See also:
FDA rewrites opioid narcotic labels to tighten use for pain (LA Times
Goal of Label Changes: Better Prescribing, Safer Use of Opioids (FDA update)
/johnny
Says it all.
I've been on morphine. I really 'get' how addictive it could be, I also probably would have died of shock without it.
Had I needed to, I could've gotten un-addicted, getting un-dead is more challenging.
The Food and Drug Administration should but out of my business, as should the AMA and it’s minions. If I want to take a drug for any reason, including recreation, and suicide, it is my business, not theirs.
I was in a situation a couple years ago where some high octane pain killers were just the ticket. It made my tasks bearable. It had nothing to do with pain, I was care-taking, and it helped me sleep during short opportunities. When the need abated, I went back to my couple-beers-a-week habit. No doctor would have recognized my right to do this, arrogant bastards, so I did it illegally.
As for people who are not in control of themselves, and become addicted, give them all they want, and let evolution sort out the mess. Don’t punish those who are in control of themselves.
How about focus on the fraud and focus on cutting out meddlesome regulations like this one that only serve to inhibit a professional from their work. Maybe drug rationing is thee gubment’s hope to spread the drugs?;€
Prescription drug overdose deaths now exceed deaths from motor vehicle accidents in many states. This is not a hypothetical problem. It needs to addressed.
Barney Frank calls for the legalization of coke and heroin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-2r—uq7KY
The kid, not more than 25, almost didn't fill it because my husband could not be there himself to fill it. (not kidding). then he wanted me to have his ID.
The whole time I could tell he was eyeing me and asking questions, trying to determine if I was some sort of pill abuser.
It was ridiculous and humiliating.
It's the only way government knows how to act.
Remember the pro-abortion argument - “we don’t want the government to come between the doctor and the patient.”
My house was broken into on Christmas Eve a few years ago by addicts hooked on Oxycontin.
A longtime friend lost his house and everything he owned because of financial problems stemming from his wife’s addiction to Oxycontin.
Another longtime friend lost his wife to suicide related to her addiction to opioids.
Opioid based painkillers replace one type of pain with another. No thanks; I’ve seen the damage done, and I’ll have no part of that.
I am not in favor of more gov control however many docs out there are doing this to earn a easy living. Every month the addict comes back with his money or government insurance card.
It has stopped being about helping people to recuperate or live without pain. This is not every doctor and every case but its true for a large part. I had to go to pain management last year and the first thing he did was prescribe three times as much as I had ever had before.
I walked out in April and have not been back, Its easier to live with pain then to be treated like a jr high schooler and forced to pee in a cup.
Screw the guv and their regs
If it was an abortant, they’d be available to minors without a prescription.
I am personally totally against unnecessary and overuse of painkillers, however I am also totally against the government telling doctors, who know their patients best, who should or shouldn't receive certain medications, including pain killers.
Oh, fine! Go ahead and be realistic, Innovative! See if I care! In full seriousness: control of the citizenry is to the feral government as heroin is to drug addicts.
I have Psoriatic Arthritis which means I am in pain 24/7 to varying degrees. I cannot go without pain medication and frankly, I don’t care about the addictive side effects. I also don’t over use or abuse it. I am very careful with it. I have a great rheumatologist who monitors me constantly, but he is getting older and I do worry what will happen when he retires. My personal physician seems to let the gubmint tell her how she should practice medicine and is perfectly happy to do that. Not sure changing doctors is an option there, I have a feeling I won’t find anyone any different than she is.
The State of Washington has already clamped down on opiate prescriptions to the point that doctors feel that they are playing Russian Roulette with their license to practice medicine every time they write one. It is not a tenable situation for doctors or patients.
This area of medicine is very complex and often mismanaged by emotions versus results.
My wife and I are on the opposite end. We do terrible with the narcotics/opiods.
We have to go through hoops and bs not to get these drugs.
My wife gets very sick GI/nausea with a single dose of an injectable or po dose of an opiod. The last thing you want when you are post op. She, also, develops bizarre mental reactions from these drugs.
I have zero pain relief with these narcotic/opiate drugs. When, I take them post op, it like getting hit in the forehead with a baseball bat wrapped with a lot of gauze. My mental processes go to hell, and I’m very shaky when I try to get up to answer some of nature’s calls.
Last week, I had some lengthy and complicated foot surgery, and the Orthopod/foot surgeon as per my suggestion used Toradol IV during and on closure.
He gave me an rx for po Percocet an rx for Toradol. Re the Precocet, which I took as directed for one day and half the dose for the next day and DCed it on the third day. No real pain relief besides filling like someone hit me in the forehead with the baseball described above. Constipation for me comes with a single dose of a narcotic/opiate.
In spite of warnings that PO Toradol, a non steroidal, might not cover the pain. I started rotating the doses of the Toradol and Percocet on the first day at home post surgery., I’m doing fine with it and had no narcotics after the second day. I started walking with the boot two days ago, and I am apparently about a week ahead of schedule re recovery.
I take 4 15mg ER morphine tablets per day for lower back pain. It dulls the pain enough to let me function at a much reduced capacity. Without it I can barely move. I am caught between the pain if I don't take them and the nausea if I do. I go through a sleeve of saltines a day fighting nausea.
The only good news here is that I am not experiencing any feelings of opiate addiction. As a Friend of Bill W., I have a pretty good handle on that.
SweetiePalm can't drive any more so I have to do the grocery shopping. If I am going out I have to wait so long after taking a morphine that I usually can barely get the car unloaded from the pain. I take a morphine and have to sit or lie down until it takes effect, usually about an hour.
I am very concerned that some unknowing bureaucrat is going tell my doctor that he can't prescribe for me any more or reduces the amount to where I am bed ridden.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I’ve never taken anything stronger than ibuprofen but I have see Oxy and such wreck a lot of lives.
I was prescribed hydrocodone and oxycodone for pain caused by a back injury from a car accident. The medication worked very well to manage the pain and I typically only took it after physical therapy or at night to sleep. The doctors then switched me to Tramadol stating that they felt it was better if I took a non habit forming pain medicine for long term therapy. Yeah, that worked out great! The Tramadol didn’t touch the pain so after a couple of weeks I simply quit taking it and coped with the pain. I was only able to stop taking the Tramadol for a few nights. I had severe physical withdrawal. It was an absolute battle to get off that crap. I shared this with the doctor and he just wrote me a prescription for something else.
Well I filled the prescription, went home, and read the informational packet that came with the medication. It was an anti depressant that had a wide range of possible side effects such as suicidal episodes and psychotic episodes. I immediately called the doctors office and let them know I refused to take it because of the possible side effects. The doctor told me he’d just give me more Tramadol. I told him to shove it.
Personally, I’ve never had an issue with withdrawals when I stop taking Percocet, Vicodin, or any of its generic forms. No bad side effects, nothin. That synthetic “non habit forming” crap was horrible though.
Have lived a fairly normal life thanks to hydrocodone for the past 6 years. I personally fear decisions and attitudes that will affect my access to these drugs. In my case, they are cheap and effective, giving relief that expensive man made alternatives have failed to do. I am fortunate that these drugs do not give me a high or make me sleepy. Instead they give me energy and reduce my pain level to the point that I can sit through a movie or perform minor work around the house. Continued access to these drugs is not automatic. I have to periodically see my pain doctor and have blood work performed. On occasions when pain is out of control or special situations (travel w/o access to medical treatment in U.S.), I’ve had to have an epidural. The cost of an epidural is around $1,800 versus $50 for a 90 day supply of hydrocodone. Besides the cost, there are risks associated with epidurals as well as negative long term effects from steroid injections. I gladly prefer the hydrocodone to riskier treatment, higher costing drugs, and the prospect of no treatment.