CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS\' PETITION FOR REINSTATEMENT OF RIGHTS
Public Comments (796)
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Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Putnam, CT writes:
My doc stopped prescribing me pain meds in Nov 2015. Since that time, I have been home-bound and have gained 30lbs from not being able to move. I've lost my will to live in constant pain. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU POLITICIANS?!?!? -
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Marietta, GA signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Salisbury, MD signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Crystal Lake, IL signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Iuka, MS writes:
I have Arnold Chiari malformation and suffer with chronic pain through my spine and muscles. I take prescription pain medication as prescribed from my doctor. I was nurse before my condition worsen and I can no longer work. I realize the little things I took for granted before being diagnosed. Without my pain meds I wouldn't be able to tolerate anything. I understand that because of the drug addicts and the abuse of medication FDA thought it was in the best interest but the last time I checked the FDA is not a doctor or a patient. And until they walk in my shoes or anyone who suffers from chronic debilitating pain they would not understand what we go through on a daily basis. The number one thing as patient care is managing pain and overall health of the patient. If the FDA thought the rate of sucide high bc of medication think of how the rate will escalated to high rates because people who need medication no longer can receive them.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Maumelle, AR signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from El Cerrito, CA writes:
this has GOT to stop or more people will continue to be FORCED to get pain meds from other places outside of their doctors thus continuing to raise overdose rates!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Cleveland, OH writes:
My best friend in the world takes prescription pain medication due to a genetic, degenerative condition that has led to complicating factors including arachnoiditis. With the best treatment, on her best days she's still a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. Despite this, she is relatively functional -- she can go out occasionally, she's lucid and herself. But without medication, she just lays in bed sobbing in agony, and can barely even speak. Cancer is not the only disease that can cause debilitating and unbearable pain. She has told me that if it comes down to it and she is refused pain medication, she would rather die than live like this. It strikes me as an unbearable irony that laws intended to prevent accidental death may very well drive her and other chronic pain patients to a very intentional death. Is it only addicts whose lives matter? What about those with unbearable pain who deserve to live life to their fullest?REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Cleveland, OH signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Fayetteville, NC signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Delta, OH signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Laurel, MD signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Woodbridge, VA writes:
I have lived with chronic pain since age 16. It took 12 years to get any kind of treatment at all, and my status as a pain patient negatively affects my experience with every other aspect of the medical field, sometimes in ways that are life-threatening. I had to give up a career as a teacher because of my health. I want my students to have a better world - including those who may live with chronic pain.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Laurel, MD signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Petersburg, VA signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Petersburg, VA signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Pompano Beach, FL signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Petersburg, VA writes:
As a chronic pain patient with an inoperable disease I require my medication to give me a quality of life.I would hope my first sentence demonstrates the discrimination and stigma all chronic pain patients face. Addiction in this country has been a problem for many decades and the new 'guidelines' from the CDC aren't going to change that fact but what it does change is now millions of chronic pain patients who never abused their medication are suffering needlessly and that is cruel, inhumane and torture, which, is a violation of our Human Rights, at the very least. In the future, citizens of this country will question how our government perpetrated this horror on disabled citizens who had intractable chronic pain citing concern for addicts as their rational. Lobbyists for insurance companies, the CDC, and the government are not our physicians and we are patients not addicts. The Legacy of this country concerning the chronic pain patient, often disabled, many of them veterans who were injured fighting for everyone's rights is 'Follow the Money'. A legacy of Greed. An abomination.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Myakka City, FL writes:
The last time I went to my pain Dr, the girl making appoibtments said I was not allowed to come in early, as I did due to an RA flair. So, now it is against the law to see my Dr before 30 days, even if I am in severe pain??? What option does that leave? I am so embarrassed that I have an illness.....this isn't fair.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from New Bern, NC signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Muncie, IN signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Portland, TX signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Paradise, CA writes:
I included some statements from a well respected doctor in the field that understands the plight of pain patients. Concerns over abuse have led some advocates to call for tighter guidelines for doctors to follow, but without offering any effective alternatives, have left many doctors unable to relieve patients? chronic pain for everything ranging from back problems to fibromyalgia to cancer. One of many problems with the creation of the CDC guidelines is the information used to create the guidelines & are directed at doctors & pain patients that are not part of the drug problem. It is the raging street drug problems with Heroin & over doses. The poor information used was inaccurate, they admitted they didn't have good scientific evidence to back it up, the information they had was of low quality but treated it as good quality facts. Yet another problem the group of people writing these guidelines were people with extreme prejudice well known for their strong bias against opioid medications ever being used. Such an important set of guidelines with the ability to literally deprive many people/patients of needed & necessary medical care should not have been decided without a well grounded well rounded group of people with high quality studies & information should have been mandatory. So they were able to look at every aspect & perspective, but just based on the fact they lacked good quality strong scientific evidence the guidelines should have been postponed until such studies could be done. The most important issue with the guidelines is it is causing life threatening consequences for far too many chronic pain patients. The direct result is the increase of suicides among pain patients from unrelieved pain. Life changing decisions about these life saving medications were decided without ever considering the ramifications of denying opioid medications that have been relieving pain for many for decades. Opioids the main stay in pain treatment for the last 5,000 years. Guidelines suggesting that will be taken as law wanting doctors to not provide opioids to patients that benefit from them and to not continue providing patients that have had success with opioid medications at greatly reduced dosages. All of this was done without providing even one alternative medication once opioids weren't to be prescribed. What are patients supposed to do when there are no other effective medications available to replace opioid medications for patients requiring these medications to relieve their pain? Are these pain sufferers going to magically stop suffering because the CDC decided they shouldn't have these medications or because they have claimed they don't relieve pain? Is the pain & suffering going to continue to be ignored? Their deaths ignored as well as has been the case of pain patients for some time now. Patients without medications that have successfully relieved their pain that had good quality lives are being rendered bed ridden in agony without a good alREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Paradise, CA writes:
I included some statements from a well respected doctor in the field that understands the plight of pain patients. Concerns over abuse have led some advocates to call for tighter guidelines for doctors to follow, but without offering any effective alternatives, have left many doctors unable to relieve patients? chronic pain for everything ranging from back problems to fibromyalgia to cancer. One of many problems with the creation of the CDC guidelines is the information used to create the guidelines & are directed at doctors & pain patients that are not part of the drug problem. It is the raging street drug problems with Heroin & over doses. The poor information used was inaccurate, they admitted they didn't have good scientific evidence to back it up, the information they had was of low quality but treated it asgood quality facts. Yet another problem the group of people writing these guidelines were people with extreme prejudice well known for their strong bias against opioid medications ever being used. Such an important set of guidelines with the ability to literally deprive many people/patients of needed & necessary medical care should not have been decided without a well grounded well rounded group of people with high quality studies & information should have been mandatory. So they were able to look at every aspect & perspective, but just based on the fact they lacked good quality strong scientific evidence the guidelines should have been postponed until such studies could be done. The most important issue with the guidelines is it is causing life threatening consequences for far too many chronic pain patients. The direct result is the increase of suicides among pain patients from unrelieved pain. Life changing decisions about these life saving medications were decided without ever considering the ramifications of denying opioid medications that have been relieving pain for many for decades. Opioids the main stay in pain treatment for the last 5,000 years. Guidelines suggesting that will be taken as law wanting doctors to not provide opioids to patients that benefit from them and to not continue providing patients that have had success with opioid medications at greatly reduced dosages. All of this was done without providing even one alternative medication once opioids weren't to be prescribed. What are patients supposed to do when there are no other effective medications available to replace opioid medications for patients requiring these medications to relieve their pain? Are these pain sufferers going to magically stop suffering because the CDC decided they shouldn't have these medications or because they have claimed they don't relieve pain? Is the pain & suffering going to continue to be ignored? Their deaths ignored as well as has been the case of pain patients for some time now. Patients without medications that have successfully relieved their pain that had good quality lives are being rendered bed ridden in agony without a goodREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Clarksville, TN signed.
Jul 6th, 2016Someone from Glendale, AZ writes:
I have severe RLS, which means I suffer pain as well as, the normal inability to sleep which causes more danger to my health. My blood pressure goes up extremely high even with meds. My heart starts palpitating. I am extremely fatigued but cannot fall asleep. I get anxious and depressed, and you are concerned that taking 200 mg of Tramadol a day may harm me.. Are you aware of the damage you are causing my overall health by doing this. How dare you take away my quality of life and condemn me to this life of agony. I have never abused this drug, I have taken the same low dose for nine years. I am responsible and intelligent. Your restrictive law is doing people more harm then help, you are responsible for any and all negatives outcomes because people who genuinely need opioids are denied them. Shame on you.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 6th, 2016Someone from Spring Hill, FL signed.
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Jul 5th, 2016Someone from Chippewa Falls, WI writes:
I have a genetic connective tissue disorder, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility type. It is accompanied by both chronic pain and acute pain episodes. I will not live a single day for the rest of my life not in pain. Having reliable access to pain medication helps me live my life as normally as possible. I am able to keep working, albeit a job that is thankfully very flexible. Living with this condition and all the pain it cause and trying to accept the things in life I can no longer take part in is hard enough. Being treated like filth, like a drug seeker and addict makes it infinitely worse. Having to jump through more hoops to get pain relief than it takes to purchase a gun in this country is beyond ridiculous. I have heard of too many suicides from my fellow pain community, and they blame it on their (sometimes) only source of pain relief being taken away from them. You have made it impossible for doctors to do their ultimate job, "Do no harm." I understand the epidemic problem you are trying to fix in this country but you're doing it in a way that is harming those harmless bystanders. Please please please fix this.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 5th, 2016Someone from Sioux Falls, SD signed.
Jul 5th, 2016Someone from Thousand Oaks, CA signed.
Jul 5th, 2016Someone from Myersville, MD writes:
This is an atrocity ,Barbaric, and as unAmerican as you can get,,You are killing us is this intentional on the CDCs Part,,it's not working deaths have gone up since this guidelines went into effect,,May God have Mercy on all Your Loved one as well as you when your time comes!! And it will come for sureREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 5th, 2016Someone from Hampton, VA writes:
As the government has pushed these new and overly aggressive laws into effect, the impact that it's had on my life and many other chronic pain patients has been devastating. As I've had to change from reliable, trusted doctors to new doctors who didn't know me, the first thing I was told was that all of my pain control medications would be taken away. I no longer had a doctor/ patient relationship, and I felt like I was being treated like an addict off the street, when in fact, I've never misused my medications. Having this doctor treat me like this, claiming to care about me as a patient, when she could clearly see, and I was telling her that she was causing me serious distress, anxiety, and severe depression to the point of suicidal thoughts. I actually told several medical professionals at the AFBHospital where I was seen at and no one did anything. After trying to file many complaints, my doctor actually refused to refill my prescription and left me to go into full withdrawal from Fentanyl and Hydrocodone as did the medical director. So it seems they would have preferred that I had some serious medical emergency, or went out on my own and found something to stop from going into withdrawal. This isn't even ethical to do this to a patient! Never mind safe. The only people who are being harmed by these new laws are the law abiding citizens who use pain medication properly, for actual pain control, and now we can't get it and have no quality of life. The addiction are and will still get their drugs, because they DON'T follow your laws! They need error did, and we shouldn't have to suffer because of it.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 5th, 2016Someone from Hampton, VA writes:
Millions of hard working and/or disabled Americans who suffer from the scourge of chronic pain are being treated as second class citizens. They are treated as if their pain is not real and as if they a drug seeking. They are not drug seeking. What they are seeking is to end the cycle of pain that many chronic an incurable diseases cause. Pain management is their only hope and the American Medical establishment is turning its back on these legitimate patients simply because it does not want to face liability. Liability that is caused by a small percentage of abusers is being levied on the good and hard working citizenry of the nation that legitimately needs this medication. When Americans would rather die then contend with the leviathan that pain management has become medicine in America has FAILED!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 5th, 2016Someone from Dothan, AL writes:
As I type this there is a young man laying in his apartment suffering needlessly. He had an extensive back surgery days ago and was released the day after surgery with no pain medication. The surgeon stated he had to contact his pain management doctor and the pain management doctor had to contact the surgeon to make sure he had not written a prescription for pain meds. All the while he has been an ongoing patient with the pain management doctor. He has a limited supply of pain meds and will run out before all of the paperwork is finished and they are ordered and delivered, all because of regulations that tie doctors hands and make them scared to move. People are suffering needlessly because others abuse heroin? A young man has to lay and suffer after having bones replaced in his back and a metal cage installed because someone he doesn't know uses heroin? He and many others are at a suicidal place in their lives and it's certainly not because they want to be. Anyone who lives in constant and chronic pain does the best they can and it is humiliating enough as it is to have to live under these conditions much less to have to live under being treated as a heroin or drug addict in any way. Chronic pain patients hate their pain and all of the ways it destroys what is left of them and their life. They didn't ask to have chronic pain and they sure would change their lives if they could. How dare anyone take away what little dignity is left of someone who tries to live their lives in severe and chronic pain. How dare the surgeon send this young man home with no pain medication and then expect him to function enough to be able to contact his pain management doctor and then worry about picking his medication up, and then to realize he will have to do without because of the required paperwork that has been imposed upon the doctors. I have had two back surgeries and I can tell you I would be suicidal as well if I had to go through what he is right now. There is no greater pain the being cut wide open and your bones being ripped from their sockets and replaced with someone else's donated bones, then tied together with metal. How is the suffering he is doing helping to control heroin addiction? It's not. People are being treated worse than animals. He is an innocent victim and is at a suicidal state because of the pain he is in. He has never taken heroin and never will. Had all of these restrictions not happened he would not be going through what he is at this time and his surgeon would have been able to write him the medications he needs to get him though this horrible surgical pain. Had his pain management doctor not had his hands tied he would have been able to respond as a normal doctor would. This is just one example of so many people who are suffering needlessly because of the new regulations. It's not about the people suffering it's about heroin and we are two different worlds. I am a chronic pain patient and have been for many yREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJul 5th, 2016Someone from Dothan, AL signed.
Jul 5th, 2016Someone from Tampa, FL writes:
We shouldn't be treated like addicts cause of what other people meaning celebrity's did cause every time one killed themselves they be breaking down our pain meds and we really need it cause we are in a great deal of pain sometimes can't sleep at night.REPORT COMMENTS
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