Don’t feel alone. This doctor is worn down and just saying no. Opioid poisoning as a cause of death more than tripled in the US between 1999 and 2006. Death from prescription opiates is now more common than death from heroin and cocaine combined. (USA Today)
Today a new patient came to the office looking for a physician to prescribe the opiates she wanted to take for her fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis, and chronic low back pain. She proceeded to say she just wished the good doctors who had previously been prescribing her massive doses of opiates were still around. She thinks one of them must have done something wrong, because his office was just closed down suddenly and all his medical records were taken away. I’m sure this is the Lakewood, WA physician who lost his license for inappropriately prescribing opiates. She was a caricature of the opiate-seeking patient. She had not just one of the ill defined painful conditions that are impossible to exclude, but at least three. She had been prescribed both Oxycontin, as well as large doses of “breakthrough” oxycodone. I am not accepting new pain management patients into my practice. This made it easy to explain that I would not be able to treat her for these problems with opiate medications. Actually the abuse of opiates have become such a rampant problem that I don’t know of a physician in the county who is accepting new pain management patients. This is sad for patients new to the community with legitimate need for pain medication, but just an impossible position for physicians. Any physician who becomes known as accepting chronic non-malignant pain patients would be quickly overwhelmed by the droves of new patients needing pain medications who would show up to receive care. Years ago a wise older physician (he was probably as old as I am now, and likely far wiser) told me we all have our albatrosses. These he described as very needy and difficult patients that you’d just like to find a way to get out of your practice. He explained that if we all just keep a few then no one will be overburdened with too many. Otherwise they will just keep circulating in the medical community, and all of us will still need to take care of them. It’s best to just buck up and keep doing our best for them. These days I feel like these patients are not like rare albatrosses, but rather like common crows, just everywhere, and dashing in to pick me apart like road kill.
There seem to be so opiate seeking patients now that an open door to see them would just overwhelm anyone. Cynically yet realistically I know that this is in part because no one physician will knowingly prescribe the quantity of drugs that they want, so they need to have multiple physicians prescribing their meds who are unaware of each other. (this problem to be the subject of another post soon) Anyway this episode made me smile because this patient was either incredibly naïve, or a very good actress. I suspected the latter. Most opiate seeking patients are very smooth and make me at least feel like maybe I should try to help them by seeing if I can help them manage their pain with less opiates and good care. In my experience this very rarely works, because the customer really just wants the drugs. I know that although there are some patients for whom opiates for non-cancer pain is the best available treatment, there are so many professional patients who resell the drugs on the street and others who are addicted to the meds and overuse them in vast amounts, that as primary physicians we are in an impossible position. We either become suppliers of the prescription drug culture, or we turn away some appropriate patients. Which is worse? This depends on your viewpoint, but at this point I generally just say no.
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Sorry Maria. I know well how U feel. Just finding a caring pain management doctor is almost impossible. Then when U have one, they feel they can do anything they want, with no regard to what the results do to U.
Once again…thru no fault of my own, I am without a doctor to go to to help relieve my pain. And why ? Because the DEA has scared them all into dumping all the patients they have who need medication to relieve their pain. Can’t even get a new doctor to take over because all of them are afraid to take U in as a patient if U need meds. Unfortunately, my pain is not caused by something that can be relieved by any type of injection, and because those injections bring in a lot of money for these doctors and med only patients don’t, I am out of options.
At least U can still find a doctor who will treat U out there. I have nobody. So I guess I will have to remain in intractable pain the rest of my life, because there is no doctor I can rely on to be there for me. Yeah right…What life ???
The last one I had just plain decided out of the blue that she would not be writing any scripts for any of her patients unless they were also taking injections from her. M-O-N-E-Y !!! in her pocket. With me…all she gets is the 80% of her regular office charge. Not enuff for her part time Saturday morning job to supplement her doctor husband’s income for her.
All she has to do is keep her injection patients on a Saturday. Work for a few hours, once a week, and she has it made. Let’s not mention that her husband is also the same type of doctor. He does not do medication patients either.
Well…there are a small few doctors who still treat patients like me, but they are not local to me at all & I can’t drive there. I’m half blind. How would I get to them every 30 days ? Impossible !!
It’s a tough situation for anyone in pain these days. The DEA is making it harder and harder for us all. Especially doctors like Dr. Pullen, here. PHhhhfffffftttttt !!!
Just hang in there Maria….you will find a doctor who will both give U injections and meds to fill in when the injection wears off and U will feel better soon. At least U have a chance. I don’t.
I don’t know what to do. I just cry. I feel like I’m a bad person for asking for pain relief. I did the costly injections and they work for a few days… not totally out of pain but a bit better. I give up and I just want to die. Someone just kill me. It hurts. Death is better than pain.
How can U say this Dr. Pullen ? How can U say U are in such a bad position when it comes down to treating patients in real pain ? If U were to require each new patient to bring in their proof of why they are in pain, why would it be difficult to treat them ? Give your patients a urine test sporadically to find out exactly if they’re using their meds correctly or selling them to others. Why take it out on the truly needy patients ? I don’t get that.
Of course, even patients in true pain who take narcotic meds can many times become “addicted”; or what I prefer to say, is become “dependent” on the drugs they use, they still need them for relief. U can’t truly expect chronic pain patients to use nothing but aspirin. As a doctor, it is your sworn oath to treat your patients with care, as long U do not cause harm.
All the deaths U speak of are mostly famous people who it’s well known that they abuse the use of these drugs. They take narcotics for a head ache for cryin’ out loud !!
I don’t think your being fair here.
I really wish more pain management doctors would just be more careful about the way they accept patients. If they were….I think there would be a lot less abuse going on.
I, personally, do not advertise who I see for my treatments. I don’t want false patients going there & ruining it for me. But in the office I was going to, I saw many “married” couples there, who even came in from out of state. Now they sure seemed suspicious to me !!
I also saw other types of couples who both were there for meds. Or one was there for shots & the other for meds. These are the patients I feel need more scrutiny. But ya know what ? they won’t be, n’ that’s because they pay her with CASH !! Lots n’ lots of CASH.
I was made to sign something today when I was thrown out. I don’t even know what it was. I was so shaken up when she told me to get lost, that I didn’t read it 1st. What could it have been ? A waiver that I wasn’t going to sue her ?
She recommended we go to a local hospital program for pain management now. Only I already know how they treat U. They use antidepressants only.If U don’t agree to take them, they don’t take U. No thanks. Not for me. Been there, done that. BUT….if it’s shots your seeking, then Bingo !! they’ll take U right in happily.
MONEY MONEY MONEY !!!
As a pain management doctor, U should be pulling for better patient care…Not taking us out, along with the bad guys.
Take the time to treat every patient right. Don’t treat medication patients like we are there for a cattle call.
We do need your guidance too.
Stop taking the cowards way out. U embarrass me !!
I’m not quite sure which way these comments are going. But I have to say that I agree with the majority on what doctors are doing to patients in pain. Who needs doctors anymore ? They are the scum of the earth !! They over prescribe antibiotics, but that’s okay. They under prescribe pain meds n’ that’s okay too ? So what did they take an oath for ?
I have chronic peripheral neuropathy pain, supposedly from long term Diabetes that was UNDIAGNOSED. Whose fault was this ? Yep..doctors !! I had been seeing a pain management doctor up until today, when she decided she will no longer take care of patients who are on medications. The reason supposedly is the DEA…tho she said she just decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. Just like that. I don’t think so. I believe she’s keeping all her patients whom pay her by cash & who get injections because they bring in the BIG bucks !!
So I showed up at her office at 10.am. as she asked. I then proceeded to sit there in pain for 3 hours until she decided it was my turn to see her. Then she gave me the boot !! No warning, & your not gonna tell me she didn’t know she was gonna do this last month, so she might have given me a little more time to locate a new doctor. Then she says to me…”U didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just not going to treat U anymore”. How nice of her.
U see…the story we were all being told about her cutting patients, was that she was weeding out the people who were selling them or the true addicts who weren’t even in real pain. We all agreed with her testing us at random. I had no problem with it. I have nothing to hide. But this witch should’ve been doing this from the very 1st day she brought us into her practice !! Why was she just taking anybody & everybody in, without testing them or asking for their medical records at least ? Could it have been…MONEY ???
I thought it was odd myself. It was too easy getting her to take me as a patient. I didn’t complain of course, because I was a valid patient & needed the meds.
Anyway….Your not supposed to cut off a patient on narcotics long term like this. You send them instantly into withdrawals !! They must know this. And it must be illegal. It is certainly unethical !!
This witch, as I’m calling her…never gave us an appt. We all had to go into her office at varied times in the morning, on a Saturday only. Then sit & wait for our turn, according to the sign in sheet. She always took IME treatment patients & consults in 1st, no matter when they showed up. And do you know why ? I do !! Because those are the patients who all pay her cash in hand.
Since I have Blue Cross, she gets paid her usual fee, minus the co-pay that I pay her. So what did I do wrong ? Have medical coverage ?
I just spoke to her billing/info girl the day before I went in. She gave me no hint that I was about to be cut. We were all told that the doctor recently chose this new office for only her medication patients & she would see us all only one day a month there. That was bad enough to know. But to do this on the very 1st appt. day for medication patients ? I mean…WTF !!!
If I had known I was going to have my head chopped off, I never would’ve rushed to get there, signed in & waited for 3 hours. As a minor courtesy to the medication patients who were there today, she could have come out to the outer office & announced we were no longer going to be seen by her & we would have to find new doctors asap.
She sent me off with one month’s worth of meds. So if I can’t get in to another doctor within a month, I am screwed !!
Thanks to the DEA, there aren’t many doctors left to treat the type of pain I have in any other way. If I had another way to do it, I would choose it. There is NO other way !! It means constant suffering, 24/7. No life. No family, no friends. Depression to beat the band. No sleep. No rest. No consoling. Just pure pain & aloneness ’til the day I die. Should I help that day come sooner ? I bet you a lot would and will !!
No relief from constant chronic pain is torture for anyone. I have gone the route of every over-the-counter treatment there is and that comes out new. No relief. I have been on assorted prescription medications also. (sans narcotics) tho. It was expensive & very little relief.
I have tried several antidepressants. Several anti-eleptics(?). To no avail. And yet, a new doctor will tell me to try it all again. For what ?? To waste money on candy pills ?
20 years of this has been enough !! I’m sick of it !!
And you idiots who tell us we’re nothing but addicts & drug seeking boobs, with no brains had better get yourself back to reality.
They created narcotic medication to ease pain. So why shouldn’t the doctors use it for that ? No…they’re told to give us all the expensive crap that’s out there, that does nothing for pain. All it does…is addict you to it, just like narcotics do. And they curse you with bad side effects besides. They want me to take a medication that adds weight to my body. I fight to keep weight off as a Diabetic. I do not want a drug that makes me fatter !! That would take my Diabetes into cyberspace !! More medications needed. And expensive ones !! Not to mention, the risks to my life in the process. DUHHHH !!!!
I am fed up with this system. It has to go !!
God pray that none of you or your loved ones ever have to deal with chronic, intractable pain. Maybe then, we’ll see a little support from you ?
I think the DEA or whoever, should remove the licenses of every doctor who tosses out their patients like I was today. How can they allow them to get away with doing this ? It surely does not follow their doctor’s oath.
What killed me today in her office was a hoot. She’s standing there, knowing I have horrible pain in my feet that can’t be relieved any other way but by narcotics & she tells me that her feet hurt !!
Well Hell’s Bells Doc…I’ll trade your pain in your feet for mine any day. I said. She laughed…and sent me on my way.
Oh wait. She did tell me that when I do find a new doctor that she would be happy to forward my records to them. Gee…I’m so grateful to her. NOTTTTT !!!!
I’ve about given up on going to a doctor. Cheaper to stay home and take OTC medication because that is most likely what they will “prescribe” anyway. Forget antibiotics and pain medicine – it’s like pulling teeth to get either.
What I find amazing is that doctors aren’t smart enough to look at the past history of their patient and figure out that the patient has never asked for pain medicine before and rarely needs an antibiotic. Somehow, all those years of med school didn’t prepare them for differentiating between a person who needs a strong pain medicine to get them through a rough time of injury and the drug dealer or addict. Chances are, if a patient never asked for pain medication before, and especially if they are an older well-established patient, then that patient is in serious pain and needs help. If doctors aren’t going to provide pain relief then what good are they? Maybe I’ll visit the back alleys for my next “doctor” since the dealers apparently are the only people who will “prescribe” the appropriate medication needed. To classify all people who need strong pain medication as problem patients is typical of the arrogance and lack of brains we so often witness in doctors today.
All the people who commented on this are drug addicts. Your dealer,AKA doctor, is either in prison or decided to stop dealing before they are arrested, and now your left out in the cold frantically searching for your next fix. You need to admit to yourself that you are an addict and get help. Try calling Narcotics Anonymous or just drop in at a local meeting. They will help you. I have seen many like you over the years, most end up dead, not from there medical problems but as a direct result of there addiction to pain killers. Most refuse to ever believe they are an addict or have any drug problem because these drugs are legal. GET HELP
I have two bulging discs in my lower back and one in my upper that have caused moderate to severe pain for about ten years now (I am 40). Until about 6months ago I was taking a 7.5mg Lortab per day and dealing with the pain effectively. My GP went out of the pain management “business” due to the red tape involved. We tried Tramadol. It worked about half as well and caused chest pains and made me very nauseous. I’m also on Cymbalta and Gabapentin, as well as taking 1000mg of Advil three times a day, just to take the edge off of the pain.
I have severe back pain due to two herniated discs, one in the lower back and one in the neck area, as well as, three addition varying-in-degree, bulging discs in the lower back. They are documented by MRI. I have endured surgery, physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, and both narcotic and non-narcotic drug therapy. Surgery did decrease some of the pain, but two years later I still suffer significantly. I had worked thirty-two years, sometimes with injuries that were debilitating, and painful yet i endured. I have since lost my job and my home due to the inability to work. I am able to sit/walk/stand less than four hours a day. I would happily, have tried celebrex, and other non-narcotic medications for pain relief, but my (well-known…one of the blues) insurance company refused to pay for them. At a cost between 350.00 to 440.00$ for thirty pills, I could not afford to even try these medications, (as early stated, i am now unemployed). I am not addicted to narcotics, I AM addicted to living with less pain, to being at least moderately functional, which I can obtain by the use of physician prescribed narcotics. Instead of punishing the patient for needed care, why not FIX our broken medical and insurance programs. It is time for those responsible for these systems in our country to fix them so honest, hard-working citizens can get the care we deserve and pay for, and our doctors are sworn to up-hold.
I have back issues and have had a fusion done. It has been a few years and I am in still in pain everyday. I have been prescribed opiates through the years, recently I am only one Norco 10/325 4 times a day. Just recently my doctors office was raided by the DEA and took all of the medical files and told her she was being investigated for over prescribing narcotics. She has said in the past she believes in the power of medicines. She has dismissed a lot of patients over the years, for taking advantage of her. Most likely it was some of them and maybe some ex-employee, that complained about her. Now, I am having a hard time finding a doctor that will prescribe me my pain medicine. How can I get my medical file and find a doctor to prescribe my medicine?
Wow, I have no doubt that your facts are technically true and there are people that don’t need opiate medications are out looking for them but as I read the blog I was thinking to myself ” I sure hope all these idiots that think it’s their place in life to control what other people do and judge other people don’t ever have a chronic pain problem”. “Why do you think it’s your place to judge others”? Doctors think of themselves as superior to patients and play God! God help you if you ever need a med and some idiot won’t prescribe it because he went to school for a few more years. You’re all idiots including the Dr.
I TELL YOU, SEE , THEY ARE A SERVICE JUST LIKE A DAMN PUMBLER,I HAVE FIRED DOCTORS FOR THESE ATTIUDES, I AM ”’NOT A DRUG SEEKER”, BUT I REFUSE TO GO DOWN FIGHTING, MY BROTHER KILLED HIMSELF, BECASUE OF WHO GETS A NEW CAR AND HOME FORM WHO WE HAVE TO PAY FOR A SERVICE, WRONG, OF THEM , THE ARE NOT GODS, BUT TEY SURE HANG CRAP OVER YOUR HEAD, AS FOR ME,,IN THE WORDS OF TRMP,”YOUR FIRED”GEUS SOMEONE ELS WIL BU YOU THAT NEW CAR, BECAUSE YOU DOCTORS ARE SO DAM SCARED TO HELP US THAT AE RALY IN EED, JUST WAIT,,WHEN YOU HURT,,WHAT GOES AROUND, COEMS AROUND,,KARMAS, A B!!
Sometimes I feel like punching these doctors in the damn face, breaking their nose, and tell them the same thing they are basically telling me when they don’t prescribe me pain meds…”Just deal with it”.
You know, I could probably deal with the pain of a broken nose because it’s temporary. Having chronic back pain is constant. Yet for some reason, just because I can’t prove I am in pain, I can’t get a single god damn doctor to prescribe me any pain killers. The reason? Because I could get addicted! Well, yes…I can also get addicted to alcohol, eating too much food, and gay anal sex. That doesn’t mean I will. It’s called personal responsibility.
Let us live our own lives doctors. You are fully willing to prescribe us all of your psychosomatic brain altering drugs but will not help those suffering from pain. All I have to say to you is; learn a thing or two about compassion. Karma’s a bitch.
The one thing the doctors are forgetting that oath they took prior to becoming doctors the fear of getting arrested should never play apart of a patients quality of life declining.
i honestly believe that doctors should be running constant drug tests urine and or blood along with unplanned ones and for patients that are a distant always make it so they could do the testing at a close by facility random counts of medications and figure out a secure way the people cant get away with people doing the test for them. right there weeds out a ton of seekers. there are ways to make it possible for pain patients that are legit to get care. its a madder of getting the lazy asses who seem to think because they have no pain neither do we.
cause your making your own addicts with the ones who scam doctors get the pain meds to get there bills paid all the real pain patients are getting the treatment on the street because that is what they or we are down grated to.and the wonderful opiate blockers that the doctors give out because patients are willing to say they have an addiction here a news flash. saboxin ,subutext, and other medicines like that they will sell it to get the illegal drugs
why do i know this? i have a multiple number of junkies as neighbors who are not that bright. so pnce again non-opiate medications are going to be right up there. but their is no rants or raves about that.
so if that oath and the medical boards standards of continuing to treat for pain with the opiates for the ones that need it not understanding this ???please please tell me then tell my kids cause my quality of life will be going down the shit tube in a matter of a couple of weeks and for it to have clothes on my spine even if its the lightest softest material out there my legs stop working unable to sit, stand lay or take a shower or bath. add it all on top of this whole thing got worse after a nasty assault and being kicked in the spine across a large kitchen and a large deck yup i honestly feel beat up all over. and everything asked of me every urine, blood test, physical therapy, exercise 40 lbs of lost weight. and that’s what I’m looking at and then the possibility of not being able to have my kids because the state received a concern that i was unable to care for me them or my house for over a two month period because doctors think i call that fun.
and gee i can’t see why people get pain meds off the street .
The real issue here is once again the government is sticking their nose in places that is none of their business. Think about it, you can buy enough gin to kill yourself and that is OK – big tax dollars – but you cant get pain relief because doctors fear the feds. This is just pain wrong. You can buy this stuff all day long on the street but if you really need it you cant get a doctor to help you. What is wrong with this picture?
It is just plane dumb…
i am an addict in chronic pain. it took 3 mos. to get my dr. to refer me for a mere m.r.i. I couldn’t get a narcotic if hell froze over. i had an epidural injection today in my back and ended up in the e.r. with a re-action. I couldn’t breath, severe pain and my face was so swollen my left eye closed. I was there for 5 hours and because of my history with narcotics, I was sent home with tramadol with in on my charts as an allergy. too crazy. they could give me a patch or something. when i kill myself i will will my dead ass to the hospital and they can carry on with their stupidity.
I have been going to doctors for years for chronic back pain. Recently it has become so much worse, that one day I drove myself to the ER, thinking that I had fractured a vertebrae in my upper back or was having a heart attack because the pain was so intense. My EKG was normal, and an x-ray showed no fracture. Since then, over 5 months ago, I have diligently been pursuing a diagnosis for my severe back pain. I have become unable to work (I do very heavy work and alot of driving for a living). I went to my GP, went to physical therapy, went to an orthopedic doctor, who I am still seeing, and a gastroenterologist, have gotten cat scans, ultrasounds, x-rays, mri’s, bone density scans, and am scheduled for endoscopy, epidural injections and a pelvic and abdominal cat scan with contrast. What has been diagnosed is osteoporosis, arthritis, and degenerative changes in my lumbar spine. No one knows why my upper back is giving me so much pain. But in spite of going through all this, and being willing to continue my effort for a diagnosis, not one doctor has given me any medication that would relieve my pain. The pills I have taken are ineffective or have given me a really bad reaction (neurontin). I am a 62 year old female, obviously the doctors know I am in severe pain or they would not pursue the diagnosis as they are. Why no one can just give me opiates that are effective is beyond me, if that is all that will relieve my pain. I know the risks and the benefits, and for me the benefits far outweigh the risks. I think they just are so afraid of the scrutiny put on them for prescribing these drugs, that they don’t even give them to people who would benefit them. So, here I am, in serious pain, 24/7, with no relief. And I can’t force them to give them to me, even though I am paying them!! It’s just not fair.
You are comparing chronic pain sufferers to “common crows”??? Dear God. Perhaps we should simply cull the masses of this “surplus population,” because, God forbid, they continue to make you feel anymore uncomfortable than you have to.
These people have lost their jobs, their hobbies, their identities and, many of them, their families to umcurable, insufferable pain and illness. So sorry that you have been mildly inconvenienced by their constant need for care. They clearly have mistaken your profession as a “primary care physician” to mean that you actually do “care.” You, and likely most of your colleagues, clearly don’t. I venture to say that your patients are not the problem, but rather your lack of respect or compassion for them is at the root of this failed system. Simply because you cannot clearly identify the cause of their suffering does not mean they are not suffering. Scientists once believed that rocks couldn’t possibly fall from the sky. You don’t know everything about medicine.
One day, maybe you will find yourself in their shoes, begging and praying for relief only to be referred to mockingly behind your back, by your “caregiver,” as a “common crow.” I pray this happens for you, so that perhaps you will
have an opportunity to regain your humanity.
You, sir, are appallingly arrogant and cruel. You are most certainly due for some serious karmic balancing in this lifetime. Good luck with that.
I totally understand and respect the very tough situation that doctors are placed in. Opiate medications are very addictive, and the potential for an overdose from opiate pain relievers (OPR)’s is at an all time high, now reaching epidemic status. As a physician, you have a very difficult decision to make, and these abuses make it even more difficult.
I first saw a local physician at the age of 9 for severe lower back and knee pain. I am now almost 26. I have seen multiple doctors every year for xray series, etc. The pain was so debilitating that returning from bent over to standing was nearly impossible and would mess me up for days. Friends would call to ask to come out on weekends and I lost my teenage years saying no and doing the only thing that I could. With this chronic pain comes the fear your loosing the most important years, watching friends party, play basketball and volleyball, soccer, and so on.
I finally had an MRI last week, they said that I have a bulging/collapsed disc causing pinched nerves. They want to do further testing to determine nerve damage. When I turned 23, I decided one day while in bed crying with excruciating pain to try one last time to talk to doc. Went to new doc, told him how I’ve been accused by doctors of needing to stretch, needing to eat better, needing to find a food allergy, needing to sleep a different way. He started out prescribing gabapentin. Gabapentin made me very, very ill and gave me nighttime problems. Eventually we ended up at Oxycodone.
Now, a couple of concerns. After a life of being passed on from one toxic medication to another, ie Gabapentin, neurontin, zipsor, diclofenac, etc, oxycontin is by far the least damaging drug. Those drugs are making people ill, there is no doubt in my mind of that. Read the side effects of every medication I listed, some are generic/brand name, same drug,but terrible side effects. Besides the risk of overdose aat high doses and abuse, oxycodone poses the least risk of all those drugs. I never found anything but more pain and agony in those drugs, because now I’m not just in pain, but I have all these terrible side effects.
The doctor who prescribed me oxycodone saved my life. I was at wits end with seeing doctors who acted like I showed drug seeking behavior. Yeah, because I had devised all this at the age of 9. I lost my childhood and teenage years because not a single doctor would take my situation serious, despite all my times in ER as a young boy. Fifteen years of my life now gone, because doctors were worried about the damage opiates could have caused.
I think your article was well-written and well-intentioned, and I think you sound like someone who genuinely cares about the health of his neighbor. It really makes me sick to my stomach to think about those poor people who walk into your office, and spend their money with you hoping to find someone that cares if they can find quality in their life. I spent tens of thousands of dollars to get that same exact judgement passed on me. Until you start treating people in pain with respect and understanding, and stop turning away people in pain, you are only furthering the fundamental problem with healthcare in this country. If my doctor goes out of practice, I don’t know that I’ll have the strength to start the whole judgmental process over. Please stop turning people away who are in pain,use your head, and try to make the best decision. Of course someone wil show drug seeking behavior, everything else has failed! Please have understanding. Nobody is insinuating handing these out, but turning people away seems so wrong. I would close my doors altogether if I were a doctor turning away people seeking one last time to find someone who can save their life.
Seems ironic YOU are the cause of my worst LIFE ALTERING problem, and I to you as well. I am in my late 20′s. No want to sell anything/ abuse anything… and no doctor will give me the common courtesy of just telling me how to tell my family why I am okay for a few days a month when I can take a pill that I only take when a bullet is looking less painful. I would love to see what life, liberty or happiness looks Like, but my life… is miserable because if I “found” a way to get narcotics (for a semi-worth while existence) then there goes my liberty (and family) as for happieness… ha. This country is not free, and justice and compassion have reverted to a tyranny of medicine, pharma, and banks. My Biggest goal in life when I hurt; is to have the strength to not die. So sorry for inconveniencing you,sir… we all are.
Oxmoses: This is a topic to discuss with your physician, not something I can try to advise in this forum. DrP.
I have nerve damage and bulging disks in my lower back as a result of falling off a two story house while putting shingles on. This happened in 98, I have not been on any pain meds since this accident, but have used diet and excercise to alleviate the pain. For the most part I have led a pretty normal live but as the years roll by and I’m much older now the pain is far worse and day to day is getting much harder. What options do you think would be best? Is pain management something to look into or are there alternatives I can seek out to at least help me be somewhat productive from day to day?
Thanx
Jan: You are in a tough spot, and need to look for help with the nerve pain. Drugs like Lyrica or Gabapentin may be helpful. Percocet or opioids in general are a poor long term option for your problem. Keep working with your doctors. DrP.
Three weeks ago I had an ulner nerve surgery and the pain in my hand and arm is excruciatingly painful. I have been on percaset @ 10.325 every 3 1/2 hrs. & it does not remove the pain but takes the edge off enough so that I can function. Dr. is now wanting cut back the meds and she has no answer for my hand problem either. If they are worried about people overdosing, then what about those who cannot live with the severe pain and will go some other way? Is there any answer to this dilemma? This is just crazy stuff. My
primary Dr. has never, ever given me any pain meds so there is no reason
to think I am a drug addict. I would much rather be a drug addict then live like this though, being I am in a catch 22.
what do you do when you live with M.S and seizures and the dr calls you a waste of there time. and tells you there dumping you as a pt it has been close to a year since i have even spoken to a dr because i just dont trust them i was born the way i am . i am confined to a wheel chair i have a service k9 i am off all meds including seizure meds ask me if i care if i ever see another dr . which i assure you i dont i read your blurb you honstly come across as one of the ones that would say ohh you have a case of meitus , aka its all in your head syndrome .well its not only in my brain but spinal cord eyes hands legs in short from the top of my head to the tips of my toes which dont have any feeling anymore same with my hands