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There are other treatments for chronic pain than opiates....pain pills should be for short-term or end of life pain management. If you have chronic pain, a pain clinic should be a must.....these pills ARE addictive and abuse DOES happen all to frequently.
I have tried many treatments over the years. Chiropractic/acupuncture for the first ten years, antidepressants, NSAIDs and finally pain medications. Costs are a major factor in treatment. When it is a $40 copay with insurance and one needs to go pretty damn near everyday to get relief, as a disabled person who does not collect any benefits I can not burden my wife with such costs.
If you are in pain, I don't think the licensing authority should be your first stop.
then again obamacare limits which doctors you can see.
Obamacare is legislation, not insurance.
There is no federal law that mandates a doctor to assess/ treat all patients. Doctors are free to participate in the public and private insurance plans as and when they see fit to do, or not.
My former employer used to change insurance plans every year which meant we had to change doctors and dentists every year or pay the difference between in and out of network fees.
Doctors have been opting in and out of networks for decades now.
All insurance, public and private, limit the doctors you can see at in network rates. We all have been and continue to be free to see any MD we want and pay out of pocket for the difference between in and out of network fees.
When I used to go and pick up my script and the Pharmacists, counter person and surrounding customers would either see or hear what I was picking up. I've had doctors blame my low dose as the cause of other health problems to the point I stopped taking them a year ago. Of course my other health problems did not go away and my neuropathic pain has just increased. Never mind the nurses who also treated me as some sort of drug seeker. That in it's self take a toll on a person.
Of course I must be imagining this treatment even though I been suffering for over twenty six years. Ask anyone who suffers from a chronic pain condition where there is no cure, it not rare it's the norm. Let me add I have had four back/neck surgeries, have stenosis of the spine in multiply areas. When my neck collapsed I was stricken with Hydrocephalus which required a shunt. The shunt has helped a little bit but I loss my hearing and suffer from tinnitus because of the shunt surgery.
Patient Protected Information ( PPI) is covered under HIPAA.
In all my years I have not come across a pharmacy that made PPI public information. Big box pharmacies have an area for private consultations, when such conversations are necessary or desirable. That I have not observed this does not mean you have not experienced it.
Consider changing pharmacies or don't give your perception of a stranger's stink eye any power over you.
I remember a couple of years ago my pharmacy employees reacting to the number of pills I had filled for my trigeminal neuralgia. What they didn't realize was that my med was supposed to be taken 3x daily and I was on the lowest possible dose. This was immediately after the company was scaring pharmacy employees regarding prescriptions. It was a hassle every time I went to fill my script for a few months and of course they gave a deer in headlights look when I would ask why my prescription wasn't ready. Fortunately I knew the pharmacist and he let me know why there were problems ( it was the employees) and the pharmacist was able to fix the situation. The moron employees wouldn't explain why, which caused so much unnecessary stress. It turned out they did not understand the rules. They were upsetting a lot of members at the time.
Working in a Long-Term Care/Rehab facility, the majority of the lights I answer any night, has to do with pain medication.
And, how many are truly in pain, and those that are not? I would estimate 75% are merely addicted to them, and use them as sleeping medication, and are in not great pain. Believe me, I know when someone is in great pain!
And, oddly enough, a number of them in great pain, refuse to take pain medication, preferring to tough it out, instead, fearful of becoming addicted to them.
I asked one patient: With all the pain you're in, why not ask for some stronger pain meds?
"I don't take any pain meds! I'm too afraid of becoming addicted to them"
Many that come into these facilities leave these facilities drug addicts, and doesn't matter what age they are.
If a physician is refusing pain medication to someone with a legitimate need I believe I'd contact the state licensing authority and file a complaint.
You have no case. My doctor won't give you narcotics, there is no law against that at all. He WILL refer you to a PAIN MANAGEMENT doctor though who will.
IMHO too many people have been taught that to live is to suffer and suffering is God's punishment for your sins. To me that is pure fantasy. Life is for living a comfortable as possible. If an individual is in pain for any reason and opioid drugs are a practical way of relieving the pain they should be readily available at an affordable price with out any complications. If the are addictive so what. So long as the drugs are available at an affordable price a person should be able to buy a steady supply. Forcing people onto the black market because their insurance ran out or their doctor stopped the subscription is purely evil.
Working in a Long-Term Care/Rehab facility, the majority of the lights I answer any night, has to do with pain medication.
And, how many are truly in pain, and those that are not? I would estimate 75% are merely addicted to them, and use them as sleeping medication, and are in not great pain. Believe me, I know when someone is in great pain!
And, oddly enough, a number of them in great pain, refuse to take pain medication, preferring to tough it out, instead, fearful of becoming addicted to them.
I asked one patient: With all the pain you're in, why not ask for some stronger pain meds?
"I don't take any pain meds! I'm too afraid of becoming addicted to them"
Many that come into these facilities leave these facilities drug addicts, and doesn't matter what age they are.
You have proven my point of having my and others chronic pain mocked, ridiculed and seen as an addict thank you.
Weather the public knows that a person is taking opioids for pain is irrelevant. If I needed them I would take them no matter what anyone else thought. The OP is correct. If a person needs pain medications they should have it available even if they get addicted. After all most of us are addicted to eating so we should stop eating because it is addictive.
I think this fear of addiction is an emotional remnant of the Puritanical opposition to pleasure combined with the Catholic assumption of perpetual guilt. Neither have any use except to allow the village elders or the priests to control the flock. The question is not weather a person is addicted to a particular drug but how well they handle the addiction. There are millions of people addicted to the drink of alcohol after dinner but they are not progressive alcoholics.
If people need opiates for pain they should have a steady supply at an affordable price. Having their drug supply curtailed because it might be addictive is absurd. Addiction is preferable for both society and the individual than needing to buy from the black market to satisfy the addiction or the eventual suicide to escape the pain.
Thank you for your replies. I wouldn't wish my pain on anyone and it has taught me to try to see things from another person's point of view. Nothing in this world is just black and white, there are many shades in between.
Patient Protected Information ( PPI) is covered under HIPAA.
In all my years I have not come across a pharmacy that made PPI public information. Big box pharmacies have an area for private consultations, when such conversations are necessary or desirable. That I have not observed this does not mean you have not experienced it.
Consider changing pharmacies or don't give your perception of a stranger's stink eye any power over you.
I am sorry for your troubles.
Thank you for your reply. Years of stink eyes not only with the medication but not being able to work and seen as a lesser human takes a great toll on a person. Most people like myself I believe want to be able to contribute and even more so want some sort of respect.
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