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.
I had some pain in my thorax from working at a desk for too long hunched. Then I was in a bed wreck broke my neck and back in multiple medications. Been taking the same medication2006 I was I’mn carpenter in training but them in I bbn 2004. I have been taking same medication now for 7 years never asked for more I do not abuse at all I take them because I have a life when I have them. The only think they do for me is stop the constant pain. My pain it as bad as it ever been. The problem I have top take mine to make it through my day.. it has just gave new a life and functioning each but running out happens and that istake on matter what worse than any pain. I cut back when I can but when I need them I need them to just function arms us the pain and withdrawals from them take me a place that there are days when I contemplate suicide it’s jus a battle that you never stop thinking about every
I was born with severe scoliosis. I have had several surgeries to no avail and was told I also have fibromyalgia. I have seen the same pain management doctor for the last 9 years. I have been taking opioids for the past 15 years, it has helps me tremendously and gave me a quality of life. Now when I come to Dr. Baker I am treated like I have the plague and have been limited to a very small amount of pain relievers which really doesn’t help. I am miserable and in pain all the time. Our government has really screwed this segment of the population and I see suicide and illegal drugs going up with chronic pain users. We wanted to travel when my husband retires that is now very difficult to do.
If only every legislator out there could spend a day or two living in my body, I can guarantee each and every one of them would begin to consider suicide.
Severe osteoporosis prevents fusions in my cervical spine and lumbar spine.
Pain management sent me to the surgeons who determined surgery wasn’t an option. Pain management already closed my case. I can’t take NSAIDS. Tylenol ??? God help me.
This isn’t how I planned to spend my golden years. My husband is at a loss. It is only because of him that i cannot consider suicide. Living with so much pain each and every second of my life
is not living.
I have suffered from severe headaches since 2000. The only relief I get from them is a controlled substance issued IM from the ED. Last time I was there, I was told after 5 hours in the waiting room and 2 minutes with an alleged doctor. The “doctor” asked me what the normal treatment was for me, when I told him he informed me that they would not be giving me the medically necessary relief, discharged me and gave me two tylenol. Had to go back to primary the next day, he called ED, I had to go back again, still go through their stupid protocol, could not get the IV started, hence could not continue with ‘protocol’, got the medically necessary treatment I should have received the night before, and TWO bills from the ED for the exact same amount. I disputed the first one and refused to pay it. The ED in question did reverse the charge, but I was still treated like a second class drug seeking citizen trying to bleed the system. I am allergic to NSAIDS and most OTC. Had to have my stomach removed because the “preventative” (even though you can’t prevent what you already have) paralyzed my stomach. Have had numerous surgeries to correct the resulting damage. It never stops, and now I am treated like a addict??? I refuse to take all the drugs because they just make me stupid or don’t work, so when I go in after a couple of months to get some relief, I do not deserve to be treated like a second class citizen by some judgmental, pontificated doctor.
I could deep breathe my way into Pluto’s orbit, self-distraction is my own personal specialty, and I’m probably better at physical therapy exercises than my physical therapists. I’ve tried some of the most horrid interventional therapies pain medicine had to offer. I still really on my medication to get up every morning and keep me upright throughout the day, to keep me able to do just the bare minimum to have a decent life. I could do more if I hadn’t been reduced so drastically on my medications over the last 6 years. I was once vibrant and capable, working 60 hr weeks and loving a wonderful life. To go from that to a disability check and hardly being able to clean my tiny apartment is disheartening to say the least. I want to die almost every minute of my life, not necessarily because of the pain itself (though that is Earth shattering) but because of the knowledge that this is my life forever and absolutely no one cares to help me. That kind of thing gnaws at a person. It really really does.
I have a workman comp. problem. My last doctor told me “If I write you a perscription. I can’t write my regular Patients their persciption.” I got a new Doctor and I think its going to happen again. I get my perscription from my company insurance, but I’m loosing my insurance. Right now I hoard my medication. I don’t take as needed. I take as nessary. So I don’t adjust my neck.
My injury is a neck/head injury. Do you have people that can help. I had to fire my last attorney. They just wanted to close account, but I’m not back to work or fixed. They also want to sue me.
It was an accident no ones fault. Its been 5 years. The doctor says they can’t see in the area were my skull covers my spine connected to my brain. Its not all ways the pain. There is something wrong there. I’ve had mri, exrays. I have discs. God tells me to be patient there is help out there.
Is there?
I have had 4 back surgeries in the last 2 years. 2 laminectomies and a spinal fusion, then a spinal fusion hardware removal. The last spinal fusion hardware removal left me with a spine unfused and a crooked back. This has left me in so much pain. I have to be on pain meds. Every time I go to the dr. I am left feeling like they think I am a drug addict. Though I have never once done an illegal drug or misused medication.
I had a one level laminectomy that’s left me with chronic pain and residual nerve damage. I was originally getting occasional pain meds from my primary care, but it got to a point where she needed to refer me to pain mgmt. I was showing some degeneration and spondylosis on my x-rays and after talking with my surgeon they recommended a two level fusion but only gave it a 70-75% chance of success. That’s not high enough for me. I used to work in an orthopedic surgeon’s office, spinal specialist, and have seen the outcomes of many different surgeries. I’m not ready to risk it and end up with failed back syndrome and be in worse shape than in in now.
I was with the first pain Dr. for about a year. Originally, he decreased my meds from what my primary Dr had me on. This was OK since I was no longer working and I adjusted alright.
Then all this crap with the CDC started and he wanted to start tapering me off. I went into panic mode and started searching for a new Dr. I
I found a new one and he was great, claimed that what was working for me was fine and he didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. But he was leaving in a month. I was okay there for a while until the new Dr wanted to taper me down as well because of those guidelines. Time to find another Dr. I pointed out that If I don’t get the relief I need from the meds they prescribe then I’ll find it elsewhere and it may be illegal.
I managed to find the Dr who didn’t want to reinvent the wheel and got back in with him, even though he’s in the next city over it’s worth it. He’s a little more conservative in his prescriptions what with the DEA cracking down on the amount of prescriptions doctors are writing.
I’m scared they’re gonna take my meds away and then how will I function daily? I need those to be able to get out of bed and even perform the most menial of tasks.
Why doesn’t the CDC recognize that an addict is going to get a fix wherever they can find it and they’re gonna get the meds no matter how much you restrict the legal outlets.
Let the doctors be doctors and keep the CDC out of it. I get that the DEA will need to watch for oil mills, but leave the good ones alone.
I have severe scoliosis and the surgeries to go with it, starting at age 15..I am now 58. I did okay for many years due to exercising. But in 2001, my foot slipped out from under me on a staircase and I fell backwards hitting my head and neck on the edge of the stair and continued to slide and hit every stair on the way down. This fall changed my life forever! I had so much pain for so long I couldn’t stop crying. Finally had a laminectomy, that failed completely and left me in even more pain! I wanted to die! The pain was like living in hell on a daily basis and I was on such a high dosage of oral opioids, I could barely get out of bed. I know that some people can and do operate well on oral meds, however, I was not one of them. I couldn’t take care of my family at all. The guilt, depression and pain combined was enough to make me want to commit suicide, but I took a look at my son and knew I couldn’t leave him that legacy. In 2004, I had a pain pump implanted. I went into it with my eyes wide open knowing what complications could be involved, but I couldn’t continue the way I was! I had to get out of bed for my son! The pump changed my life. I was eventually able to get out of bed and exercise and have a semblance of a normal life. That was 3 pumps ago, and I have had complications. But what medicine, medical procedure, or hospital stay is complication free? As long as you have a good Dr that knows what he’s doing, you know what is going in your pump and take part in your own medical care, it can work. However, my brother also has severe problems with pain due to several conditions and I have watched them cut his pain meds to nothing! The pain that I have watched him go through has been criminal! First the withdrawals and then full blown return of pain! Aren’t animals given medication when they are in pain? Until someone has walked in the shoes of a person with intractable, how can they judge them? And to all the people who have gotten pain meds to get high or sell..YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF! YOU HELPED TO CREATE THIS PROBLEM!! If you have an addiction, you can get help for that everywhere but people in real pain have had there choices taken away from them. Thanks to you and the CDC.
PUNISH THE PAIN NOT THE PERSON…
Each of the 3 areas of my spine have major issues. I have been on very strong pain meds for over 15 years. I take 4 piIls per day. I just had surgery on my entire lumbar portion of my spine to correct scoliosis, stenosis and radiculapathy. After surgery the hospital put me on 3 of the same pills that I have been taking 4 times per day simply to not be bed ridden! The human body builds up tolerance to any type pain medications. By the 3rd night in the hospital I was literally screaming throughout the night. The hospital could not legally give me any additional pain medication ease the horrific pain! At 1:00am my wife called the surgeon that was on call from the surgeons practice. He obviously was not happy to be called in at 1:00 am but he knew it was the only way I could get any kind of relief!
I cannot imagine what it would be like to have emergency surgery and not to have had a doctor to call to get some kind of relief. I am a God fearing man and normally not wish anything bad to happen to anyone. It is terrible to say this…. However, in this situation that our country faces, it would serve our citizens well for every descision maker and every person that is advocating for these restrictions to have their child experience unending excruciating tortuous pain while lying in a hospital bed knowing that a legal FDA substance that can provide instant relief is on a tray right outside the door but that it is against the rules, not the law , for them to receive it!! It is my hope, that everyone who reads this, will in their minds truly put themselves in this situation and have their hearts broken. This happens to citizens of the USA millions and millions times a year. This is not even touching on the subject of people like myself that would have lived home bound if not for pain medications that were stronger than anything available over the counter.
All of this pain and suffering because an EXTREMELY SMALL PERCENTAGE of people that have NOT HAD SUBSTANCE ABUSE ISSUES IN THE PAST end up abusing ILLEGAL DRUGS!!! Would society not be better off with some form of background check for substance abuse and then simply have an in-depth conversation w the patient to determine the best course of treatment instead of literally torturing people because of the problems of a FRACTION OF A PERCENT OF THE FEW!! I fully understand that laws are written and obeyed because of the actions of the few but those laws are not physically torturing a large segment of our country!!!
I can assure you that every human on this planet that is an advocate of these abusively restricted rules that cause such horrible physical pain FOR THE BENEFIT OF A MINISCULE PART OF A PERCENT OF OUR POPULATION WOULD NOT FEEL THE WAY THEY DO IF THEY WATCHED SOMEONE THAT WAS THEIR CLOSEST LOVE ONE SCREAM IN AGONY FOR DAYS WHILE THE LEGAL REMEDY WAS JUST AN ARMS LENGTH AWAY. I hope this story finds it’s way into the minds and hearts of every AMERICAN. (MAYBE STOP THE FLOW OF DRUGS INSTEAD??)