Abuse of Opioids takes away from all the good it can do

I really relate to what you are going through, Jamie. I have had 13 sports and dance related surgeries that all started in 1973. And I need at least 5 more because I am sick of surgeries and often the pain medication doesn’t work after the surgeries and it is HELL!! I have a connective tissue disease called Ehlers Danlos and it affects everything like your veins, skin, arteries, blood vessels, colon, heart, etc. I started throwing clots 6 months ago and they lodged right near my heart. But I had symptoms and they caught it before I croaked. I guess There is big things they have to keep an eye on like changes in the aorta ( John Ritter died in his 40’s of a ruptured aorta.. he had ED) and I recently had a ruptured colon and had to have a colostomy.. Yuk… and that bag for 5 months.. Almost Died.. was in the ICU for 8 days. Hospital for a month. Any surgery that involves soft tissue… like the rotator cuff surgery that I really need because my shoulder dislocates almost monthly.. has been for at least 10 years and after going to the ER in the beginning for them to fix it, I have become an expert at popping it back in. Takes hours of pain.. maneuvering.. praying and yelling!! But most of the time I avoid the ER.. They have told me that I only have a 50 percent chance it will take!! I know how painful that surgery is because I have had it on my right shoulder but that one didn’t dislocate. 🤷‍♀️I am sick of having surgery. With this disease you just don’t know if it’s going to work. They diagnosed me after a surgery on my foot, a simple bunionectomy turned my whole foot all splayed out and gross.
I have been on some form of pain medication on and off LOL, I am SO SORRY for the rambling NOVELA you had to read.. 🤦‍♀️ .. Um since high school.. I was always really achy.. living on my heating pad after cheerleading practice. My mom used to rub DEEP HEAT cream on my back before school in first grade and kids bullied me cause I smelled like menthol!! I didn’t care.. Helped my back pain. I guess it’s genetic Born with it.. my mom was diagnosed with it when I was. I am 67 now and I have always been very “bendy and klutzy “. 2 sure signs 😂My opioid needs we’re off and on but when I was having SO many surgeries back to back and eventually pain became chronic I began pretty much taking them daily!! 10/325 I am allowed to take 6 a day but on an average day 4-5. The judgment you get from family, is terrible.. at least my siblings.. who because of that I don’t hang with. People who don’t understand living with chronic pain and have no empathy are just hard for me. I have been to pain Docs and got 2 different treatments!! Mind you that I have had 2 spinal fusion’s L-3-4toL-5-S-1 I think. One pain doctor just wanted to give me epidurals all the time and I am allergic to Cortisone. He also did all these nerve tests on my spine and wanted to give me morphine and Norco as well!! There were always a ton of people in the waiting room!! I live in a smaller town. Then I read in the paper they were shut down for pushing too many meaningless tests on older people.
So I found another “pain” Dr and as soon as I walked in he told me that if I was looking for opioids for a solution for my pain forget about!! He only orders epidurals and PT. My nurse practitioner that I see monthly because I check in for clinical depression, fibromyalgia, Hashimotos Thyroid disease and others that requires meds said that SHE would take over my pain management and muscle relaxer medication, but she told me she was nervous about it because the DEA is breathing down DR’s throats because it got out of hand in the past and Drs are losing their licenses over minor precautions. My Dr who I loved had his license suspended probably 10 years ago because a family had a son who he treated for pain from a broken bone and the kid got addicted and got some off the street and OD’d. Norco.
My stepson had addiction issues since he was a freshman. I caught him stealing my Norco once and had to buy a lock box. I got divorced from his dad and his alcoholic and mild issues with pills I guess finally killed him. A year ago this last January he bought a “Norco” from someone selling on the street or a friend, to party with his best friend In Arizona who he had not seen in a couple years. Guess it was laced with Fentanyl, and his best friends wife found him face down on the kitchen floor after they had come home from the Casino… He was 29. His father, and sister and grandparents are devastated. I am as well since I raised him ( half custody) since he was 3 until he was 18. My 2 kids are broken. They keep saying saying it’s an OPIOID crisis and all these people are dying of what us people with chronic pain could NOT function!! It is a fentanyl crisis! And the government needs to open more facilities for helping people. Rehabs. I have run my mouth way too LONG! I hope I have helped a shred!! I DO know what you all are going through.. and I feel so bad for you and my empathy is here for you. Hugs

I have been weaning off Fentanyl so that I can go back on hydrocodone. But most physicians don’t want to prescribe pain medication. I have multiple sclerosis (secondary progressive) with spine damage/pain, sever muscle spasms and in places where it causes other pain problems, like piriformis syndrome (piriformis muscle under the pelvic disturbs the sciatic nerve, in my case for both legs/feet. I take muscle relaxants, but I am suffer rigidity. It was my neurologist and physical medicine/rehabilitative physicians who started the opioids and introduced me to fentanyl. I have to come off it because Medicare D doesn’t approve of its use. I am at the mercy of my prescription company to get formulary exceptions to get fentanyl until I am off it. I am in pain every day mostly 5-8 on a scale 1-10. And i do get days when it is 10+. I have used Botox injections. My neurologist is not fond of baclofen pumps for relieving muscle spasms. I have paraspinal muscle spasms, in the hands, forearms and places you would never imagine. I tried Botox and too much weakens to the point you need PT or OT. I have had cortisone/nerve blocks. Plenty of yoga, PT/OT. With aging it gets harder. The opioid crisis is serious but for people who need pain medicine it is terrible situation. In my state you must see the the physician once a month to get your prescription which is faxed to my retail pharmacy. We make small talk each month. I paying to see a physician every month and periodically give a urinalysis for drug testing. I tried even marijuana approved for MS in my state, but one cannot guarantee the strength or type one will received at a dispensary. Neurologist is afraid it will effect cognitive skills, since my disease already impacts cognitive skills (memory) and personality. I have had this disease for almost 37 years and probably longer. That is when it was diagnosed. It is frustrating at times. I will continue massage therapy and maybe look into accupuncture which is not always covered by insurance, depending on facility, physician and number of sessions. I feel like a guinea pig trying various treatment plans and physicians. And i am the one who has to deal with pain.

The war on opiates has and will continue to have unintended consequences. In my own experience it was handled with a one size fits all broad brush approach. I was a chronic pain patient since 1991. I spent 10 years with virtually no treatment because doctors thought there was nothing wrong with me. They sent me to psychiatrists who put me on a variety of psychiatric drugs that made matters worse. Their take was I did not look the part and was very calm about my condition hence to them it was all in my mind. Then I protested so loudly that they couldn't ignore it and longer and finally sent me for an MRI. The results of the MRI were so bad that I was taken off work immediately and permanently. No discs in my lumbar and cervical region, central and foriminal spinal stenosis throughout, spodylothesis and more. In the end 3 surgeon concluded I am not a surgical candidate. I then did every other treatment known to man until finally I bacame a medication patient only. That was 2005. From 2005 until 2013 i was prescribed norco and Morphine er and the pain and my life became managable. Then in 2013 the government got involved with opiates and me , along with 230 other patients were sumarily dropped from all treatment. A 30 day script and see ya latter. In my group some people went to street drugs and became addicted to heroin, others like myself used alcohol to excess to kill the pain..and several killed themselves.. This action by both government and the medical community was highly irresponsible and unethical. I had quality of life for almost 8 years due to medicine that I never abused...then overnight it was cut off without any way to titrate off , no assistance and no medical solutions or treatment to follow. It is my belief that the current opiate problem is a direct result of such idiot policies and this problem will continue. Pain is the most powerful motivating force in nature. When in severe pain any living thing will do just about anything to make it go away. Seems to me that medical oversight of people in such cases is far more intellegent than to put a person in a position of going to the streets or worse. I am still in pain all the time and am left with very few and ineffective options.. I believe there are cases where continued use of opiates are not called for .I also believe that there are other cases , where medical evidence proves the need that they are a life saver as to quality of life. Most people would choose a life of dependence (not addiction) than a life of misery and pain.

The war on drugs has been a complete failure and will continue to fail as huge amounts of fentanyl comes across our border. Why should those of us who need them have to be denied pain killers because of the federal government's lack of control over illegal drugs and super control over legal ones? People step out into the streets with bullhorns and loud chants to protest all kinds of things that often seem nonsensical. Would it be illogical to protest FOR prescription pain killers?

Your comments are very cogent! I am almost 69 and have been taking OPIOIDS for over 30 years. Straight and simple, I would’t be alive today without them. It really infuriates me that so many people and entities directly involved with treating moderate, severe and intractable pain are so far removed from the facts and realities of utilizing OPIOIDS safely & effectively. The FACT that all the governmental agencies continue to include poisonous Fentanyl on the streets in the same exact category as physician prescribed and trustworthy patients utilizing OPIOIDS to manage chronic pain is a disgrace and dereliction of duty. Frankly, it’s absolutely “MORONIC” that this gross disinformation and misinformation persists while adversely affecting the legitimate patients and physicians who responsibly use and prescribe them.
Even worse, if there were medications that were more effective than OPIOIDS than patients would gladly utilize them. As almost every legitimate, authentic chronic pain patient will tell you……..”We don’t take OPIOIDS to get high or achieve a buzz!” More often than not, there isn’t enough efficacy as it is to successfully treat the pain. When my multiple pain symptoms were 10+ I could reduce the level of pain down to about a 7 or 6 at best. I’ve never received or experienced any kind of psycho active reaction to OPIOIDS! At most, they relax me sufficiently enough so I am not dominated by my pain. I feel embarrassed to be considered a human being and affiliated with these so called authorities who are so far off course and idiotic that having to be adversely affected by their complete incompetence is inhumane!!!!!!

Your comments are very cogent! I am almost 69 and have been taking OPIOIDS for over 30 years. Straight and simple, I would’t be alive today without them. It really infuriates me that so many people and entities directly involved with treating moderate, severe and intractable pain are so far removed from the facts and realities of utilizing OPIOIDS safely & effectively. The FACT that all the governmental agencies continue to include poisonous Fentanyl on the streets in the same exact category as physician prescribed and trustworthy patients utilizing OPIOIDS to manage chronic pain is a disgrace and dereliction of duty. Frankly, it’s absolutely “MORONIC” that this gross disinformation and misinformation persists while adversely affecting the legitimate patients and physicians who responsibly use and prescribe them.
Even worse, if there were medications that were more effective than OPIOIDS than patients would gladly utilize them. As almost every legitimate, authentic chronic pain patient will tell you……..”We don’t take OPIOIDS to get high or achieve a buzz!” More often than not, there isn’t enough efficacy as it is to successfully treat the pain. When my multiple pain symptoms were 10+ I could reduce the level of pain down to about a 7 or 6 at best. I’ve never received or experienced any kind of psycho active reaction to OPIOIDS! At most, they relax me sufficiently enough so I am not dominated by my pain. I feel embarrassed to be considered a human being and affiliated with these so called authorities who are so far off course and idiotic that having to be adversely affected by their complete incompetence is inhumane!!!!!!