Tell your story of living with chronic pain, by leaving a reply at the bottom of the page. Do not mention specific medications or dosages. Stories do not appear right away.
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Tell your story of living with chronic pain, by leaving a reply at the bottom of the page. Do not mention specific medications or dosages. Stories do not appear right away.
Wow, some of these comments, these things happening to them it’s brutal. I was DX with Crohn’s (severe) in 2015 after emergency surgery to clear a blockage. I went til 2018 without taking anything besides Remicade. I finally woke up one morning in some much pain, I just said then….”I can’t do this by myself anymore”. I got a referral to PM .
I feel really lucky because my doctor has been super compassionate about lowering pain levels so I can function. I do the best with a fentanyl patch.
It is incredibly frustrating with all the testing,poking, prodding, ineffective treatments, drug tests, labs, dr. appts, we have to go though as patients just to prove our need..addicts aren’t doing what a real pain patient has to do to get the meds they need, on time too!
Thank you for getting our stories out. My luck changed in 2010. Underwent my first brain surgery. One year later, and I was going in for brain surgery two. Talk about pain and anxiety. The two surgeries were to correct my pain, but it remained the same. Went through what everyone here has probably gone through: the poking, the tests, the repeating of my story over and over, hospital stays and multiple medications. It’s overwhelming, at some point you just want the pain to decrease just enough so you can function. Never mind all the amazing activities i used to do beforehand. Shortly after brain surgery number two, I wound up in in the hospital for a week with a mega colon being caused by an infection. I almost died. I was told I had my youth on my side. After being released I never felt the same. Sick and severe abdominal pain around the clock. I had to wait for my colon to heal then go in for a colonoscopy. And let the testing and bad news begin once again. Diagnosed with Crohn’s disease with a stricture. Once again becoming a lab rat whether it’s testing or some kind of new medicine. This time it’s humira. Have you ever seen the commercials for these biologics, geez they are scary. Unfortunately the Crohns has effected all my joints, known as crowns arthritis. I do not wish this upon my worse enemy. It’s in every joint including fingers,
toes, neck, shoulders, …Well to end my story I’m on multiple medications. My pain management doctor has been nothing but exceptional along with my pharmacist. I’m not abusing any medications, but I have been effected by the new laws in terms of receiving anxiety medication. Try dealing with waking up everyday knowing the pain I’m in and the anxiety I go through. The psychiatrist says with the new laws it appears I’m doctor shopping and that my pain management doctor should be prescribing all my medications. Doesn’t make sense to me. You are the professional doctor that has been treating me for years and just like that, he feels threatened by a new law
and I suffer for it. There all several unfortunate events that have happened along this journey, such as a blood
clot from the my pick line that has left me with thoracic outlet syndrome. Oh yes and all the arthritis in each and every one of my joints in my feet has left me
with plantar fasciitis, not in one, but both feet. These law makers think everyone receiving pain medications are opioid addicts. The reality is that most of us have gone through the ringer and do not deserve to be treated like this. I would never want anyone to go through what I have had to the past eight years. It’s beem miserable. No one should have to suffer.
I got chronic pain from a failed neck fusion where the doctor did not listen to me and caused more neurological damage and neck and low back, leg spastic. its hard to get good treatment in able to live like others who take there life and options for function for granted. it has been a struggle to get help because I am taking pain medication. I just want to live and function I wish this country would get a glue.
I have dietetic neuropathy, my entire spine is deteriorating , fibromyalgia , arthritis in 70% of my joints and my rib cage is collapsing. . My pain meds were cut in half when the regulations on the 50 MME was put into regulation with Postings all over my PCPs office advertising it aaa law !!!! This is My new Doctor by the way , because my Doctor of 25 yrs retired telling me all this was coming and he will not practice if he can’t be what he is … a physician !!!! Too many great compassionate doctors are being run off. Now i have to live in fear of no pain meds being prescribed and what will happen to me !!!! I barely get relief since my dose was cut in half . But I learned some relief is better then none . I at least get 3 to 4 hours out of my day to cook a meal and do short errands . And I need that . My husband at 70 yrs old cannot drive because of his health issues , they will not even allow him a driver’s lic. So who will do our grocery shopping, get us to our appointments, ETC. If my pain meds are gone and I am also useless and can’t get that few hours of pain relief. And also living my life in anxiety makes the pain even worse …. somewhere in this system has to be someone with heart …. i have to believe in that to get through the day .
I have several auto immune diseases, n several other health problems that cause chronic pain. I have it everyday n it just gets worse n I don’t get help from. My Dr, and I’ve been waiting over a year on my disability, n I still don’t have it. My husband left me n called me lazy because he said it was all in my head. He didn’t try to understand my health problems.
For more then 30 years I’ve suffered from chronic back pain. Now in my later years it has only gotten worse. I’ve had one back surgery so far and another one is about to happen in a day.
For 8 month’s now I’ve been suffering with a pinch nerve and the pain is ungodly!
Up until July when the law makers decided that the war on drugs wasn’t working they decided to overstep their boundry’s by pretty much banning the use of pain meds. and not allowing the doctors to due their jobs of taking care of their patients. I have XRays, MRI’s, proving I have legitimate issues. I’s been to Chiropractors, Orthopedics, Pain management, and now a spine surgeon.
These law makers have decided to sue the drug manufactures making it even harder for me to get relief. I need to function and I can’t do it. My Primary doctor won’t even give me the 7 day script. I’ve been very civil so far in this letter and it does not come anywhere near how I really feel. I can only hope the Law Makers goo back and reevaluate what they have done to the people who put them in office and correct this issue.
I was involved in an auto accident 24 years ago when no,one knew what RSD/CRPS was. After many doctors and pain management offices where I had to wait 3-5 hours to see the doc for 2
minutes if I was lucky. Different pain meds were prescribed besides other modalities to help my pain, we finally found a combination of meds and life style helped me. Guess what?? It was a Fentanyl patch that helped keep my pain at a tolerable level and I could still function in my own home. I have never called any doctor I have gone to and asked for more pain medication. i
worked through my pain with feed back, hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment when I could afford it. Now people that do not know my pain or asked me to fill out a pain report are deciding how much medication I need. My anxiety level when through the roof if I had to try to find a different medication to help me at 70 years old. Please help us not just addictive people. We live by the laws in our town and country. Thank you for,listening. I can stand by you in spirit since I cannot walk too far.
I’ve been dealing with degenerative disc disease for 13 years. C2-C7 fused with throatplate, but T1 is going so plate is protruding in esophagus & flattening spinal cord. Also 2 levels didn’t fuse. 2 surgeries L3-S1. L2 herniated. Was Tboned by truck, TMJ, rotator, reconstruct bicep, & injuries to both hips. Dr wants to wait to fix as long as possible so not have to repeat as I’m only 52.
I can’t tell u how much pain I have in a day & how pain meds saved my life. I’ve been on them for 13 years and never took the full doses because I don’t want to be over medicated. I would qualify for disability but I refuse to. I sub teach on my good days & before accident did a 5K. Since the new laws on pain meds I’ve been doing Cryotherapy which is a miracle as I got off fentanyl patch as it helped to eradicate full body inflammatiion. I weaned myself off that myself. Now not only is my insurance not covering for my oxycodone, but my Dr can no longer prescribe Ambien which helped decrease pain &basically haven’t slept in 6 weeks. I can’t do anything that increases my pain so basically I have no life. I’m to the point that I’m considering THC. It’s a matter of time until I can’t put off getting my disc in neck done before it becomes stenosed, but the way they treated the pain before I had a pain dr, I just wanted to die because it was unbearable. I have a wonderful husband, teenage son, & daughter in college and I want to be here for them, but after 8 major surgeries I’ve had, i don’t know that I can go through it with the laws as they are.
I’m 5 days out from shoulder replacement, I was only given Tylenol 3 for pain when I called to get something else I felt like I was a drug addict with the question asked. I was finally given Tylenol 4. Whoop whoop.
I am a mother of 6 who has always been active with my kids and my community but, 7 years ago I was diagnosed with R.A., Fibromyalgia and Lupus which has severely limited my ability to be an active participant in my childrens lives and education. It has been made much worse by the fact that I now cannot get the meds that help me function and give me a better quality of life. I do not take opoid medications in fact I take a medication called tramadol that has no opates in it at all and I am still not able to get my medication so that I can have some semblance of a life. I recently moved and this has made life with chronic pain even harder because now I cannot even find a Dr. that will take me where I live now. They are so scared of the new guidelines and looseing their medical licence that they won’t even take a chronic pain patients at all. So I am now stuck with the problem that I can not even get my life saving lupus medications because of this so called addiction crisis. I will die within a year or so if I can not get the other meds that I take that have nothing to do with any pain medications at all, As a matter of fact they are just the meds that keep my immune system from attacking my organs so that I can live long enough to watch my children grow up, go to college and even get married. I am scared to death that I will not be able to find a Dr and that I am going to have to live with this horrible pain for the rest of my life.