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.
@Anonymous 5/7 You may be correct about the government wanting pain patients dead. The government has been reporting for years that the largest population group will be the aging and the ill. Since these groups are no longer contributing in the way of heavy consumerism and taxes but costing the government a lot of money in healthcare, it makes a certain sense to eliminate them. Could it be the replacements are the ones freely coming through the boarders being to dispersed throughout the country, young and healthy for working and procreating for future needs?
I was a hard working person my entire life. Some years later someone else caused a car accident. The accident destroyed my back. I ended up in a wheel chair and couldn’t walk. After multiple surgeries and hard work I was able to walk again but not much compared to before the accident. I was also in a lot of pain. The doctors tried everything they could do to help but nothing worked and my pain worsened. The doctors said the only thing left they could do to help was to prescribe pain medication. The medication did take down some of the pain to where I had some quality of life. I took the medication for quite a few years without any problems. Then one day my doctor says he got the order from his superior to stop prescribing my medication and start taking some kind of new pills. Those pills didn’t do anything but give me a headache. Then he said they were only going to be giving back injection treatments as an additional pain control method. My doctor said he was sorry that he couldn’t help me anymore. I went to the ER and they helped me one day with medicine but the next time they didn’t help me and said I couldn’t come back. I stop taking those awful headache pills. I started drinking alcohol though it doesn’t do much of anything other then relax me but it’s better than those awful headache pills because I’m in pain anyway. I’m not sure how much more I can stand the pain. Each day is getting harder to stay strong . I fear that I may have to give up since I can’t get pain relief and I don’t know when they will ever allow me to get it again. Maybe the previous poster is right. Maybe they do want us to die.
Three years now of NO PAIN RELIEF after I turned down switching my good acting low low dose pain medication for something my doctor had just received license for dispensing but was manufactured for drug addiction. When I turned it down I thought my old tried and true relief would be re-prescribed but it was NOT.
I suffer from spinal disorder too numerous to list and whole body burning neuropathy. I had every other mode of treatment, i.e., acupuncture, pt, 100 steroid and nerve blocks combined, tens machine, massage, etc., and every kind of pain medication available before settling on one my doctor said I would have to be on for the rest of my life. I never once asked for a refill ahead of time or an increase in dosage… matter of fact, I voluntarily asked to be removed from a long acting version of my pain med and only got relief from the other version that was for break through pain in my own effort to minimize using these meds. Long story short and 4 doctors ago, my relief was ripped away from me.
It’s been 3 years of HELL and back to being housebound and often bedridden. Apparently my name is on a blacklist somewhere as a drug seeker now and I rarely even reach out to any medical ‘professionals’ (using the term lightly), any more. I know the inhumane drill now, don’t mention pain or you will immediately get humiliated and shut down. I am angered even when I see that people in pain are only worried about their doctor doing this to them and they still have some form of relief. They have no idea what it is like to have NOTHING to help you function somewhat and enjoy your family or even sit to watch tv for 10 minutes.
All my doctor will agree to treat is my out of control blood pressure, but he will not equate the dangerous rise to my constant near #10 pain level. There is nowhere and NO ONE to turn to so I just quit getting medical care. I can’t really take matters into my own hands or make my own plan of escape from pain, because I love my family too much to do that to them. So, I agonize and wait for the Country’s CDC, pharmacies, insurance co.’s and the medical community to come to their senses, but I really don’t have any hope left that they will, because in order to do so they would have to admit that the are part of this gross inhumanity and genocide of Americans… mostly those who are older, have one or more chronic PAINFUL diseases and are at retirement age after working their @$$*$ off most of their lives.
I am NOT an addict but I am in severe pain… I have not turned to alcohol or illicit substances to cope!!!! I ask for nothing but to be treated humanely, but there are no takers who even care beyond their own license or wallet. I also know of people who worked really hard at throwing their lives away to illicit street drugs who now get monthly pain relief prescriptions from their doctors that they don’t even need or use… they sell them for profit along with their excess food stamps that they don’t need or use as well!!!! Only God sees my suffering… but to all who have caused others misery, harm and death… God is watching YOU TOO! I give up!!!
Thanks for an agonizing NOTHING!
I have suffered from 4 incurable chronic tick borne illnesses for decades. I’ve been mostly bed ridden for 16 years and I have horrible pain almost everywhere in my body. Until a few years ago I was able to get relief through narcotic pain management and this allowed me to get around for a few hours each day. Suddenly, I was radically cut back from the amount I was consistently taking for 10 years to 1/4, then 1/8, then less than 1/10th of my normal pain medication, and since then I cannot get out of bed at all. My pain medication at that level was useless and a few months ago I decided the strain to go to the doctor’s office each month was not worth it as it caused me more pain than I received in relief. So I just decided to quit all pain meds. I was genetically tested years ago and it was determined that I am a rapid metabolizer of opioids. The current limit of 90mg morphine equivalent per day is a sick joke for anyone with chronic pain and especially on someone like me. I would desperately like to go to the rally in Annapolis. I used to go to the State house in Annapolis to battle legislation a lot when I was younger, but it would kill me before I even got from the parking lot half way to the state house these days. With severe neuropathy in my legs/feet I can’t stand or walk without significant pain medication. I will be there in spirit with those of you that manage to attend. I’d be willing to bet that many more like me that wish they could go stand up for our rights simply cannot make the trip because they sit home in agony.
My Life On Pain Management! It’s awful and EMBARRASSING! I feel ashamed that I have to go to my Dr every month to get medication just to live a halfway normal life! And once I get to the Dr’s office I feel like I’m bothering him. I’m scared to ask him a question or tell him I hurt MORE or the medication is NOT working because I’m scared he will fire me!! I don’t want to live like this anymore. Sometimes I wish my spine WOULD just break, maybe I wouldn’t feel anything anymore. Feeling NOTHING has got to be better than feeling this! I’m SO tired of explaining my pain to my Dr. It hurts, It aches, ALL the time! It makes me mad, puts me in a bad mood, makes me cry, honestly I just want it to end. And to know there is Medication I can take that makes me feel better, live as normal as possible but I CANT take it, or if I do I have to go thru hoops to take the MINIMUM amount, makes me feel like NO one cares. I really wish I didn’t have to go thru this. I wish I could go out and run, play with my kids, BE happy! But I can’t…I live with chronic pain after 3 back surgeries and can’t get adequate pain relief and medication to control it!! It’s an awful way to live! I have NO idea why my government thinks they know how to treat my pain? Whatever they are doing NOW is NOT working! I feel awful!!! On most nights I lay in bed and pray I don’t wake up. So whatever they think they know it doesn’t work for ALL chronic pain patients! I just want options!! And to not feel like a criminal EVERY time I go to the Dr and the pharmacy!
I have been a chronic severe pain patient for over 20 years now. I rely on my medicine, almost 100% opioids, to keep living.
As long as i can keep getting pain medication, I can continue working and provide for my family. I am not at all interested in getting high off opioids. I wish I did not need these pills.
All that I want is enough relief so i can live. If I lose the ability to obtain the medication I will live what time I have in unspeakable severe pain. I would not be able to work.
I just want what I need to live. I suffer from scar tissue wrapped around nerve roots where i have had disc fusion surgery. Those places plus the multiple joints destroyed by arthritis leave me with no option but to take opioids to continue to live.
Please do not forget there are people who have 100% legitimate uses for opioids. We need these medications to continue to live. Do not punish the innocent people who need these pills. Punish those who abuse the pills not everyone who needs the pills to live.
MY SOLUTION,,,,,,,,,
Same old story, many operations, opioids made life bearable, doctor took medication away, leaving only three choices,,,,,
One, street drugs
Two, suicide
Three, Leave the country
It makes me cry, knowing that most people only have the first two choices.
I’m 69 years old, with some retirement income, and a small amount of hard earned savings,,,,, and a lot of guts.
My wife and I sold and gave away EVERYTHING, house, cars,,,,everything. We said goodbye to friends, family, and even our beloved cat, buddy. ( we couldn’t leave until we found him a great home, and we did. )
I realize not everyone is in a position to escape this horrible, cruel, lunacy, but if I can help just one person, maybe my life has some meaning.
We are not rich, but now that we don’t have a car, or the many expenses it takes to live in the U.S. we can afford to live overseas.
I took all my prescriptions to the pharmacy, and asked them to recommend a doctor who could prescribe them. They did. Why other countries have more empathy than my own, is mind boggling.
I have been prescribed my life saving medication in three different countries, England, Portugal, and South Africa. I hope this post will help someone. To the tens of thousands of fellow pain patients, who cannot leave, I wish you well. I hope you can somehow survive, until, hopefully, sanity returns. Best of luck, I wish I could help you all,,,, Stan
21 years ago, in 1998, I survived non Hodgkins Lymphoma. My consolation prize is chemo induced painful peripheral neuropathy in my left leg. Over the years i have tried many opiod medications, adjuvant medications, invasive procedures like spinal stimulator and when I lived in Florida I tried medical marijuana (it did not help)
The only medication that allows me to function is an opiate medicine that the addicts love.
I do NOT get High. At all. What I get is PAIN RELIEF. Not 100% but enough to cope with the nerve pain.
Over the years i have been able to obtain my medication fairly well. But of course the last few years, I have had to sign pain management agreements, I am subject to random drug screens, random pill counts, monthly doctor appointments and getting refills now can only be done One Day before the prescription runs out. This itself creates anxiety and stress. The pharmacy may be out of medicine. I may have a family emergency out of state. Or even, I may want to go on a vacation! Everything has to revolve around that refill date. Its become ridiculous.
This is my life now and my prize for surviving Cancer.
I wish Tylenol worked. I wish I didnt get cancer. I wish I could still work (I was practicing internal medicine).
Cancer took a lot away from me at Age 37. My livelihood, my medical practice, my ability to walk pain free or even sleep pain free.
I AM A PATIENT. I AM NOT A DRUG ADDICT .
Stan: there are more like you than you might realize. I’ve been researching this “option “ extensively. We’re getting desperate.
When this entire nightmare began, I was too afraid to contemplate this, but after Having bones broken & sawed & offered minimal pain relief (long story) it’s looking like a realistic & necessary alternative.
This isn’t something, personally: I can do just yet. We are researching South of the U.S. What are your thoughts on these areas? Thank you for posting this info. & keep advocating from a position of freedom & strength. You helped me (-; Happy for you!!
I went through treatment for Stage IV esophageal cancer. After that I nearly died of malnutrition because the radiation damaged my esophageal tissue and a big growth was blocking my esophageal opening by 97%. I tried to survive by drinking ensure but it wasn’t enough. The Dr had me on Fentanyl patches and Dilaudid at that point. I got down to 114 pounds and required a feeding tube at that point, as I became too weak to walk unassisted. After three months of tube feeding, I became strong enough for a major esophageal surgery which I had at Spectrum’s Meijer Heart Center. The surgery took 8 hours. I was in the hospital for 6 days, getting a healthy does of Dilaudid every 3 hours and I also had PCA clicker. Which delivered more Dilaudid every 8 minutes. I was kept comfortable, I was walking around and after 2 days began eating real food agIn. The Dr gave me pain meds for 2 weeks after I left and then every hospital in Grand Rapids became opioid free zones. No narcotics after surgery.
After a month of total agony, unable to find a Doctor anywhere in my city willing to prescribe opioids, I desperately got in to see a Suboxone Dr. He told me I wasn’t an addict and didn’t meet the criteria for his program but he would treat me anyway, because what Spectrum did was wrong and unethical. He said he and his staff would try to find me a pain Dr. It took them six months but they found me a guy. In October I began taking Morphone ER and Lyrica. Everything has been fine until my appointment this week when my Dr. Cut my dose in half and told me he can’t prescribe anymore. He said the authorities told him my prescription weren’t justified. I’m already in withdrawal and suffering and when these run out things are going to be worse. I have no one to advocate or help me. I have no car. There aren’t any Drs in Grand Rapids who will prescribe opioids.
Our friend had a very painful open heart surgery and was only given Toradol and Tylnol for pain. My friend accidentally cut his thumg off with a table saw. He received nothing for pain during the sewing back on process or after they offered him Tylenol. They told him their hospital has no opioids on the premises. The world has gone insane.