I have been in quite a bit of pain the past couple of days, so I thought this was a good time to blog this article.
The Dangerous Panic Over Painkillers
I am one of the people who suffers because of this stigma. I have chronic and painful diseases that I battle DAILY. There is no cure for my diseases, so I can only try to manage the symptoms the best I can. The specialist who manages my most painful problems refuses to give me anything stronger than tramadol (Ultram). This is fine for "okay" days, but there are days when this drug does not cut it. I generally live with a level 6-7 pain daily, but I do have episodes of pain that exceed that. I feel I have the right to be able to access something stronger for those times. I have never had an issue with addiction and I actually hate the way the pills make me feel, but sometimes it is what I NEED. Unfortunately, other people HAVE abused prescriptions for narcotic painkillers, so patients like me suffer. I have a stock pile of narcotic painkillers that are leftover from the many surgeries I have had. I have anxiety about running out of them, so I often just suffer through level 8 to 10 pain so I don't have to use them up. Is this fair? I think not!! I do plan to seek a new specialist who will be more understanding of this matter, but I know it is hard to find doctors who can look past the stigma. I know several other chronic pain patient's who would agree with me whole heatedly.
3/11/12- I grabbed another article, from facebook, addressing this problem, so I thought I would add it. Pain Killer Access Debated While Patients Suffer
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Oh yes - I agree - my Pain Mangement Specialist treated me like a drug addict when we first met - he knows me now and is better but i certainly understand what you mean...!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI can relate. Docs need to understand there is a difference between chronic pain and people who are just out to seek the drugs. Most docs can tell and distinquish between such people, but there are the docs who just don't get what it is like to be in chronic pain and some days the pain is just unbearable.
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