The problem is that there are way, way, way more people abusing the system than actual people who need the help. Doctor's are bombarded with requests for pain meds for every little owie that comes along. I've seen it every time I've ever had to sit in an ER, in comes a couple people (often 3 or 4) and one of the people has some kind of issue that requires immediate pain control. Now, if you watch them, and I do, they are obviously not in any pain at all and if there is some it's not notifiable. Fast forward to them being called to the doc and suddenly they're limping or babying an arm or whatever. The doc checks them out, and because pain is mostly unprovable, they walk out with their script for hydrocodone or whatever and the limp disappears as fast as they do. Why do you think ER won't prescribe more than 5 days of meds?
It's not just the ER either, primary care, urgent care clinics, every doc who's findable is swamped with these bogus requests. So you have docs who have to deal with that crap every day and then you have the DEA and every other "oversight" agency scrutinizing every script they do write for pain meds they get frustrated. As my former pain management doc said "with the number of people abusing the system and the state and federal authorities scrutinizing every prescription written, doctors these days have become gun shy and tend to deny med requests almost completely which is good when you're dealing with a patient who's working the system but it's bad for those who truly need the medication".
I've been dealing with pain problems for the last twenty plus years and without meds I couldn't survive. My pain level without medication is simply unbearable. Following each surgery I'd get some relief but it didn't last long and just kept building until it was impossible to function. I took all the over the counter stuff and nothing made any difference and since doc's wouldn't write scripts for more than a few weeks (in the case of a primary care doc) and if they did they fell under the spotlight which apparently isn't very comfortable. Each doc would say the same thing...basically "I'm sorry, my hands are tied as far as prescribing these meds, all I can do is recommend seeing a pain management doctor".
That sounds great but pain management docs are few (because of the scrutiny and the stress involved) and since, at the time, I had no insurance not a single one would take a self pay patient. There's also the issue that because there are so few pain management docs they are swamped with legitimate patients and getting into a program is almost impossible. Finally I found a PM doctor who, because of my medical history and pain levels, took me in and allowed me to self pay. That man was a godsend and that's not something I say lightly. He was a good person and a very caring physician who was very strict about his patients adhering to the rules but because he was so strict he managed to keep the scammers weeded out. However...he retired and, unfortunately left a lot of people without a PM doctor and dependent on these meds, which I can tell you from experience, when a doc cuts you off for any reason and you are on even a moderate dose you will go through withdrawals and it's about as horrible as you can imagine. Top that off with the pain that is no longer being controlled and it is absolute hell for weeks and then hell like pain, in my case, until you find a new PM doctor (if you can).
I was lucky and my doc at the time knew my situation was too bad to go untreated and he set it up so I could see a different doc who had been his partner at one time and they shared a similar philosophy on pain management. I've been with the new doc ever since and although even with insurance it's unbelievably expensive I have no other choice and neither do a lot of people. The sad result of the people who work the system for "recreational" use is very, very few doctors will write a script even when it's needed and even fewer doctors are working in the pain management field which results in legitimate patients suffering and living in horrible pain unnecessarily. It's a shame that the systems answer to the problem is to just deny care to everyone but, to be fair, how does a doctor determine real pain from faked pain? There's no test, a doc has to go by experience and gut instinct, which is how it has been for a long time but ever tightening restrictions have make it more and more difficult for doctors to treat pain and it continues to get worse. I think in all of OKC there are three pain management programs (that I know of) excluding all the goofy chiropractors that run so-called pain management clinics and all the clinics run by self proclaimed healers of some sort. So 3 or 4 programs in a city of OKC's size leaves a lot of people left out and suffering. I hear the desk girls at my docs office answer call after call after call and saying "sorry, we're not accepting any new patients at this time".
I apologize for the long winded post but this is a subject that, unfortunately, my life revolves around and not something that can be solved by the patient just sucking it up and deal with it. With the combination of bad people scamming good docs and bad docs writing scripts for money and the state and federal agencies making it difficult for good docs to write good scripts to good patients it's just going to get worse. Unfortunately in the war to stop the scammers from getting pain meds they've also drastically increased the suffering of real patients but nobody cares about that unless they are or become one of those people that does need the medication. It's a pretty tragic story that is just swept under the rug in the name of fighting illegal drug sale and use.
Many people think dependency and addiction are the same thing but that is wrong, they are very different. Dependency is when your body becomes so used to a substance that when you stop giving your body that substance your body has a reaction of some be it a headache or vomiting or whatnot. This reaction is temporary and may last hours or days or weeks or months. That headache you get when you haven't had your coffee or soda in awhile is dependency on caffeine.
Addiction is when you cannot function normally without something. In this case it's pain medication but it could also be gambling or smoking or any number of things. If someone is addicted to something they will crave it on a level that is almost uncontrollable.
So, narcotic pain meds taken long enough, sometimes a few weeks, will cause dependency no matter who you are which is why docs wean you off them to lessen or alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. If you take narcotic pain meds for long enough you are dependent but you are only an addict if after you are no longer taking that medication you crave it and feel like you must have it to feel normal and you will do anything for it. Most people can drink alcohol with no danger of being an addict and most people can take pain medication with no danger of addiction.
It's not just the ER either, primary care, urgent care clinics, every doc who's findable is swamped with these bogus requests. So you have docs who have to deal with that crap every day and then you have the DEA and every other "oversight" agency scrutinizing every script they do write for pain meds they get frustrated. As my former pain management doc said "with the number of people abusing the system and the state and federal authorities scrutinizing every prescription written, doctors these days have become gun shy and tend to deny med requests almost completely which is good when you're dealing with a patient who's working the system but it's bad for those who truly need the medication".
I've been dealing with pain problems for the last twenty plus years and without meds I couldn't survive. My pain level without medication is simply unbearable. Following each surgery I'd get some relief but it didn't last long and just kept building until it was impossible to function. I took all the over the counter stuff and nothing made any difference and since doc's wouldn't write scripts for more than a few weeks (in the case of a primary care doc) and if they did they fell under the spotlight which apparently isn't very comfortable. Each doc would say the same thing...basically "I'm sorry, my hands are tied as far as prescribing these meds, all I can do is recommend seeing a pain management doctor".
That sounds great but pain management docs are few (because of the scrutiny and the stress involved) and since, at the time, I had no insurance not a single one would take a self pay patient. There's also the issue that because there are so few pain management docs they are swamped with legitimate patients and getting into a program is almost impossible. Finally I found a PM doctor who, because of my medical history and pain levels, took me in and allowed me to self pay. That man was a godsend and that's not something I say lightly. He was a good person and a very caring physician who was very strict about his patients adhering to the rules but because he was so strict he managed to keep the scammers weeded out. However...he retired and, unfortunately left a lot of people without a PM doctor and dependent on these meds, which I can tell you from experience, when a doc cuts you off for any reason and you are on even a moderate dose you will go through withdrawals and it's about as horrible as you can imagine. Top that off with the pain that is no longer being controlled and it is absolute hell for weeks and then hell like pain, in my case, until you find a new PM doctor (if you can).
I was lucky and my doc at the time knew my situation was too bad to go untreated and he set it up so I could see a different doc who had been his partner at one time and they shared a similar philosophy on pain management. I've been with the new doc ever since and although even with insurance it's unbelievably expensive I have no other choice and neither do a lot of people. The sad result of the people who work the system for "recreational" use is very, very few doctors will write a script even when it's needed and even fewer doctors are working in the pain management field which results in legitimate patients suffering and living in horrible pain unnecessarily. It's a shame that the systems answer to the problem is to just deny care to everyone but, to be fair, how does a doctor determine real pain from faked pain? There's no test, a doc has to go by experience and gut instinct, which is how it has been for a long time but ever tightening restrictions have make it more and more difficult for doctors to treat pain and it continues to get worse. I think in all of OKC there are three pain management programs (that I know of) excluding all the goofy chiropractors that run so-called pain management clinics and all the clinics run by self proclaimed healers of some sort. So 3 or 4 programs in a city of OKC's size leaves a lot of people left out and suffering. I hear the desk girls at my docs office answer call after call after call and saying "sorry, we're not accepting any new patients at this time".
I apologize for the long winded post but this is a subject that, unfortunately, my life revolves around and not something that can be solved by the patient just sucking it up and deal with it. With the combination of bad people scamming good docs and bad docs writing scripts for money and the state and federal agencies making it difficult for good docs to write good scripts to good patients it's just going to get worse. Unfortunately in the war to stop the scammers from getting pain meds they've also drastically increased the suffering of real patients but nobody cares about that unless they are or become one of those people that does need the medication. It's a pretty tragic story that is just swept under the rug in the name of fighting illegal drug sale and use.
Many people think dependency and addiction are the same thing but that is wrong, they are very different. Dependency is when your body becomes so used to a substance that when you stop giving your body that substance your body has a reaction of some be it a headache or vomiting or whatnot. This reaction is temporary and may last hours or days or weeks or months. That headache you get when you haven't had your coffee or soda in awhile is dependency on caffeine.
Addiction is when you cannot function normally without something. In this case it's pain medication but it could also be gambling or smoking or any number of things. If someone is addicted to something they will crave it on a level that is almost uncontrollable.
So, narcotic pain meds taken long enough, sometimes a few weeks, will cause dependency no matter who you are which is why docs wean you off them to lessen or alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. If you take narcotic pain meds for long enough you are dependent but you are only an addict if after you are no longer taking that medication you crave it and feel like you must have it to feel normal and you will do anything for it. Most people can drink alcohol with no danger of being an addict and most people can take pain medication with no danger of addiction.
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