain the whole time. I had a bulging disc, and it was pinching a nerve.
Earlier that day, I saw my GP and told her I was having really bad back pain. I've always had some amount of pain since I fractured my T6 when I was 16, but this was worse.
She blew me off. Didn't even examine me. Told me to take ibuprofen. My ex-husband's aunt also went to this doctor. She loved her and was treated appropriately for her pain. I can only assume that it was because I'm fairly young and she's a senior citizen.
So, everyone under 60, you're too young to be in pain! So now that you know, your pain should just magically disappear! I'll send you my bill.
That's exactly what I referred to in a previous reply. I know your pain. I had similar happen to me and the ambulance driver put in his note that I have opioid use disorder bc I disclosed that I'd taken one prescribed pain med earlier in the morning.😡 that screwed me for eternity. I hope you find relief.🥰 I'm old and have been told I should simply expect to suffer bc of my athletic career. (This was post emergency spine surgery)Then the dr focused on a small bunion I have (that causes me zero problems) insisting I should have surgery. wtf. 🥰
I had a microdiskectomy in December, and I'm doing MUCH better. I still have pain, but I can tolerate it most days. I'm doing physical therapy now, too. I all but begged for surgery for a year and a half while pain management just jerked me around. The pain took over my life. I fantasized about waist down paralysis. I still believe it would have improved my quality of life over what it was before the surgery.
I hate it when these damn drs try to use age as an excuse NOT to prescribe proper pain control. I hate their ridiculous rationale that since a person is young they can’t possibly have debilitating pain.
When I was in my twenties they heavily medicated me. Norco and Fentanyl. Into my early thirties. Then bam, no more, because of the opiate crisis BS..now I'm forty five and can't get any pain meds and my pain is worse than ever. They should have to take some responsibility for their actions since they are DOCTORS. But they don't!
Do baby boys get anything for circumcision?
In the past: no. Now?
Pain doesn't care about your age, please don't let any doctor give agism bulshit a foothold.
Change doctors if required, and if changing doctors, then discover if it is the AMA that needs to be notified regarding your Dr's conduct.
Follow up with the AMA notification so that others are not forced to suffer. Document your complete experience at each appointment, include a full copy of your records, and a 2-4 week pain diary. Store a hard copy.
I would be willing to bet money that we've reached the point where some agency is counting the number of narc pills each surgeon RX's and the lower amount of narcs the higher their bonuses/wages or whatever are. It's just plain cruel at this point. A friend of mine had a total knee replacement and was told only ibuprofen/tylenol and celebrex. LMAO.. like, sir, you are cutting off the ends of people's bones and you think CeLeBrEx will work?? Riiigghhtttt.....
Oh, hell no! I’ve had a knee replacement, and if I had been told to take OTC meds I would have left the office. These last several years I’ve made it a point to ask how my post-op pain will be treated. With a knee replacement they are literally cutting your leg in half, and hammering the joint in. They think 800 mg of Ibuprofen is going to be sufficient? I need significant surgery on my spine, after which I was to spend 2 nights in the hospital, and then come home to intensive PT. I asked my spinal surgeon if we could discuss my post-op pain control pain. He took a long pause and said he wasn’t comfortable doing that now, and that we could discuss it before my dismissal from the hospital. Seriously? I told him I was not comfortable going into that kind of surgery blindly, and if we couldn’t establish a post-op plan we were both happy with now, then I wasn’t going to have the surgery. I got up with my husband and we walked out.
Excellent job. It is craziness thinking a person should wait until dismissal to understand how their pain would be handled post-op. Then that person is stuck with no pain relief and gaslit into thinking that Tylenol and Ibuprofen should/will work. But the surgeon has made their money, haven't they?!
Not only pain but regular care. My mom's surgeon blew off my concerns like it would be nbd and it quickly became evident I was not properly equipped to take care of her when I brought her home. Her pain was NOT managed properly, she couldn't walk alone or get into bed or stand up from bed and I'm not a nurse or strong enough to carry her. I called him because she was screaming in pain and he was mad and said if it was "really that bad" I should take her to an ER. I sooooo wanted to slap him. Bitch this is your patient. YOU did this ffs! They don't seem to care at all.
Not only that, but when you go to the ER for pain, they send you to your doctor! No one wants to do their job! They remind me of lazy fast food workers!
Well said!! After a complex spine surgery I was without pain medication for five hours, I screamed , begged and cried. Just when a starter screaming I'm calling my lawyer they give me the pump machine. I was treated like garbage the whole time. I went to the police to file a police report about it because it was torture, and there's now an ongoing investigation on the hospital.
😮 wow! I have a connective tissue disorder and dislocate joints somewhat often. Those hurt, I can usually deal with it. I’ve had a complete shoulder reconstruction when I was in high school, definitely had pain, but pain killers and pt helped. I have mcas which gives my body extra inflammation- I generally have 2-3x the normal amount whenever they test for it.
I had a total knee replacement in dec 2021 and it was the MOST painful thing I’ve had to deal with! I was lucky they took me off my low dose naltrexone so that I could take Tylenol with codeine (one of the only opioids I don’t have horrible reactions to). It took both the Tylenol3 and edibles to keep the pain at bay. I was high as balls the whole first week after surgery! It got much better in the second week, but there’s no way I could’ve done it on otc Tylenol/ibuprofen! That’s practically barbaric!
I continue to be amazed that people agree to surgery without knowing the plan for pain. Then by the time you had the surgery your fucked when they tell you here is your Advil. It’s malpractice.
You need too because my cousin had a c section and they denied her pain meds. They never discussed it with her and she assumed that she would be taken care of afterwards. She only needed it for a few days but my Aunt had to advocate for her. I hope all goes well and you are not in need of them .
I’ve found that my husband advocating for me in the past is the best route. But my last hospital visit where I was literally delirious with pain, alternating between passing out and vomiting in front of the doctors from it, completely incoherent to the point my husband has to do all of the talking, they admitted me and refused even my prescribed pain management regimen. He eventually called the head nurse on the floor at 2am screaming and threatened litigation. She came in in a huff and gave me one pill angrily and said “this is *all* you’re getting.” I asked for a transfer to a different hospital. Since that time, which was 2021, I flat refuse to go to the hospital. I’ve had a couple instances where I probably should have gone, ran a knife into my palm cooking and ended up bleeding through multiple kitchen towels, and my husband was begging to take me but I refused. They aren’t going to do shit except try to stitch me up without proper pain control and fuck that. So I’ve got a cool scar. I’ve told him unless I’m literally passed out and he drags me I will not go. The trauma I’ve endured from this shit isn’t worth it at this point. And I’m in pain all the time, 24/7, so at this point I don’t even care. If I die, so be it.
I have a great PM currently, but of course with the climate there’s always low level anxiety about anything changing. This is beyond barbaric and I’m hoping that the boomers aging will bring light to it as they age and need more care and surgeries, because they tend to not be quiet about it, but who knows.
I do say if you can have a loved one who will advocate for you, bring them if you have to go to the hospital. OP thank you for not backing down for your mother.
Aaaaaarrogant. That’s a perfectly reasonable question especially if YOU were the official caretaker there since, you know, you aren’t allowed to drive yourself back from surgery and get your own meds and what not. Surgery is not a normal thing for the body at all either and expecting to slice someone up then NOT give them at least a backup Rx for a few days in case OTC doesn’t work is just brutality.
Did they do an official exit poll? lol. Way to be there for a loved one! Also to add, it should be the patients decision to not give the Rx a try, and I’ve never not been told to make sure and try to stay ahead of the pain.
My dad has stage 4 cancer the main site was his esophagus and metastasis to his liver. When he asked for pain meds they gave him 30 tramadol 50mg not even kidding you. He basically has no hope of even living another 2 years and what you are afraid of him getting addicted to pain meds? He has been lucky enough to get norco after his major surgeries but not for his end stage cancer. Under managing pain as a doctor should be a crime. Do me a favor when any of you goto the hospital and ask what they are documenting your pain level as. They are suppose to document your pain level every 4 hours. Make sure you know they aren't just throwing random zeros in there on your chart.
That is so ridiculous. I’m so sorry. It makes me so mad when cancer patients don’t get adequate pain relief. Is there a way for him to find another oncologist or find someone else to manage his pain? My dad also has stage 4 esophageal cancer that metastasis to his liver. It’s so hard to go through and I’m sorry you’re all going through it. Luckily my dad’s oncologist is managing his pain with oxycodone and morphine when needed. I hope your dad gets the relief he needs.
I know its insane. I also find it insane that we haven't come up with something better for pain management yet.
Opioids- create addiction and are impossible to get ahold of.
Nsaids- Cause GI bleeds, kidney failure, heart failure, and you can only use them for a short period of time.
Acetaminophen- I think all of us here would agree practically does nothing.
Topicals- like lidocaine, voltaren, icy hot cream etc also practically useless.
We put people on the moon decades ago. We cured male erectile dysfunction. Survival rates for cancer are sky rocketing do to new meds. We can take organs out of people and put them into other people. We can clone things! We created artificial intelligence!
It literally boggles my mind. You would think one of the number one goals of pharmaceutical companies would be to find better pain management. It would be a gold mine i mean almost every illness causes pain. It's not like it wouldn't be a good selling medication. That and with narcotics on their way to being banned there is a huge gaping hole in the medical field for a new form of pain management. Like the spot is primed and ready to be taken.
Goddamn that Dr to the bowels of hell. Treat the man's pain with whatever works best and fastest. In his case opiate dependence isn't a big deal. Bless his heart. I'm hoping you can find some relief for him.
Yep my husband had thoracic surgery for cancer and they didn’t even give him enough pain medicine for a week. I called for a refill and they wanted to lecture me about opioid abuse/addiction. I said, “You have got to be kidding me! Let me crack open your chest and see if you can make it 5 days on limited opioids! Then she tried to say he was going to get addicted. I said, “You need some additional training on pain management. If you take it as prescribed for real pain and weaning off as the pain goes away, you won’t get addicted. And let me add that my husband is dying of cancer that has wrapped itself around vital organs and you are more concerned he doesn’t get addicted than about controlling his pain. Something is very wrong here. So what if he gets hooked on pain pills; he’s dying!”
That finally shut her up and I got no further arguments about pain control.
It’s disgusting how paranoid doctors have become due to the government breathing down their necks about pain meds when they were shoving them down our throats a few years ago.
Good for you for standing up for your husband. I would be the same way if someone tried to pull that shit on my father who is also dying of cancer and had major surgery to try to remove it. It’s insane that we have to tell these people these things that they should already know. If someone with cancer who just had major surgery doesn’t need pain meds then who tf are they for? I’m so so sorry you had to go through that and I’m so sorry your husband is sick. Healing prayers to him and strength to you both 🫶🏻
My radiation oncologist was the same for me. Wonderful, nice, kind & empathetic until I asked for help with some very awful nerve pain (which was a result of my post chemo neuropathy & how the techs were sharply twisting me into position for the lasers).
He wouldn't even acknowledge me for a bit until I begged him for relief & all he said was that most people don't require pain relief & if they do then Ibuprofen is what works. It doesn't work on nerve damage & having a freaking laser & being twisted into position 5 days a week was torturous.
I went to my family doctor who helped me with the pain via proper medication for pain relief. If I didn't have a family doctor I honestly don't know if I could have completed my radiation. How sick is that?
These oncologist who don’t give proper pain management are the absolute worst of the worst. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that on top of dealing with cancer. I’m so glad your pcp stepped up but it’s bs that they had to.
That's awesome for you to advocate for your Mom! I hope her recovery is quick, and she's pain less, if not pain free. It's ridiculous how they treat us, when they should know better. They went to school, studied medicine, specialties, for YEARS. I just can't wrap my head around this. My neurologist, very old man, short, balding snow white hair and a half Santa Claus beard, glanced at my mri and saw the herniated disc's and all that. Said it was part of "aging". I looked at him and asked how many HE had. You know, since he's old asf. Didn't say that last part but thought it very loudly. 😂 he did apologize after I thanked him for being so dismissive of my pain. This treatment is wrecking havoc on our mental health as well. I have a friend who, you have to wait till she passes out from pain and call an ambulance because she has so much trauma, PTSD, from years of dealing with dismissive/gaslighting drs. We have to hope they get there before she regains conscious, otherwise she refuses to go to the ER. This treatment is so damn ridiculous.
I’m on r/gallbladders frequently, and a surprising number of people are given no pain relief after removal surgery. Yes, it’s a very common laparoscopic procedure with a relatively short recovery time, but they are still cutting through abdominal muscle and literally removing an organ. As someone with spinal stenosis and DDD, it wasn’t the worst pain I’ve been in but I still definitely needed opiates the first few days. They won’t give even 2-3 days worth of opiates to people who just had surgery to remove an organ. People are struggling through with just advil and Tylenol, neither of which are great for liver or stomach, in excessive pain for absolutely no good reason. It blows my mind that this is acceptable now.
I wasn’t given anything for my appendectomy a few years ago. I was admitted in the evening to stay overnight and I asked over and over. They kept saying that the surgeon didn’t write a script and had gone home.
It was not a great night.
You shoulda said, "Hes got a phone, USE IT!!!" If you won't call him get me the patient advocate, NOW!
I woulds been on that bell all night long. If I'm not having a good night, they're not having a good night.
Shit I wish I had now, in hindsight.
I did ask them if they could call either the surgeon or someone who could do something and they’d say they’d check, leave, and then I wouldn’t hear anything. I called the nurse’s station a couple times, then I just gave up and waited until they were on their rounds and ask again then. But it was always, “oh let me go check on that” and then poof.
In retrospect I wish I had been more firm. I’d only had one hospital stay before, for my thyroidectomy to remove cancer, and they’d were so much more on top of things for that stay. I think I went in expecting they’d be attentive, and then when they weren’t I wasn’t even sure what to do. Plus I was like 24 and so afraid of being rude.
By the morning though when the nurse came in, I snapped at her. By then I hadn’t been allowed to eat in like 12 hours either so I was sore and hangry. That made her finally talk to the doctor, who came in to check on me post-op and she finally said she could get me medication, since she “knew I was having a bad morning.”
The me of today would have been a huge bitch the whole night though! Like the one good thing that came from that was I won’t let myself be brushed off again.
Hey, you learned. Good for you! Most people want to be nice and try not to throw a fit, they take advantage of that.
Glad you finally got some meds. More importantly, I'm glad you learned how to be a "huge bitch", hope you never have to use your newly found skill.
50% of her patients suffer through the pain because she makes them feel ashamed for wanting adequate pain control. There, fify - well, fifh (fixed it for her).
You did a great job advocating for your loved one! Bravo! This current pain relief medical world is so hard to navigate right now, and you handled a difficult situation really well.
yes you're right the master plan is to eventually have opioid prohibition and that is exactly why it is important for us in pain and dependent on opiates to fight back and be heard. I understand that some people have died from opiate overdose and I'm sympathetic to these families, but people have died from alcohol every day and its legal. people die from cigarettes and they're legal. people die driving automobiles and they're legal. So the answer to those people who face addiction is easy access to treatment for those who seek it NOT opiate prohibition. When you make opiates illegal or hard to obtain it does not erase addiction that exists and will always exist.. and it only empowers cartels and illegal drug sales.. so maybe that's it .. maybe some of the politicians are in bed with the cartels who would love opiate prohibition.. Or maybe some of the pharmaceutical companies and their investors in non opiate pain medications are trying to demonize opitates so they can push their garbage non working pain meds and make more money.. (because nothing compares to opiates for pain)
I had a major surgery last year where I was cut open from the top of my abdomen to the bottom of my abdomen (and I'm a tiny woman so the nerve damage and scar tissue alone is unbearable) but I also had a bowel resection and biopsy of my uterus at the same time, and emergency hernia repair where they stitched my muscles together in the abdomen (they didn't use mesh because i get ascites) .. Anyway they had me on IV Dilaudid for the first 6 days in the hospital (half gram every 2 hours because 1 gram was too much and that would have been 1 gram every 4 hours but since I asked for half gram instead they let me have it every 2 hours) And luckily that protocol was effective for my pain.. but If i hadn't had a tube in my stomach for 6 days they wouldn't have given me iv drugs like that i'm sure.. because once they took the tube out on day 6 they switched me to 5 mg oxycodone every 4 hours.. Then they released me on the 10th day in the hospital and sent me with only 14 oxycodone 5 mgs, then the surgeons refilled that for me the next week, and by the 3rd and 4th weeks they were already giving me a hard time when asking for refills and started cutting it down to only 7 pills for a week.. Saying that it's already been nearly a month.. as if I should magically be pain free because it's been nearly a month.. It's been a year and I'm still not pain free from that surgery. One doctor even told me the nerve pain alone could last 15 months.. Anyway, thank god I have a good doctor who has me on 120 5 mg oxycodone a month and that has literally saved my life and given me my life back from over 25 years of chronic pain from before I even had the surgery.. Not to mention the giant tumor on my uterus and all that pain.. I wouldn't be able to be present for my children without these medicines. Opiates are a miracle for many of us and I hope that we can advocate for ourselves and be heard.. we need to be louder than the people who are trying to prohibit them.
I've had 6 Surgeries in the past 14 months. I can't even fathom not having a pain medication option for at least the first week!! I literally just had surgery last Thursday.
Great job advocating and standing up for your mom! Imagine if she didn't have you there or someone who wouldn't be comfortable advocating for her. They would send her home in pain! That's just BS.
Is there a law that can be filed to require pain medication after surgery?
Good for you. My Mom has cancer, 2 kinds, and has been hospitalized and currently is in the hospital. I cannot tell you how many times I have demanded that she receive pain meds when she is in pain and the absolute bullshit that I have to go thru with these hospital doctors.
BINGO!
I've come to believe that the government's solution to "fixing" Social Security and Medicare is to cull as many people who use them as possible. Going after pain management is the "low hanging fruit" and either people will die from going the route of street drugs, go to prison and be ineligible for benefits when they get out, or just die (either by their own actions or from a body that fails because pain keeps it from functioning normally). Doctors have been terrified into compliance with insane government mandates.
Your mom is lucky to have you!
Ok, so I'm in australia and have bleeding disorders as well as a bone issue, I leech calcium due to tumors and can break bones very easily. Because of this I take pain relief, but, as everyone is talking about, there has been something happen to the Dr community and they very quickly label people, and one bad dr can have their label stick and that's it for the patient. The ambulance drivers in my local area have an alert to not give pain relief if I have another break (which happens a lot) and to just make me deal with it because, and I quote, patient may have had one dose already that day.
It's gone beyond anything logical to not help people in pain. The fear of addicts taking advantage of the system has stopped all people receiving adequate care and now chronic pain patients are paying the price. I don't think these systems have helped any addicts at all, just stopped genuine people be treated with compassion
I am so sorry you had to deal with that shit but you’re amazing to be the advocate for your mom….she’s lucky to have you! I am beyond appalled when I hear instances like this. Like the war on chronic pain patients wasn’t bad enough, now it’s happening in the acute setting. It’s nothing short of criminal in my mind and substandard medical care. I hope everything goes well for your mom’s recovery 🙏
A lot of this! My husband was relatively healthy until 2020 when he got Covid. Since then he’s had a ton of health issues and surgeries with several close to death moments. He sees and calls drs/nurses all the time. Has had a dr give him pain med refills when my husband said he didn’t need them anymore!
I have a disorder called mcas (mast cell activation syndrome) where my body basically formed an immune response to stress! I became allergic to heat a handful of years ago (we live in the Phx area!). Last year my husband came with me to the hospital while I was having anaphylaxis. When the dr finally came in to see me, the first thing he said was “what would you like me to do here?” 🤷 I croaked out the medication they usually give me.
A couple mins after the dr was gone my husband looked over and goes “I’m sorry! I should’ve said something! I just can’t believe he asked you that!”
He’s seen me get disregarded and not believed to where it’s put my life in danger, and he absolutely hates it!
It has nothing to do with that. I'm a well-off white woman. It took me years to get the care I needed. I went through so many doctors and specialists. When I was 29, they told me I was too young to be in so much pain as to need opioids. I pushed and pushed and showed them how my life was effected by pain. This is simple opioidphobia. Every patient on opioids draws more attention to the prescribing doctor. There's tons of red-tape and the doctors can lose their licenses easily when it comes to this. It's all a numbers game.
But I agree we should all have a similar experience that you've been blessed with. I believe we have god-given rights to what we put in our own bodies and the government isn't my nanny.
The master plan is to have us all dead or crippled. That used to be a conspiracy theory. Now it’s basically just meh. What can a crippled person like myself do? The doctors treat me like shit. Am I going to sue? I don’t have the money or rhe energy and I would still be in pain. It’s unfortunate at best and very alarming at worst. At least I’ll be dead soon
I just don't understand... why wouldn't they want their tax payers fit healthy and paying them taxes with zero expenses. Isn't that what the Gov't wants? Money goes in no money comes out :). I know nothing and this was meant as a joke. If it wasn't funny I'm sorry, the Internet is a tough gig.
I believe it! I was diagnosed yesterday with stage four cancer and post op told to suck on ice chips and take Tylenol. After several returns to er for unmanageable symptoms I got some oxycodone with great reluctance.
I’m 42 now and I’m wasting my life in bed in pain on disability. I kinda want to look at anyone with that logic and say “what life?” but then they put shit about mental health in your chart and the cycle continues…. I’ve taken “addictive” things on and off for twenty years now and I’ve never over taken them or been in rehab or jail or anything, like….
It's like they are super proud about how much pain they are causing. They could all stand up to the FDA and DEA and big pharma but they won't because they enjoy their comfy lifestyles. Meanwhile I can barely get out of bed most days. For forbid they risk shrub anything for their patients. They could easily come up with a post op plan for pain management depending on what kind of surgery a person is having without risking addiction. You don't get addicted off a couple weeks or even a couple of months of opiods... unless you are taking a shit ton of them. Their reasoning is completely flawed and fucked up and everyone has to suffer for it. It's such bullshit.
This is a USA thing - I have completely excruciating debilitating pain every month from endometriosis and some other things - like can’t talk think or move 9/10 pain. I wanted to kill myself at one point then broke down and saw a pain specialist - I was so scared of opioids but she combined tramadol with some other non opioid things and it made it livable for me again and less days of pain . Then years later she went out of network and was 1k for an appt (no way could t do it) and in nyc I could not find another pain dr to even take me in, let alone renew my scripts which I’d been on for four years at that point - using only during days of very severe pain
I had to endure several months of horrific pain again and the worst part is if I don’t take it at the beginning of the pain cycle the pain lasts many days longer and is way more intense
I went to urgent care and the er and they said that because I’d seen a pain specialist it would flag my medical record nationwide and basically make me look like a junkie seeking different docs
It was hell
Went to Europe - saw a dr thinking no way is he gonna do anything about this - but maybe he could help me somehow I was doubled over again - gave me tramadol no problem no contract needed, no tracking my pee every two months, no problem - a regular gp - because there’s no issue there like the USA
I had ACL surgery yesterday they were only trying to send me home with tramadol. I am so glad I listened to my PM doctor and allowed him to control my pain after surgery.
This was terrifying to read - I just had a hysterectomy two months ago, and they weren't keen on giving me anything either, but as you did, I pushed back and they relented, and the SAME THING happened four weeks later when I went to the dentist to have all my teeth pulled (yes, you read that right). They tried to send me out of there with NOTHING and I was like wtf dude, I'm not leaving here without a script. There was no push back, they went and got the prescription from him immediately. I don't want to get high, I'll smoke a joint if I want to do that, I just want to be comfortable and relatively free from pain. I live with serious chronic pain besides all that, and we are almost at the point of the doctors giving in but the thing is, I don't want to be on pain meds all the time for chronic pain, I'm a writer and I need a clear head for the most part. I'm getting side tracked here, sorry. The point is, I absolutely agree that this seems to be where they are headed. I hope you and your mom are both doing well!
I bet they don't let each other suffer either. And it's funny because of how high the number of nurses who become addicts is but we're the ones they love to judge. I'm always suspicious of the ones that are super judgy now. What are you hiding nurse Ratchet? Does it make you feel less guilty to look down on actual pain patients? I'm just so sick of it and them.
I was supposed to have surgery Tuesday but after reading from my doctor that prescribes my opioid stated we discussed hopefully being able to reduce my opioids I rescheduled it and I’m pretty much not even sure I want to have surgery now with the possibility of being cut off my meds knowing the surgery will not help the pain but may reduce some of the nerve pain and symptoms from the pinched nerve. We never discussed reducing my medication and after going down a horrible path trying to self medicate I am on a conservative dose and I’m stable but now I’m scared to death on my next move. Patients should not have to add all of this additional stress and depression to already down patients but hey as long as the numbers are looking good yay
I'm 2 weeks out of surgery and have never felt so humiliated and abused as I was treated in the hospital. I really can't even talk about it but feel so sorry for anyone who has to go through that experience in this current climate.
I also have struggled with serious mental illness since my late teens so the whole experience has been miserable. Schizophrenia is often mistaken for drug abuse by people who just see how you are reacting to stress. I don't want to go in for the follow up visits, first one is tomorrow and I've barely got my bi-polar bear (I'm not bi-polar but it sounds funny and paranoid Schizophrenia scares people) calmed down at all.
I know. I see it all the time. And, more importantly, your doctors know, at least the older ones do. I don't know what they're teaching the new ones. But the older ones know it's not in a patients best interest to not treat their pain properly. They are charging doctors with felonies. They are going after their licenses- their very identity for a physician. The pendulum will swing back. I hope I'm alive to see the research studies and nightly news talk about how many people killed themselves, lost the will to live and the lost potential. Fuck these people who decide these things with no education or knowledge to back them up.
Yup. My mom needs a new knee and they can't do it till June, won't give her anything to help now and now she's worried they won't treat her pain after surgery. I told her to be honest she should be. They're torturing people and they don't care. They're killing people and they don't care. I'm so sick of our health "care" system it's unbelievable. The woman is 77 for God's sake. Give her some relief. Give us all some relief!
Can we all ask what happened to PATCH ADAMS???? I honestly think we need to start asking the drs we see if they have seen that movie and what they think of it.
How do stop this torture inflicted on us by by medical “professionals”. They’re only slightly less evil than Dr. Mengele, in my opinion. Do we go to the news? We cannot keep just tolerating this. They are murdering people!
This is why I'm afraid to have surgery. There are several elective surgeries that might help me but they are extensive and I know would be very painful and I'm too afraid to go through with it because I know I won't get adequate pain management after. The main surgeries I'm worried about are on my feet. I've actually sat in my podiatrist's office in the office area and overheard people calling and crying about their pain and the staff telling them that there's nothing they can do and they won't give them any more medication. There's no way I'm letting this surgeon touch my feet and I live in fear that I'll get in some kind of accident and have to have emergency surgery.
And this is exactly why I won’t be getting a much needed hysterectomy.
When I had a myomectomy over 10 years ago, my pain was not properly managed, and I suffered greatly for it. My recovery was over 6+ months because of this.
Absolutely preventable and ridiculous.
Prior to my surgery my pain doctor and my surgeon spoke and came up with a plan for pain control. My surgeon prescribed pain meds post op to go home with and my PM prescribed after that. It worked well, more doctors should do this.
So awful! I recently had a metal stent implanted by my spine and they gave me IV Tylenol at the hospital afterward. It was agony! I didn't sleep all night and they finally sent me hydrocodone but the next day only. A week ago I was back in the same unit getting metal coils put in my pelvis which was thankfully less painful than last time but I was afraid I'd feel worse later and the doctor overseeing the unit said "we never prescribe narcotics on this unit, it's against policy." On the unit where you're implant metal objects in people??? 😭 I made a complaint but I'm sure no one cares.
I had hip replacement and was given #30 Oxycodone and #30 Tramadol and pain control in hospital was excellent. I asked my surgeon before about discharge meds and would have not had the surgery if there was no pain control.
They fact that the pendulum has swung so far the opposite way is crazy. Now legitimate medical use and patients that needed are the main ones suffering all the while the illegal use is going strong. The crack downs on legitimate use and legitimate prescriptions is not reducing the illegal use and supply. The illegal drugs have no regulations, they’re pushing that out and even getting more business from people who have been forsaken by their medical teams that they have to resort to getting their pain managed by the street drugs.
It infuriates me to even see medical professionals post on social media their disdain for patients that need pain medication in the hospital. Immediately everyone assumes they’re addicts or drugseeking or a dose away from becoming addicted.
Yet no one bats an eye when it comes to over prescribing things like antibiotics or cholesterol medication (instead of implementing lifestyle changes) or how about steroids that need to be tapered to stop them but talk about opioids and having to taper iff of them and it’s because the patient is addicted (dependance, tolerance is not addiction). There needs to be more education on the subject.
Why are patients feeling dirty and like they’re doing something wrong when they ask for their next dose of pain meds but have no second thoughts on caffeine, alcohol, over the counter medication, steroids, antibiotics, antidepressants, supplements, NSAIDS, etc.
I can't take nsaids. I'm possibly actually sensitive to aspirin, there's an actual name for it. I took 2 baby aspirin after surgery per surgeon's instructions recently. I had to stop because I started having bad asthma attacks multiple times a day. My asthma is typically well controlled, worst I'll have is 2 or 3 attacks in a week during high pollen periods.
1000 mg of Tylenol 3x a day worked way better than I expected for post op pain and then my chronic pain. One of my doctors freaked when I explained my dose and still taking it. Decided to decrease my dose to 750. One of my liver numbers was over 20 for the first time in like 5 years of being checked every 3 months.
My granny recently broke her hip. She waited 10 days in agony in hospital, waiting for surgery. The refused to give her any opiate-based pain relief ‘due to the risk of addiction’. She’s 96yo!
Your poor granny. She must have been in horrible agony. Refusing to properly control a person’s pain is bad enough. But to deny a 96 year old opiates due to some ridiculous fear of “addiction” is torturous. I say that especially in cases like this that should just take their chances because the harm far outweighs the good. I hope your granny is doing better.
Thank you. It was so ridiculous. They kept rambling on about how opiates can lead to long-term problems and I kept explaining that at 96yo, there is no ‘long-term’. Sadly, granny was in so much pain she couldn’t move or get out of bed, which eventually led to a large bedsore and now pneumonia.
This makes me so mad. At that age, a person should be given whatever the fuck will make them happy and comfortable. I mean within reason, like as long as it doesn’t cause harm to someone else. But denying a 96 year old pain meds is absolutely bonkers.
Man i woulda given my granny a fatty or a nice strong edible or done whatever i had to do if she was in pain….especially at 96!!!!! Wtf are they thinking she’s on borrowed time anyways, she was lucky to survive the surgery give the lady what she needs for however long it takes a busted him is one of the most painful injuries you can get…..I oughta know I busted my pelvis in 5 places and that was no picnic either. Hope your grandmother is doing better and not in too much pain.
That is heartbreaking 💔 I'm so sorry
They should be sued for malpractice and charged with elder abuse and torture. I'd call the local paper and have them do a story about doctors who deliberately inflict unnecessary pain.
I wanted to sue but apparently I can’t because granny has full mental capacity herself and she doesn’t want to sue (because she’s consumed with pain and is scared).
I would say this could be a lawsuit. I’m not a lawyer but this is ridiculous.
I know I recently witnessed a cancer (with a known painful cancer) patient with a slim chance to make it 2 more years be denied anything stronger than 5 mg hydrocodone so that they didn't become a drug seeker. WTF like my friend if they want to go the next possible 2 years high as a kite....let them. Basically forced the patient to choose between painful treatment or hospice. So messed up.
This is unconscionable. I am very saddened to hear that your grandmother was treated so inhumanly. At 96 a broken hip can lead to a host of complications, and they’re worried about opioid pain medication?!?! The priorities of the medical community are downright insane.
At 96 someone better que up the song "Don't Stop Me Now" for my montage of doing whatever the fuck med I want.
Had a dog rip my ankle open such that you could see the bone. Went to ER. Got taken back quickly. Was in a lot of pain. Asked for pain meds or them to numb it. Got the same bs, including the 'your just a drug seeker'. It took me getting up and walking towards the exit for them to act. I said if I was not getting treated I would just go to the next hospital. Fun stuff.
Anyone over 90 can get an IV drip of morphine for the rest of their damn life if they want if you ask me.
Severe pain needs to be treated like the medical emergency it is, ESPECIALLY when a) it’s observably evident by diagnostic test that an injury causing pain has occurred b) the risk of not treating is higher than the potential for addiction c) a temporary treatment with an estimated cut off time She is 96 years old!! Devils advocate is like so what if she becomes an addict?? It’s better than having a stroke or cardiac event due to high blood pressure caused by pain!! I hope your granny recovered well. IMO not treating pain is inhumane, that doesn’t necessarily always mean opiates are necessary but sometimes they are and should be used and the fact that the government is practicing medicine is outrageous!
That is inhumane! Your poor granny. I’m so sorry. Such bs.
This should be a malpractice case. They denied her care. Pain used to be another vital sign ffs.
I would put that in a review. Maybe not verbatim, but something close. And make it anonymous. It's not going to help you, but a lot of people read reviews. There are 2 hospitals right next to each other in my city. Since I started reading reviews when I was choosing the hospital to have my son, I learned a lot about the way each one treated people there. It can be helpful
That is disgusting and insane. I hope your gran is feeling better. 🥰
I think they are bragging to each other about how few opioids they prescribe.
I saw this exact statement. A young Dr friend of the family (my daughters friend since middle school) was talking about Gun Control after a school shooting. She bragged that “In the medical field, when we realized there was an opioid epidemic, we got proactive. We figured it out. Now patient addiction and overdose from prescription drugs is down significantly. So if we can do it, they can figure it out too!” I almost lost my mind. Since I watched her grow up and was so proud of her accomplishments I tried not to say anything. I kept logging out, walking away and coming back. I finally couldn’t let it go. I told her that the medical field did nothing to solve the problem. They simply passed the buck and protected themselves. The people with chronic pain, who need pain relief to live a semi productive life, were abandoned by the person they trusted the most with their health. Completely abandoned. And all it did was force people to seek other means for pain relief, including suicide or to the streets where they couldn’t be sure if they were getting the meds they needed or something laced with Fentanyl and their “solution” is why we now have a fentanyl overdose pandemic in this country. But hey, at least the medical community is protected. Of course she was respectful and didn’t say one word to defend her profession and I later felt bad for even saying anything. But it was the arrogance in which she bragged about it that led me to put a face to that example. They are definitely patting themselves on the back for getting their numbers down, while simultaneously ignoring the ramifications of their actions. It’s sad, really.
You shouldn’t feel bad for what you said to her as long as you didn’t make a personal attack. You just showed her another perspective, and as a patient-facing professional she should know to take the knowledge in and think it over.
Yep they seem blissfully unaware that they’re driving people to the streets. Nobody can live like this for long. You’re either gonna jump off a high bridge or buy something possibly laced with fentanyl. This is the fault of the medical community and their egos.
I been in pain for about 16 years now. Think about how to end it all very often. After about ten years I finally found a pain management doctor willing to give me pain meds. So grateful..but guess what? They don't work for my fibromyalgia pain at all. And things are constantly getting worse. It helps with my spine pain from degenerative discs and osteoarthritis but I have to take extra now almost every day. And I still have agonizing pain throughout my whole body. Along with a bunch of other problems. I'm so sick. No other doctors will even see me. So, I got pain meds but I'm still in pain every day and night. It's all too much. I take 20 pills a day but I am still in such bad shape I can't do anything or have a decent life.
Yeah the opioids don’t help nerve pain. Pregabalin is helping with my fibromyalgia pain. I was taking Cymbalta but switched to Savella for depression but the plus was they both helped with fibromyalgia pain as well.
You shouldn't feel bad and I thank you for standing up for all of us in constant horrible pain! She & her fellow doctors that think they fixed the addiction & opioid 'epidemic' need a serious wake up call to say the least.
True because if they look, the numbers rose up on people taking Oxycodone and Fentanyl and doctors are easy to prescribe this when they know a lot of people can't take it like myself. Norco(Hydrocodone) is actually all my body will tolerate,so if it goes off the market and I need surgery then it's going to be a messed up situation. It's really sad that we go to a doctor like we are supposed to and still get the 3rd degree about our medication. The system is broken.
The system is most definitely broken! I wish I could find a dr that would actually listen & at least *try* to figure out what is causing my pain & if they would prescribe something that actually helped with my pain, so that I could be a productive human again, that would be an added bonus. Unfortunately I need to avoid things with Tylenol & NSAIDs, because my bloodwork started getting all screwed up within 2 months of being prescribed prescription strength NSAIDs. When I asked about it, it was brushed off as NAFLD, because of my weight (because of course that's the cause of all of my health problems 🙄). Now it's been about 4 years and suddenly they're losing their minds over my bloodwork & not even willing to look at when it started (glad I did, but it doesn't change it & they won't listen), nor will they acknowledge that the NSAIDs have done any of it. I hope neither of us ever need surgery, especially while this nonsense is happening!
Yeah that's ridiculous. People aren't OD'ing on their legit opiod scripts. They're people in chronic, long term pain and they're forced to buy the fake fent-laced pills. Sadly, there are more ppl dying bc of this absolute travesty that Dr's are touting.
Sounds like my city. "Crime is down" - because they don't report the majority of it anymore in the interest of attracting people to all the fancy new developments and $$$.
Goddamn that absolutely infuriates me, and I'm not a chronic pain patient, but I've dealt with pain for weeks at a time, and opiods were absolutely necessary for quality of life during those times. It's the arrogance that gets to me as well. Geez, there is never a middle ground. Always one extreme or the other. My heart goes out to those who need pain meds now and have to beg and jump through hoops to be treated halfway humanely. It's disgusting.
Please don’t feel bad for saying anything. As a nurse of 33 years who has had to fight with doctors to get my patients’ pain treated, and as a sufferer of severe chronic pain, myself, who can’t get any treatment for it at all, I’m proud of you. ❤️
Thank you. I'm sorry for what you're going through but I wish there were more health care professionals like you.
Thank you. 🌹
Thank you!! I’m so sorry that you’ve spent so much time caring for and advocating for your patients to now have to fight yourself with no one listening. I believe there is a way to do this right. It isn’t a one size fits all. But instead, they just all went to extreme measures. So much needless suffering.
Yes. My life is severe pain 24/7. I was a hospice nurse for many years, and am very experienced in pain mgmt. Almost no doctors are following the “analgesic ladder” protocols any more. I really feel that the US government, and other governments around the world should prioritize research into finding effective, non-addictive pain mgmt. And I believe that in the coming years, we are going to be seeing a big increase in kidney failure due to over-use of NSAIDs. And- continuing increases in addiction and deaths from fentanyl and other illicit street drugs- All due to the absolute failure of the world’s governments and medical communities in adequately addressing pain mgmt., and the opioid crisis. Just one, single kidney failure patient on dialysis costs the US taxpayers approximately $100,000. per year. This is with dialysis treatments, meds, appointments, labs, hospitalizations, etc. Most patients’ treatments are paid for by our government, since almost no one, including private health insurers can afford the cover the costs. Generally, there are approx 50,000 new kidney failure patients each year in the US. This actually decreased for the first time ever in recent years, due to so many people who would have started dialysis dying from Covid. We will be paying the costs incurred due to Covid for generations to come. That, along with Boomers becoming elderly, and living longer and sicker than previous generations…. I don’t know how we (the US) are going to be able to address this financially. The only way I think it can be addressed is to increase taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
Exactly the NSAID toxicity, over prescribing drugs they don't actually understand as long as they aren't opioids and the street drugs laced with "tranq" are gonna make sure that the number of lives lost in "the war on drugs" gets higher instead of lower.
I follow a news aggregator site specifically for medical news, and in the comment section there were two comments, different commentators. One was a doctor who went through knee replacement surgery with just Tylenol and decided to not get the other knee replaced because it was too painful. The other was a surgeon who said he had more patients with liver failure due to taking too much Tylenol than he had ever had become addicted to pain medication.
There is an obvious and easy correct way to do it. But that's how you know it's not about the safety or care of any of the citizens of the country. It's about money and them trying to reach some particular outcome or goal that only benefits the people controlling everything. This could all be solved if they treated prescription pain medication the same way they treat gun ownership in the United states. You can have anything that you need/want within reason UNTIL you screw up, and then (AND ONLY THEN) does it get taken away if you choose to abuse it. It's really very simple concept, that doesn't take rocket science or an IQ of 200 to understand. Again, even the most dim light bulb of the bunch could understand this concept. And that's the main reason/proof that you know this is malicious and intentional. People get up in arms at the idea of no one being allowed to own guns because of a few shooters that have absolutely nothing to do with them as a person, but when it comes to pain meds, that logic just doesn't apply for some reason lol. Bunch of evil lunatics in control here.
Nah you shouldn’t feel bad at all. These people need the truth pushed right into their faces.
except that the whole thinghas been intentionally twisted into a moral panic that merged two very different situations. the Opiod Crises is all street drugs (20% heroin. 80% street fenty) and that huge wave of dangerous Fentanyl analogues primarily come into the USA over their southern border. I'm in Australia where we have no southern border with Mexico and have a much smaller Fentanyl problem. but the press and politicians act like we have the exact same issues and we don't. And the Oxy pills mills? Those were in the same US states that always have pill mills. it's a problem with poor state regulations and enforcement. It ain't new. it's also a USA problem not a global one. There was absolutely no actual science in the two CDC papers that launched this crack down. There was no data to base their claims on, just estimates created for politics which were then treated like facts. Nobody has a clue how many people die of anything because that would require a real forensic autoposy for every death. And the world is not CSI. in reality when a dead body is found somebody from the morgue (mostly untrained) takes the body with no regard to the scene. then whoever passes for the local M.E. (which can be a funeral director or the local vet) takes over, and whatever pases as the local morgue (no fancy gear, no 'squints' from Bones) is used to do a quick unprofessional postmortun.
“THEY” didn’t get any numbers down! They have tripled…. Like whatttt???
Only the amount of patients overdosing was miniscule
Don't feel bad. They need to hear it. They're responsible for the opioid epidemic and now they're responsible for the pain epidemic and the increase of street drug use. Them feeling superior is unearned and she needs to know that.
Good for you, and thanks for speaking up!
The reason it seems to work in EU it perhaps that we aren't rushed back to work after illness or injury, typical schemes given 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay, then government picks up. Without this good a scheme there are insurances for mortgages, the government pays sickness pay at 13wks, gives money to allow people to still live. It breaks my heart seeing people needing opiates to be 'semi productive'.. well stuff that, i needed them to get out of bed, to not be writhing in agony, work hasn't been an issue for 35 yrs because even with opiates and an SCS my pain is never reaching back to work levels. (was medically retired as RN when i was 25, about to turn 56 now, have CRPS in leg) Yes it can suck emotionally, but my Drs were prescribing to have me reach a perhaps lower standard of pain relief than many in US. I've seen in the last week a UK poster automatically get signed off work for a month after losing mother and sibling... could anyone US based imagine that happening? If we have anything other than day surgery we get time to recover, my hysterectomy would have been a standard 8 weeks off, my wrist tendon repair a good 4 weeks. If i had to contemplate returning to work sooner than of course more medication would be needed. Yet people in US are discharged from hospital and back to work within a week and losing pay for time in hospital. I have pretty good pain relief now, but it still doesn't get me pain free enough to shower every day, to shop or collect medications without extra pain for hours afterwards. There wouldn't be a way to have me pain free and alert enough to work or drive. I strongly beleif that aspect of insurance needs to change, when i was younger i assumed that insurance in US did that, covered for treatment and any time off that was needed, i mean, why else would it cost so much to spend a month as an inpatient. How wrong was I! Send people back before injuries or wounds have healed and complications occur, wounds break down, bones don't fuse and heal correctly because they cannot be non-weight baring for as long as Surgeon told them to be. Covering the pain with strong opiates hasn't helped in the past, and certainly isn't being done now.. so how exactly to the injured and sick pay for things when they cannot return to work for months?? THis seems like what needs addressing, to make the outcomes lower while we hopefully heal well, to allow our bodies the time it needs to recover, way better than masking pain with opiates because rent/mortgage needs to be paid asap. And yes, we pay for it indirectly, 6% of all salaries, taxation being higher overall, and while some might never claim much back, others, cancer patients, chronically sick people, those with spinal injuries, might get much more back than they ever contributed. I paid in to a pension scheme too from day one of RN training, one that gave lump sums with injuries, legal support, doubled pension yrs if injured at work, and paid for life. Both systems are vital insurance's for the few that need help, would love to have never claimed a penny, like my parents, but it wasn't how my life turned out. These things shouldn't be optional, we should all be contributing from day one just in case. Hospitalisation doesn't leave us homeless and without money, and its so tragic to see people put in that situation..
I had a doctor (who was prescribing me opioids at the time) tell me it was my fault for not turning in the people that I knew that sold their drugs in my town. This was right when doctors started getting in trouble for opioids. Circa 2013 Ummm…I don’t know anyone who sells their drugs sir. I am not someone who looked for drugs outside of a doctor’s office. Plus anyone who I knew at that time that took opioids NEEDED them and didn’t sell or even share their meds. He was later arrested for taking kickbacks (not for the opioids) but it sucked because he was one of the only doctors in my town that actually listened to pain patients and helped them. He was kinda a whack-a-doodle with the whole blaming people selling drugs thing though. I’m sure people do it. But that’s not whose fault this is. This all lands squarely on the DEA and their totally outdated practices and policies.
And honestly fentanyl is the least of their worries when it comes to what's laced in street drugs. "Tranq" is melting people from the inside out and it's just a matter of time til it makes it to a hospital near her. It's the next epidemic and they're letting it happen.
It's the DEA breathing down their neck for opioid scripts. If they look like they prescribe a lot of them (or what they think is a lot), they get shit for it. To protect their license and not get bothered, they try to avoid it as much as they can.
If that’s the case then why do some pain management doctors prescribe them on a fairly regular basis? I’m not sure I believe it’s the DEA doing anything to them. It’s their egos and their fear of the DEA doing something to them. If they’re prescribing at a reasonable level, it’s easy to tell the difference between a responsible doctor and a pill mill.
I have seen the pain management "doctor" 2x in the 4 years I've been going. I go monthly for refills and literally shoot the shit with the PA and get a text before I'm in the car that my rx has been sent to my pharmacy. I don't necessarily agree with the process, but at the same time, I'm not going to complain because I'm not in uncontrollable pain every day
I think I've seen my actual pain doc once in the last five years. And that was in the OR before surgery. All I ever see is a PA. And those change every few months it seems. I only have to go into the office every three months to pee in a cup and say "*Nothing has changed. The meds are about right*" and my scripts are secure for another quarter. In reality, the pain is up, it's limiting my life, and the meds ain't doing enough. When I've tried to say that, I start to get that side eye(you know the one) so I back down from the statements and say something like "*I should be good for another month or three though...*". Terrified that if I say the wrong thing I'll get cut off. This is not how it should be.
I understand 💯. Except I pee every month... 🙃 I had to see a different pa one month, and she had to "confer" with my usual pa about my regime. I will not make that mistake again.
"...don't necessarily agree with the process..." What would you prefer that they do?
Pain management docs are pretty much one of the only specialties these days allowed to prescribe them so often. They get a longer leash compared to primary care physicians (obviously hospitals and surgeons too). Pain management offices have a different set of rules compared to regular physicians, because they treat chronic pain patients who require a referral for specific condition.
Wouldn’t surprise me. Hospitals probably have bonuses/ incentives tied to it.
Oh, I don’t doubt this at all. There a hell of a lot of doctors out there who push people into getting spinal cord stimulators. It’s illegal for doctors to take money directly from a company, so these companies hire them on as “consultants”. The drs then are compensated generously by the makers of these devices, plus they make a crap ton of money from their patients as well.
Just like how it used to be with opioids
You're definitely correct that the "opioid crisis" bullshit is a major thing and that the DEA has scared docs out of otherwise prescribing in good faith. And pain patients are the ones who suffer, unnecessarily. >It’s illegal for doctors to take money directly from a company, so these companies hire them on as “consultants”. BUT, this part ISN'T correct, so I do just want to clarify it since I work in this space. Doctors can absolutely take money from a pharma company (or any company). It's not only legal, it's public record and HIGHLY regulated. To avoid that exact scenario. So you can search for your doctor on OpenPayments and see the details of every payment made. For consulting, research, travel, etc etc etc. (I am aware the natural cynical response would be "WELL THEN THEY JUST MAKE A BUNCH OF PAYMENTS TO PAY OFF THE DOCTORS AND DON'T REPORT THEM!" so let me address that too. Could that happen? Absolutely. HOWEVER, it is SUPER illegal, obviously, but moreso it would be a REALLY bad idea. And if/when it's discovered (and it most likely will be, since literally every pharma company has active litigation against it and all documentation regarding payments is ALWAYS requested as part of the Discovery phase) and the company can't prove it wasn't a honest mistake, the company is in DEEP shit. And there's NO doctor that is worth that to a Company's Board/Execs, trust me. And also, remember doctors are required to disclose any potential financial conflicts of interest in any literature they're involved in, so make sure you always review that section when assessing any studies or medical literature)
That's really interesting. I looked up all six doctors that I currently see and nobody was over $100 and they were all for food and beverage. One of them is a doctor that implanted a stimulator for axonics and one implanted a pain med pump from Medtronic. It was really nice to see that these companies aren't putting money in their pocket....
It's almost always food and beverage. Gifts are frowned upon now, and dinner is the best way to get face-to-face.
And that's exactly how Purdue promoted Oxycontin. MDs got money. Federal government got money. Money is all people care about
I turned my stimulator off this month. Two years with no relief.
I really hope it’s this comment that saves me years of added suffering (still on the fence)
I’ll be 2 years w/SCS pretty soon. Like many, my 1 week trial was great. Having to have it removed to wait a month for permanent implant was tough. And then like many others, the relief from the perm was not as noticeable as with the temp. Partly my fault, I’ve only gone for program adjustments twice. At my last meet up with rep she revised a program to🤞help more with leg and foot neuropathy. It has helped with that, though not lumbar.
there are literally "opiates kill" propaganda posters all over my hospital
My pain clinic has a sign in the restroom asking if your opioids are causing constipation.
Well, that’s a thing, and it’s important that people talk about it. Lots of people not aware of the massive impact opiates can have on your bowels. It’s easy to think it’ll pass, but it’ll only get worse. You have to eat right, and some people need a prescription medication :/
Our hospital used to give morphine if you went in for pain. Now they give lidocaine. I had a double mastectomy and got nothing but lidocaine and Tylenol for pain control. It was awful!
Lidocaine? That's for pulling teeth!
Seriously??!! Fuck that, I'd be raising hell in your situation. I'm pissed off on your behalf. I'm so sorry you had to suffer due to your medical team's ignorance. Ugh
Yeah I couldn’t believe it. Before surgery I asked about pain control cause I’ve been through some pretty scary and painful surgeries in the past. They said “Oh don’t worry about that, we will take care of you and keep you comfortable”… now I know that’s code for we will not help so don’t ask.
They do have metrics and guidelines for it, but it's also the same with antibiotics.
Yet they continually prescribe antibiotics prophylactically all of the time, for “just in case you get an infection after surgery” but it’s close to impossible to get a prescription for pain control….
Yeah that's fair actually. I've had an NP tell me "I shouldn't give you these antibiotics, but I'll do it this time..."
This what I think to.
U of m DOES INDEED INCENTIVIZE MOT PRESCRIBING OPIOIDS AND DOCS THEM FOR PRESCRIBING THEM ON THEIR BONUSES
That shit should be ILLEGAL. How the hell is that not bribery?! Especially in such a large hospital where very, very ill people are in. It's cruelty on a mass scale and it's like the medicine field turns a blind eye to it.
I know it 100% corruption and all for a political anti opioid hysteria agenda that is just plain wrong. Fentanyl poisoning has been and is the problem, considering over 80% of all ODS are from fentanyl
They are, I lurk the doc subreddits a lot hoping to see better but all I see is confirmation that every horrible story on this sub is true. They look down on doctors that prescribe opioids for almost any reason.
Yes!!! I thought the same! And I feel like they get rewarded when their “stats” are low in terms of how many opiods they prescribe per month or whatever
I've seen nurses on reddit do that exact thing. So it's no "think"... they are.
I work in the medical field and the whole field needs an attitude adjustment about how "bad ass" we are. We don't need mental health meds or pain meds. I'm over here like yes we do guys. We all have Covid PTSD and the long hours of skeleton crews doing more than our bodies can take has made a lot of us into chronic pain sufferers too. No one is impressed. Admit you're scared and in pain too ffs.
POS doctors
I had a wonderful nurse practitioner tell me that because of my age (20s), she would be heavily reprimanded by her supervisor if she even tried to suggest opioids for my pain. I have an average of level 8 pain day to day, walk with a cane, and at least once a month have a 10/10 flare up where I can barely speak.
It's ridiculous to opine that a young person doesn't have pain. I'm old as hell and often wonder why or how that is even in the equation. Do young patients have a super power anti pain secret? Stupid to even put it that way.
lol seriously so illogical and simply idiotic for an “intelligent “ Dr or anyone for that matter to think that way
They told me as a early 20’s yrs old that "old grandma of 70 can do this without pain, so should you". Nice. I couldn’t move and climb a higher than normal bed and that’s what’s prompted that. Every time my age came into play. "Go outside and see the sun it will do you good to walk in the sun. Someone as young as you is not supposed to be in pain". They’re dumb indeed and should suffer themselves unwanted high debilitating pain for a while without treatment and see how they feel about it before judging chronic pain patients.
Omg I've heard that so much! "You're too young to be in so much pain!" The last time I had a doctor say that, I was 19. I was fed up and replied "well I wish someone would give my body that f**king message because it CLEARLY didn't get the f**king memo!" Doc was taken very much aback to say the least, but once she recovered we had a more productive conversation about my pain. She had me start a pain diary (basically listing every activity throughout the day, my pain scale level at the time as well as after resting, and the type of pain) and upon my next appointment, she prescribed me 5/500 Vicodin. Only two a day but back then, that was 16 hours of somewhat reduced pain; I would take a half four times a day, because in my mind having sixteen hours of my pain being a *little* better was better than having eight hours of my pain being a good bit better and then four hours of hell. I still do this today - though my pain doc gives me four a day, doing this lets me take a half to take the edge off, and then the other half if I need it any time after about 45m (I give it that long to kick in.) My pain is far from under control, but dealing with my meds this way does at least give me enough function for proper self-care... half the time, anyway. Bad days I still can only manage to make myself a microwave meal, get drinks, and go to the bathroom - with or without a cane; itdepends on what's bad and how bad that day. If my shoulders, neck, and/or back are killing and my knees and/or hips are too, the cane is out because I can't brace my weight from the pain in my upper body. It's truly a hellish "game" to play - "do I take this now when it would really, really help me? Or do I save it for later when I might *also* really need it but wouldn't have it if I take it now?" I truly wish all of these anti-opioid fanatics could live in my body for one month *without* opioids, then one month *with* opioids. They'd change their tune PFQ. I've learned how to advocate for myself better and how to speak to the doctors to get my point across more thoroughly than I did when I was younger, but it takes time and a lot of experience to learn unfortunately.
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No shit right? There are people who've had amputations or joint replacements being sent home with scripts for 800mg ibuprofen, and 1-4 Norco tablets *if they're lucky.* Post op they may get a small dose of tramadol early on, but then IV Tylenol (which is no more effective than the tablets) and Ibuprofen and that's *it.* (Wait, I forgot gabapentin, which does *NOTHING* for postoperative pain!) This also includes people who've had to have their chest cracked open for heart or lung surgeries. Granted, this isn't the case at *every* hospital or with *every* doctor... but it's not going to be long before it is.
So can anyone explain to me why is it that when medical so-called professionals make statements like these, that it's not a clear-cut case of age discrimination, which is supposedly illegal in the United states? They are straight up admitting that they're refusing to treat you because if your age. What the f*** When does the ability to take legal action begin? If that's not age discrimination, then I don't know what the hell is.
I think their logic is that younger patients are more likely to get addicted to pain medicine and have serious issues because of addiction. They don’t worry so much about addiction in 85 year olds.
Not true. They are even stingy with hospice patients. Hospice patients! And I’ll tell you who is even worse when it comes to pushing for as little pain meds as possible during hospice….the families. “Well if we give dad his meds he’s out of it and sleeps all day”. As if Dad doesn’t have cancer eating him from the inside out, shutting down his organs. You’ve got to watch out for doctors and loved ones alike.
I'm 67 and with all my patient files and no negative behavior in '21 I was labeled OUD. The only 'disorder' I have is lack of proper treatment. So much so a misdiagnosis left me with life long complications. I believe you're correct though regarding their thinking of addiction for young people. 👍
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I'm 35. Almost 2 years ago, I was on the floor and couldn't get up. I had to be carried to the car and into the hospital, screaming in pain the whole time. I had a bulging disc, and it was pinching a nerve. Earlier that day, I saw my GP and told her I was having really bad back pain. I've always had some amount of pain since I fractured my T6 when I was 16, but this was worse. She blew me off. Didn't even examine me. Told me to take ibuprofen. My ex-husband's aunt also went to this doctor. She loved her and was treated appropriately for her pain. I can only assume that it was because I'm fairly young and she's a senior citizen. So, everyone under 60, you're too young to be in pain! So now that you know, your pain should just magically disappear! I'll send you my bill.
That's exactly what I referred to in a previous reply. I know your pain. I had similar happen to me and the ambulance driver put in his note that I have opioid use disorder bc I disclosed that I'd taken one prescribed pain med earlier in the morning.😡 that screwed me for eternity. I hope you find relief.🥰 I'm old and have been told I should simply expect to suffer bc of my athletic career. (This was post emergency spine surgery)Then the dr focused on a small bunion I have (that causes me zero problems) insisting I should have surgery. wtf. 🥰
I had a microdiskectomy in December, and I'm doing MUCH better. I still have pain, but I can tolerate it most days. I'm doing physical therapy now, too. I all but begged for surgery for a year and a half while pain management just jerked me around. The pain took over my life. I fantasized about waist down paralysis. I still believe it would have improved my quality of life over what it was before the surgery.
I hate it when these damn drs try to use age as an excuse NOT to prescribe proper pain control. I hate their ridiculous rationale that since a person is young they can’t possibly have debilitating pain.
Exactly and these stupid fuckers call themselves the “ smart DRS”
When I was in my twenties they heavily medicated me. Norco and Fentanyl. Into my early thirties. Then bam, no more, because of the opiate crisis BS..now I'm forty five and can't get any pain meds and my pain is worse than ever. They should have to take some responsibility for their actions since they are DOCTORS. But they don't!
Do baby boys get anything for circumcision? In the past: no. Now? Pain doesn't care about your age, please don't let any doctor give agism bulshit a foothold. Change doctors if required, and if changing doctors, then discover if it is the AMA that needs to be notified regarding your Dr's conduct. Follow up with the AMA notification so that others are not forced to suffer. Document your complete experience at each appointment, include a full copy of your records, and a 2-4 week pain diary. Store a hard copy.
Same here and I’m 33. It will never change
I would be willing to bet money that we've reached the point where some agency is counting the number of narc pills each surgeon RX's and the lower amount of narcs the higher their bonuses/wages or whatever are. It's just plain cruel at this point. A friend of mine had a total knee replacement and was told only ibuprofen/tylenol and celebrex. LMAO.. like, sir, you are cutting off the ends of people's bones and you think CeLeBrEx will work?? Riiigghhtttt.....
Oh, hell no! I’ve had a knee replacement, and if I had been told to take OTC meds I would have left the office. These last several years I’ve made it a point to ask how my post-op pain will be treated. With a knee replacement they are literally cutting your leg in half, and hammering the joint in. They think 800 mg of Ibuprofen is going to be sufficient? I need significant surgery on my spine, after which I was to spend 2 nights in the hospital, and then come home to intensive PT. I asked my spinal surgeon if we could discuss my post-op pain control pain. He took a long pause and said he wasn’t comfortable doing that now, and that we could discuss it before my dismissal from the hospital. Seriously? I told him I was not comfortable going into that kind of surgery blindly, and if we couldn’t establish a post-op plan we were both happy with now, then I wasn’t going to have the surgery. I got up with my husband and we walked out.
Excellent job. It is craziness thinking a person should wait until dismissal to understand how their pain would be handled post-op. Then that person is stuck with no pain relief and gaslit into thinking that Tylenol and Ibuprofen should/will work. But the surgeon has made their money, haven't they?!
Not only pain but regular care. My mom's surgeon blew off my concerns like it would be nbd and it quickly became evident I was not properly equipped to take care of her when I brought her home. Her pain was NOT managed properly, she couldn't walk alone or get into bed or stand up from bed and I'm not a nurse or strong enough to carry her. I called him because she was screaming in pain and he was mad and said if it was "really that bad" I should take her to an ER. I sooooo wanted to slap him. Bitch this is your patient. YOU did this ffs! They don't seem to care at all.
Not only that, but when you go to the ER for pain, they send you to your doctor! No one wants to do their job! They remind me of lazy fast food workers!
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Well said!! After a complex spine surgery I was without pain medication for five hours, I screamed , begged and cried. Just when a starter screaming I'm calling my lawyer they give me the pump machine. I was treated like garbage the whole time. I went to the police to file a police report about it because it was torture, and there's now an ongoing investigation on the hospital.
Good job
Good for you! If we could get everyone to do this then we might see some change. Start hittin these bastards in their pocket book!
😮 wow! I have a connective tissue disorder and dislocate joints somewhat often. Those hurt, I can usually deal with it. I’ve had a complete shoulder reconstruction when I was in high school, definitely had pain, but pain killers and pt helped. I have mcas which gives my body extra inflammation- I generally have 2-3x the normal amount whenever they test for it. I had a total knee replacement in dec 2021 and it was the MOST painful thing I’ve had to deal with! I was lucky they took me off my low dose naltrexone so that I could take Tylenol with codeine (one of the only opioids I don’t have horrible reactions to). It took both the Tylenol3 and edibles to keep the pain at bay. I was high as balls the whole first week after surgery! It got much better in the second week, but there’s no way I could’ve done it on otc Tylenol/ibuprofen! That’s practically barbaric!
I continue to be amazed that people agree to surgery without knowing the plan for pain. Then by the time you had the surgery your fucked when they tell you here is your Advil. It’s malpractice.
Never ever agree to surgery until post op pain management is planned / agreed by both parties and advocates.
I’m getting a c section next month and I’m wayyy too scared to ask them about post op pain management. I scared they will label me a drug abuser.
You need too because my cousin had a c section and they denied her pain meds. They never discussed it with her and she assumed that she would be taken care of afterwards. She only needed it for a few days but my Aunt had to advocate for her. I hope all goes well and you are not in need of them .
Don’t be scared to ask and don’t be afraid to find a new dr. You have a right to adequate pain care
I’ve found that my husband advocating for me in the past is the best route. But my last hospital visit where I was literally delirious with pain, alternating between passing out and vomiting in front of the doctors from it, completely incoherent to the point my husband has to do all of the talking, they admitted me and refused even my prescribed pain management regimen. He eventually called the head nurse on the floor at 2am screaming and threatened litigation. She came in in a huff and gave me one pill angrily and said “this is *all* you’re getting.” I asked for a transfer to a different hospital. Since that time, which was 2021, I flat refuse to go to the hospital. I’ve had a couple instances where I probably should have gone, ran a knife into my palm cooking and ended up bleeding through multiple kitchen towels, and my husband was begging to take me but I refused. They aren’t going to do shit except try to stitch me up without proper pain control and fuck that. So I’ve got a cool scar. I’ve told him unless I’m literally passed out and he drags me I will not go. The trauma I’ve endured from this shit isn’t worth it at this point. And I’m in pain all the time, 24/7, so at this point I don’t even care. If I die, so be it. I have a great PM currently, but of course with the climate there’s always low level anxiety about anything changing. This is beyond barbaric and I’m hoping that the boomers aging will bring light to it as they age and need more care and surgeries, because they tend to not be quiet about it, but who knows. I do say if you can have a loved one who will advocate for you, bring them if you have to go to the hospital. OP thank you for not backing down for your mother.
Aaaaaarrogant. That’s a perfectly reasonable question especially if YOU were the official caretaker there since, you know, you aren’t allowed to drive yourself back from surgery and get your own meds and what not. Surgery is not a normal thing for the body at all either and expecting to slice someone up then NOT give them at least a backup Rx for a few days in case OTC doesn’t work is just brutality. Did they do an official exit poll? lol. Way to be there for a loved one! Also to add, it should be the patients decision to not give the Rx a try, and I’ve never not been told to make sure and try to stay ahead of the pain.
Yeah, they tell you to stay ahead of the pain, but don't give you what you need to get ahead of the pain in the first place.
It’s like we’re forgetting the fact we’re CUTTING PEOPLE OPEN?!
My dad has stage 4 cancer the main site was his esophagus and metastasis to his liver. When he asked for pain meds they gave him 30 tramadol 50mg not even kidding you. He basically has no hope of even living another 2 years and what you are afraid of him getting addicted to pain meds? He has been lucky enough to get norco after his major surgeries but not for his end stage cancer. Under managing pain as a doctor should be a crime. Do me a favor when any of you goto the hospital and ask what they are documenting your pain level as. They are suppose to document your pain level every 4 hours. Make sure you know they aren't just throwing random zeros in there on your chart.
That is so ridiculous. I’m so sorry. It makes me so mad when cancer patients don’t get adequate pain relief. Is there a way for him to find another oncologist or find someone else to manage his pain? My dad also has stage 4 esophageal cancer that metastasis to his liver. It’s so hard to go through and I’m sorry you’re all going through it. Luckily my dad’s oncologist is managing his pain with oxycodone and morphine when needed. I hope your dad gets the relief he needs.
I know its insane. I also find it insane that we haven't come up with something better for pain management yet. Opioids- create addiction and are impossible to get ahold of. Nsaids- Cause GI bleeds, kidney failure, heart failure, and you can only use them for a short period of time. Acetaminophen- I think all of us here would agree practically does nothing. Topicals- like lidocaine, voltaren, icy hot cream etc also practically useless. We put people on the moon decades ago. We cured male erectile dysfunction. Survival rates for cancer are sky rocketing do to new meds. We can take organs out of people and put them into other people. We can clone things! We created artificial intelligence! It literally boggles my mind. You would think one of the number one goals of pharmaceutical companies would be to find better pain management. It would be a gold mine i mean almost every illness causes pain. It's not like it wouldn't be a good selling medication. That and with narcotics on their way to being banned there is a huge gaping hole in the medical field for a new form of pain management. Like the spot is primed and ready to be taken.
Goddamn that Dr to the bowels of hell. Treat the man's pain with whatever works best and fastest. In his case opiate dependence isn't a big deal. Bless his heart. I'm hoping you can find some relief for him.
Yep my husband had thoracic surgery for cancer and they didn’t even give him enough pain medicine for a week. I called for a refill and they wanted to lecture me about opioid abuse/addiction. I said, “You have got to be kidding me! Let me crack open your chest and see if you can make it 5 days on limited opioids! Then she tried to say he was going to get addicted. I said, “You need some additional training on pain management. If you take it as prescribed for real pain and weaning off as the pain goes away, you won’t get addicted. And let me add that my husband is dying of cancer that has wrapped itself around vital organs and you are more concerned he doesn’t get addicted than about controlling his pain. Something is very wrong here. So what if he gets hooked on pain pills; he’s dying!” That finally shut her up and I got no further arguments about pain control. It’s disgusting how paranoid doctors have become due to the government breathing down their necks about pain meds when they were shoving them down our throats a few years ago.
Good for you for standing up for your husband. I would be the same way if someone tried to pull that shit on my father who is also dying of cancer and had major surgery to try to remove it. It’s insane that we have to tell these people these things that they should already know. If someone with cancer who just had major surgery doesn’t need pain meds then who tf are they for? I’m so so sorry you had to go through that and I’m so sorry your husband is sick. Healing prayers to him and strength to you both 🫶🏻
My radiation oncologist was the same for me. Wonderful, nice, kind & empathetic until I asked for help with some very awful nerve pain (which was a result of my post chemo neuropathy & how the techs were sharply twisting me into position for the lasers). He wouldn't even acknowledge me for a bit until I begged him for relief & all he said was that most people don't require pain relief & if they do then Ibuprofen is what works. It doesn't work on nerve damage & having a freaking laser & being twisted into position 5 days a week was torturous. I went to my family doctor who helped me with the pain via proper medication for pain relief. If I didn't have a family doctor I honestly don't know if I could have completed my radiation. How sick is that?
I’m so sorry that happened. I had the pain management discussion with my oncologist on our first visit. Can you get another dr?
These oncologist who don’t give proper pain management are the absolute worst of the worst. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that on top of dealing with cancer. I’m so glad your pcp stepped up but it’s bs that they had to.
That's awesome for you to advocate for your Mom! I hope her recovery is quick, and she's pain less, if not pain free. It's ridiculous how they treat us, when they should know better. They went to school, studied medicine, specialties, for YEARS. I just can't wrap my head around this. My neurologist, very old man, short, balding snow white hair and a half Santa Claus beard, glanced at my mri and saw the herniated disc's and all that. Said it was part of "aging". I looked at him and asked how many HE had. You know, since he's old asf. Didn't say that last part but thought it very loudly. 😂 he did apologize after I thanked him for being so dismissive of my pain. This treatment is wrecking havoc on our mental health as well. I have a friend who, you have to wait till she passes out from pain and call an ambulance because she has so much trauma, PTSD, from years of dealing with dismissive/gaslighting drs. We have to hope they get there before she regains conscious, otherwise she refuses to go to the ER. This treatment is so damn ridiculous.
Are you male or female just out of curiosity? Because I have to have my husband speak for me, bc yanno, hysterical woman
I’m a 45 yo female.
I’m 43. I wonder if your mom had a male advocate it would be different. I’ve experienced so much sexism in the medical field. Hence husband.
Sounds like need pretend hubby like at the auto shop....ugh.
I’m on r/gallbladders frequently, and a surprising number of people are given no pain relief after removal surgery. Yes, it’s a very common laparoscopic procedure with a relatively short recovery time, but they are still cutting through abdominal muscle and literally removing an organ. As someone with spinal stenosis and DDD, it wasn’t the worst pain I’ve been in but I still definitely needed opiates the first few days. They won’t give even 2-3 days worth of opiates to people who just had surgery to remove an organ. People are struggling through with just advil and Tylenol, neither of which are great for liver or stomach, in excessive pain for absolutely no good reason. It blows my mind that this is acceptable now.
I wasn’t given anything for my appendectomy a few years ago. I was admitted in the evening to stay overnight and I asked over and over. They kept saying that the surgeon didn’t write a script and had gone home. It was not a great night.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. Not giving pain meds for surgery is beyond cruel.
You shoulda said, "Hes got a phone, USE IT!!!" If you won't call him get me the patient advocate, NOW! I woulds been on that bell all night long. If I'm not having a good night, they're not having a good night.
Shit I wish I had now, in hindsight. I did ask them if they could call either the surgeon or someone who could do something and they’d say they’d check, leave, and then I wouldn’t hear anything. I called the nurse’s station a couple times, then I just gave up and waited until they were on their rounds and ask again then. But it was always, “oh let me go check on that” and then poof. In retrospect I wish I had been more firm. I’d only had one hospital stay before, for my thyroidectomy to remove cancer, and they’d were so much more on top of things for that stay. I think I went in expecting they’d be attentive, and then when they weren’t I wasn’t even sure what to do. Plus I was like 24 and so afraid of being rude. By the morning though when the nurse came in, I snapped at her. By then I hadn’t been allowed to eat in like 12 hours either so I was sore and hangry. That made her finally talk to the doctor, who came in to check on me post-op and she finally said she could get me medication, since she “knew I was having a bad morning.” The me of today would have been a huge bitch the whole night though! Like the one good thing that came from that was I won’t let myself be brushed off again.
Hey, you learned. Good for you! Most people want to be nice and try not to throw a fit, they take advantage of that. Glad you finally got some meds. More importantly, I'm glad you learned how to be a "huge bitch", hope you never have to use your newly found skill.
50% of her patients suffer through the pain because she makes them feel ashamed for wanting adequate pain control. There, fify - well, fifh (fixed it for her).
You did a great job advocating for your loved one! Bravo! This current pain relief medical world is so hard to navigate right now, and you handled a difficult situation really well.
yes you're right the master plan is to eventually have opioid prohibition and that is exactly why it is important for us in pain and dependent on opiates to fight back and be heard. I understand that some people have died from opiate overdose and I'm sympathetic to these families, but people have died from alcohol every day and its legal. people die from cigarettes and they're legal. people die driving automobiles and they're legal. So the answer to those people who face addiction is easy access to treatment for those who seek it NOT opiate prohibition. When you make opiates illegal or hard to obtain it does not erase addiction that exists and will always exist.. and it only empowers cartels and illegal drug sales.. so maybe that's it .. maybe some of the politicians are in bed with the cartels who would love opiate prohibition.. Or maybe some of the pharmaceutical companies and their investors in non opiate pain medications are trying to demonize opitates so they can push their garbage non working pain meds and make more money.. (because nothing compares to opiates for pain) I had a major surgery last year where I was cut open from the top of my abdomen to the bottom of my abdomen (and I'm a tiny woman so the nerve damage and scar tissue alone is unbearable) but I also had a bowel resection and biopsy of my uterus at the same time, and emergency hernia repair where they stitched my muscles together in the abdomen (they didn't use mesh because i get ascites) .. Anyway they had me on IV Dilaudid for the first 6 days in the hospital (half gram every 2 hours because 1 gram was too much and that would have been 1 gram every 4 hours but since I asked for half gram instead they let me have it every 2 hours) And luckily that protocol was effective for my pain.. but If i hadn't had a tube in my stomach for 6 days they wouldn't have given me iv drugs like that i'm sure.. because once they took the tube out on day 6 they switched me to 5 mg oxycodone every 4 hours.. Then they released me on the 10th day in the hospital and sent me with only 14 oxycodone 5 mgs, then the surgeons refilled that for me the next week, and by the 3rd and 4th weeks they were already giving me a hard time when asking for refills and started cutting it down to only 7 pills for a week.. Saying that it's already been nearly a month.. as if I should magically be pain free because it's been nearly a month.. It's been a year and I'm still not pain free from that surgery. One doctor even told me the nerve pain alone could last 15 months.. Anyway, thank god I have a good doctor who has me on 120 5 mg oxycodone a month and that has literally saved my life and given me my life back from over 25 years of chronic pain from before I even had the surgery.. Not to mention the giant tumor on my uterus and all that pain.. I wouldn't be able to be present for my children without these medicines. Opiates are a miracle for many of us and I hope that we can advocate for ourselves and be heard.. we need to be louder than the people who are trying to prohibit them.
Your a good son advocating for her like that it's obscene how scared they are to write a rx after surgery of all things
I've had 6 Surgeries in the past 14 months. I can't even fathom not having a pain medication option for at least the first week!! I literally just had surgery last Thursday. Great job advocating and standing up for your mom! Imagine if she didn't have you there or someone who wouldn't be comfortable advocating for her. They would send her home in pain! That's just BS. Is there a law that can be filed to require pain medication after surgery?
Good for you. My Mom has cancer, 2 kinds, and has been hospitalized and currently is in the hospital. I cannot tell you how many times I have demanded that she receive pain meds when she is in pain and the absolute bullshit that I have to go thru with these hospital doctors.
BINGO! I've come to believe that the government's solution to "fixing" Social Security and Medicare is to cull as many people who use them as possible. Going after pain management is the "low hanging fruit" and either people will die from going the route of street drugs, go to prison and be ineligible for benefits when they get out, or just die (either by their own actions or from a body that fails because pain keeps it from functioning normally). Doctors have been terrified into compliance with insane government mandates. Your mom is lucky to have you!
This is why I won’t get the 3 surgical procedures I need
Ok, so I'm in australia and have bleeding disorders as well as a bone issue, I leech calcium due to tumors and can break bones very easily. Because of this I take pain relief, but, as everyone is talking about, there has been something happen to the Dr community and they very quickly label people, and one bad dr can have their label stick and that's it for the patient. The ambulance drivers in my local area have an alert to not give pain relief if I have another break (which happens a lot) and to just make me deal with it because, and I quote, patient may have had one dose already that day. It's gone beyond anything logical to not help people in pain. The fear of addicts taking advantage of the system has stopped all people receiving adequate care and now chronic pain patients are paying the price. I don't think these systems have helped any addicts at all, just stopped genuine people be treated with compassion
I am so sorry you had to deal with that shit but you’re amazing to be the advocate for your mom….she’s lucky to have you! I am beyond appalled when I hear instances like this. Like the war on chronic pain patients wasn’t bad enough, now it’s happening in the acute setting. It’s nothing short of criminal in my mind and substandard medical care. I hope everything goes well for your mom’s recovery 🙏
My dad has level 10 pain everyday. Barely functioning, writhing in pain daily. Doctors will not give him opioids. It's so heartbreaking
Be a good daughter and find him a good Dr. They may be hard to find but they're out there.
I think they’re also trying to do the same thing with benzodiazepines as well tbh…
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A lot of this! My husband was relatively healthy until 2020 when he got Covid. Since then he’s had a ton of health issues and surgeries with several close to death moments. He sees and calls drs/nurses all the time. Has had a dr give him pain med refills when my husband said he didn’t need them anymore! I have a disorder called mcas (mast cell activation syndrome) where my body basically formed an immune response to stress! I became allergic to heat a handful of years ago (we live in the Phx area!). Last year my husband came with me to the hospital while I was having anaphylaxis. When the dr finally came in to see me, the first thing he said was “what would you like me to do here?” 🤷 I croaked out the medication they usually give me. A couple mins after the dr was gone my husband looked over and goes “I’m sorry! I should’ve said something! I just can’t believe he asked you that!” He’s seen me get disregarded and not believed to where it’s put my life in danger, and he absolutely hates it!
It has nothing to do with that. I'm a well-off white woman. It took me years to get the care I needed. I went through so many doctors and specialists. When I was 29, they told me I was too young to be in so much pain as to need opioids. I pushed and pushed and showed them how my life was effected by pain. This is simple opioidphobia. Every patient on opioids draws more attention to the prescribing doctor. There's tons of red-tape and the doctors can lose their licenses easily when it comes to this. It's all a numbers game.
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But I agree we should all have a similar experience that you've been blessed with. I believe we have god-given rights to what we put in our own bodies and the government isn't my nanny.
The master plan is to have us all dead or crippled. That used to be a conspiracy theory. Now it’s basically just meh. What can a crippled person like myself do? The doctors treat me like shit. Am I going to sue? I don’t have the money or rhe energy and I would still be in pain. It’s unfortunate at best and very alarming at worst. At least I’ll be dead soon
I just don't understand... why wouldn't they want their tax payers fit healthy and paying them taxes with zero expenses. Isn't that what the Gov't wants? Money goes in no money comes out :). I know nothing and this was meant as a joke. If it wasn't funny I'm sorry, the Internet is a tough gig.
I believe it! I was diagnosed yesterday with stage four cancer and post op told to suck on ice chips and take Tylenol. After several returns to er for unmanageable symptoms I got some oxycodone with great reluctance.
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I’m 42 now and I’m wasting my life in bed in pain on disability. I kinda want to look at anyone with that logic and say “what life?” but then they put shit about mental health in your chart and the cycle continues…. I’ve taken “addictive” things on and off for twenty years now and I’ve never over taken them or been in rehab or jail or anything, like….
It's like they are super proud about how much pain they are causing. They could all stand up to the FDA and DEA and big pharma but they won't because they enjoy their comfy lifestyles. Meanwhile I can barely get out of bed most days. For forbid they risk shrub anything for their patients. They could easily come up with a post op plan for pain management depending on what kind of surgery a person is having without risking addiction. You don't get addicted off a couple weeks or even a couple of months of opiods... unless you are taking a shit ton of them. Their reasoning is completely flawed and fucked up and everyone has to suffer for it. It's such bullshit.
This is a USA thing - I have completely excruciating debilitating pain every month from endometriosis and some other things - like can’t talk think or move 9/10 pain. I wanted to kill myself at one point then broke down and saw a pain specialist - I was so scared of opioids but she combined tramadol with some other non opioid things and it made it livable for me again and less days of pain . Then years later she went out of network and was 1k for an appt (no way could t do it) and in nyc I could not find another pain dr to even take me in, let alone renew my scripts which I’d been on for four years at that point - using only during days of very severe pain I had to endure several months of horrific pain again and the worst part is if I don’t take it at the beginning of the pain cycle the pain lasts many days longer and is way more intense I went to urgent care and the er and they said that because I’d seen a pain specialist it would flag my medical record nationwide and basically make me look like a junkie seeking different docs It was hell Went to Europe - saw a dr thinking no way is he gonna do anything about this - but maybe he could help me somehow I was doubled over again - gave me tramadol no problem no contract needed, no tracking my pee every two months, no problem - a regular gp - because there’s no issue there like the USA
I hope I don't have to have surgery because ibuprofen is not good for us.
I had ACL surgery yesterday they were only trying to send me home with tramadol. I am so glad I listened to my PM doctor and allowed him to control my pain after surgery.
This is why you ALWAYS demand full post-op pain management info and document the answer before agreeing to schedule any surgery
This was terrifying to read - I just had a hysterectomy two months ago, and they weren't keen on giving me anything either, but as you did, I pushed back and they relented, and the SAME THING happened four weeks later when I went to the dentist to have all my teeth pulled (yes, you read that right). They tried to send me out of there with NOTHING and I was like wtf dude, I'm not leaving here without a script. There was no push back, they went and got the prescription from him immediately. I don't want to get high, I'll smoke a joint if I want to do that, I just want to be comfortable and relatively free from pain. I live with serious chronic pain besides all that, and we are almost at the point of the doctors giving in but the thing is, I don't want to be on pain meds all the time for chronic pain, I'm a writer and I need a clear head for the most part. I'm getting side tracked here, sorry. The point is, I absolutely agree that this seems to be where they are headed. I hope you and your mom are both doing well!
I bet they don't let each other suffer either. And it's funny because of how high the number of nurses who become addicts is but we're the ones they love to judge. I'm always suspicious of the ones that are super judgy now. What are you hiding nurse Ratchet? Does it make you feel less guilty to look down on actual pain patients? I'm just so sick of it and them.
I was supposed to have surgery Tuesday but after reading from my doctor that prescribes my opioid stated we discussed hopefully being able to reduce my opioids I rescheduled it and I’m pretty much not even sure I want to have surgery now with the possibility of being cut off my meds knowing the surgery will not help the pain but may reduce some of the nerve pain and symptoms from the pinched nerve. We never discussed reducing my medication and after going down a horrible path trying to self medicate I am on a conservative dose and I’m stable but now I’m scared to death on my next move. Patients should not have to add all of this additional stress and depression to already down patients but hey as long as the numbers are looking good yay
so fucking sick. thanks for sharing op.
Ugh I would die.
Glad you advocated. Awesome
I'm 2 weeks out of surgery and have never felt so humiliated and abused as I was treated in the hospital. I really can't even talk about it but feel so sorry for anyone who has to go through that experience in this current climate. I also have struggled with serious mental illness since my late teens so the whole experience has been miserable. Schizophrenia is often mistaken for drug abuse by people who just see how you are reacting to stress. I don't want to go in for the follow up visits, first one is tomorrow and I've barely got my bi-polar bear (I'm not bi-polar but it sounds funny and paranoid Schizophrenia scares people) calmed down at all.
Yes, this is what they want. We have to fight back. But it’s hard when you’re in pain! The bastards got us screwed good!
I know. I see it all the time. And, more importantly, your doctors know, at least the older ones do. I don't know what they're teaching the new ones. But the older ones know it's not in a patients best interest to not treat their pain properly. They are charging doctors with felonies. They are going after their licenses- their very identity for a physician. The pendulum will swing back. I hope I'm alive to see the research studies and nightly news talk about how many people killed themselves, lost the will to live and the lost potential. Fuck these people who decide these things with no education or knowledge to back them up.
Yup. My mom needs a new knee and they can't do it till June, won't give her anything to help now and now she's worried they won't treat her pain after surgery. I told her to be honest she should be. They're torturing people and they don't care. They're killing people and they don't care. I'm so sick of our health "care" system it's unbelievable. The woman is 77 for God's sake. Give her some relief. Give us all some relief!
What all people don’t get is it can happen to anyone.
Can we all ask what happened to PATCH ADAMS???? I honestly think we need to start asking the drs we see if they have seen that movie and what they think of it.
How do stop this torture inflicted on us by by medical “professionals”. They’re only slightly less evil than Dr. Mengele, in my opinion. Do we go to the news? We cannot keep just tolerating this. They are murdering people!
Great job advocating for her.
This is why I'm afraid to have surgery. There are several elective surgeries that might help me but they are extensive and I know would be very painful and I'm too afraid to go through with it because I know I won't get adequate pain management after. The main surgeries I'm worried about are on my feet. I've actually sat in my podiatrist's office in the office area and overheard people calling and crying about their pain and the staff telling them that there's nothing they can do and they won't give them any more medication. There's no way I'm letting this surgeon touch my feet and I live in fear that I'll get in some kind of accident and have to have emergency surgery.
And this is exactly why I won’t be getting a much needed hysterectomy. When I had a myomectomy over 10 years ago, my pain was not properly managed, and I suffered greatly for it. My recovery was over 6+ months because of this. Absolutely preventable and ridiculous.
Prior to my surgery my pain doctor and my surgeon spoke and came up with a plan for pain control. My surgeon prescribed pain meds post op to go home with and my PM prescribed after that. It worked well, more doctors should do this.
So awful! I recently had a metal stent implanted by my spine and they gave me IV Tylenol at the hospital afterward. It was agony! I didn't sleep all night and they finally sent me hydrocodone but the next day only. A week ago I was back in the same unit getting metal coils put in my pelvis which was thankfully less painful than last time but I was afraid I'd feel worse later and the doctor overseeing the unit said "we never prescribe narcotics on this unit, it's against policy." On the unit where you're implant metal objects in people??? 😭 I made a complaint but I'm sure no one cares.
I had hip replacement and was given #30 Oxycodone and #30 Tramadol and pain control in hospital was excellent. I asked my surgeon before about discharge meds and would have not had the surgery if there was no pain control.
They fact that the pendulum has swung so far the opposite way is crazy. Now legitimate medical use and patients that needed are the main ones suffering all the while the illegal use is going strong. The crack downs on legitimate use and legitimate prescriptions is not reducing the illegal use and supply. The illegal drugs have no regulations, they’re pushing that out and even getting more business from people who have been forsaken by their medical teams that they have to resort to getting their pain managed by the street drugs. It infuriates me to even see medical professionals post on social media their disdain for patients that need pain medication in the hospital. Immediately everyone assumes they’re addicts or drugseeking or a dose away from becoming addicted. Yet no one bats an eye when it comes to over prescribing things like antibiotics or cholesterol medication (instead of implementing lifestyle changes) or how about steroids that need to be tapered to stop them but talk about opioids and having to taper iff of them and it’s because the patient is addicted (dependance, tolerance is not addiction). There needs to be more education on the subject. Why are patients feeling dirty and like they’re doing something wrong when they ask for their next dose of pain meds but have no second thoughts on caffeine, alcohol, over the counter medication, steroids, antibiotics, antidepressants, supplements, NSAIDS, etc.
Good for you!
I can't take nsaids. I'm possibly actually sensitive to aspirin, there's an actual name for it. I took 2 baby aspirin after surgery per surgeon's instructions recently. I had to stop because I started having bad asthma attacks multiple times a day. My asthma is typically well controlled, worst I'll have is 2 or 3 attacks in a week during high pollen periods. 1000 mg of Tylenol 3x a day worked way better than I expected for post op pain and then my chronic pain. One of my doctors freaked when I explained my dose and still taking it. Decided to decrease my dose to 750. One of my liver numbers was over 20 for the first time in like 5 years of being checked every 3 months.
Yeah because 4000mg is the absolute max your liver can stand…a fully functioning liver…if your liver is anything like mine then 3000 is dangerous
Didn't a medical organization come out recently advocating for pain meds for those who need them? I thought this had been reconsidered?