First Do No Harm: The DEA targets Physicians who treat their patients pain.
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Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Williamsburg, VA writes:
Hi Folks: I too am a chronic pain sufferer due to incurable non-diabetic peripheral neuropathy. If I did not have some relief my hands would actually feel as if they were on fire. That is torture like being in hell (literally). As many have noted, the DEA and CDC are going after the low-hanging fruit in the doctors and their patients rather than go in the line of fire against the drug cartels and street criminals. The DEA are indeed cowards to the highest degree and want to pad their numbers and justify their existence somehow. This is when their results in the "war on drugs" show incompetency and failure. But..... lets be honest as well. The jump from around the year 2000 to 2016, in the number of patients seeking pain medications is way out of line. Word got out in various circles and at the company water-cooler that these meds gave a great high and euphoria and enhanced work performace by re-energizing mind energy and focus. But there was NO WAY 1 in 3 Americans need to be on pain meds. There then became a pandemic of mystery ailments with patients asking doctors directly for specific opioids while claiming allergies to almost every other OTC medication. The American culture has done it to themselves. I hear alot of empty threats of suicide...Nada..not going to happen. I do see a return to alcohol use and using perhaps OTCs to a dangerous level and even seeking street drugs if a person is truly in pain. Me? I will seek remedy whether it be legal or not. We have to mobilize against these unfair and non-sensical efforts to prop up artificial numbers by the DEA. It may seem callous, but if a patient does not have enough sense to manage his controlled medication properly, then perhaps they need to pay the consequences as their poor decisions are hurting more people that helping by getting the regulatory and legal system involved. -
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Lexington, KY writes:
Doctors need to watch dosages...I understand that. But to NOT treat people who are in pain is inhumane!!!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Scottsdale, AZ writes:
We, who have pain every day of our lives, are not enjoying being tied to pills so that we can make it through a day without wanting to die. We are not thrilled to plan trips to visit relatives around our prescriptions. This isn't a joyride. It's a way to cope with a bad situation. Stop making it harder for our doctors to help us have some semblance of an existence.REPORT COMMENTS
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Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Stanfield, OR writes:
I have been in chronic pain for the last 13 years and am so tired of dr. after dr. telling me pretty much to just deal with it or that use over the counter nsaids. Yah rite...I have had my jaw broken that never healed..I was hit across the back with a baseball bat..and my leg was ran over which I have been walking around on a dislocated foot and leg all these years that requires extensive surgery that I have already been told woyld be followed by other surgeries..anyways I coild go on but point being there are those of us who are legitimately in so much pain that we cannot function and need help to at least control it or minimize it. Its no different then someone who has to take heart pills because they have heart issues or pills for any other reason. So just because its a pain pill people flip out and I am so tired of it!REPORT COMMENTS
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Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL writes:
Those that make these guidelines from my guess don't have any chronic pain issues themselves or they would be more empathetic to these absurd guidelines. Those that rely on pain medications help in the ability to live as close they can to living as close to a full filled life. Those with excruciating pain with no relief see suicide as the only out from relief. I know because I wasn't being properly treated for my excruciating pain. But obviously I survived the attempt to end my suffering and have become the best I can at advocating proper treatment. Pain medications can not be meant only for those who are terminally ill or cancer pain. Those with chronic pain don't abuse their medication. They are not addicts. They just become dependent on it. Addiction and dependence are entirely different entities.REPORT COMMENTS
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Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Akron, OH signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Fort Myers Beach, FL signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Commerce, OK signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Lincoln, NE writes:
I have been suicidal since September. I've done my best to hang in there for my family, but the last two months I have not been able to see that I will ever have pain pills again or have a life again. I literally live in my bed most days and those I don't are laying on the couch watching t.v. I don't go anywhere or do anything, but hear how my grandmother can't hold on much longer and I never get to see her, or how my nephews are growing up without me in their lives. Not having a life, not living, just breathing in and out and being in so much pain, you get to wonder why you are still alive? And how cruel it is to keep you alive in such a condition that you contemplate taking your own life b/c your doctor has decided that living this way is better than having pain pills you might get addicted. I wonder what they would say if they lived in such excruciating pain for years and years. I have had such pain for 11 years now and been in bed for two years before with bulging discs. Life in bed, is NO life at all.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 4th, 2016Someone from Chattanooga, TN signed.
Jun 4th, 2016Someone from Chattanooga, TN signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Charlestown, RI signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Springfield, IL signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Riverhead, NY writes:
5 spine surgeries and not one physician picked up on severe HyperPARAthryroidism twice. I had to diagnose that myself. Now have HypoPARAthyroidism, osteoporosis & a host of other chronic inflammation in my spine. I request a small increase in my medicine & I'm now treated like a criminal. I wish you cared about us. Please make an attempt to do something FOR us.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Plant City, FL writes:
I have 8 herniated discs, a failed cervical fusion, 2 thoracic and 3 lumbar discs that are herniated. I have scar tissue built up from surgeries too. I can hardly walk or move at times but with a Vicodin or two a day I can have some quality to my life. I have taken it since 2009. I take the same script and will have a few pills left over each month. There are some of us that need these pills to have some sort of life and are responsible about it as I need it to take the serious pain down to manageable pain levels. Do not punish Dr's for drug addicts manipulation. I have never gone above my prescribed dosage. Why punish the Dr's and those that the medicine really helps???!!!! Do you punish the bartenders that serve alcohol which is a lot worse? People are responsible for their own actions and know when they are abusing their Rx's. That's on them. Government has no right to take my quality of life away or to decide what my Dr prescribed. That's between me an my Dr. not a government problem.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Algonquin, IL signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Pflugerville, TX signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Lisbon, ND writes:
Chronic pain patient history should be the most important guide to any change in guidelines, and/or oversight. And the DEA NEEDS TO STAY OUT OF THIS, IT IS MEDICAL TREATMENT, not a law enforcement issue. (Even illegal drug use should not be handled as law enforcement, but as a treatment issue. AND THIS IS NOT ILLEGAL, BUT NECESSARY.) Patients who maintain stable doses of opioids over years, with careful (but humane) monitoring by physicians should not be shamed or made to suffer in a hideous system that mistreats everyone who comes in contact with it. Untreated severe chronic pain kills just as surely as untreated depression kills. It's called suicide, and the public health implications are potentially HUGE, as bad as or worse than drug addiction. Let physicians do their jobs, and treat both chronic pain and addiction (WHICH ARE SEPARATE ISSUES) as the public health crises they are, not as law enforcement.REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Lexington, KY writes:
I would kill myself if taken off my pain meds-that is if I could find a method that my twisted arthritic hands could do. I sometimes wish for death......REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Mesquite, TX signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Mesquite, TX writes:
I have had two back surgeries, a broken shoulder,fibromyalgia and a broken neck. My spine is messed up at every level and I've been told I am not a candidate for any kind of surgery . The only thing that makes it halfway bearable is the pain medication I receive. I am not an addictive drug user I do not sell my medication, they could not pay me enough for it!. I believe it would be inhumane for pain medication to be withheld from people who have and can prove that they have legitimate pain and can show physical disabilities to prove their for pain medication . Please separate us from people who died off the streets abusing drugs to just get a high they will only find another drug to take its place to abuse. Alcohol and tobacco have done far more damage to our society than pain medications ever have and you can run to the grocery store and pick those up with no restrictions. Please do the Humane and just action and let the people who have a legitimate need for these medications be able to at least lead a somewhat normal life. Thank youREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Gillette, WY signed.
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Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Scottsville, NY signed.
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Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Freehold, NJ writes:
I just finished reading an article, stating that lawmakers are pushing for a tax on all opiods, that tax will go towards funding for addicts! ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR F******* MINDS!?!? I AM A LEGITIMATE CHRONIC INTRACTABLE PAIN PATIENT. I AM PUT THRU HELL JUST TO GET THE MINIMAL DOSE OF PAIN MEDICATION, HAVING HAD MY MEDS LOWERED, MEDS I WAS ON AT A STABLE DOSE FOR EIGHT YEARS, MY HEALTH HAS GREATLY DETERIORATED. I AM SUFFERING IN SEVERE PAIN HAVE NO QUALITY OF LIFE, I AM ON A VERY TIGHT BUDGET AS I AM ON PERM. DISABILITY, A SINGLE MOM AND CAN BARELY KEEP FOOD ON THE TABLE. ID LIKE TO KNOW WHERE IS ALL THE BILLIONS OF FUNDING FOR CHRONIC PAIN PTS!? SO NOW YOU CORRUPT MONEY HUNGRY *******S WANT TO FURTHER DISCRIMINATE CHRONIC PAIN PTS, CHOOSING ONLY OPIODS TO BE TAXED, OH BUT SUBOXONE WILL BE EXEMPT AS WELL AS HOSPICE AND CANCER PTS. WTF!!!! I AM NOT PAYING NO ****ING TAX ON MY LIFE SAVING MEDS , TAX THAT WILL GO TO PAY FOR ADDICTS GETTING TREATMENT. WHAT THE F****!!! LET THEM STRUGGLE AND FIND THEIR OEN MNEY TO OAY FOR THEIR TREATMENT. WHAT THE F***DO YOU THINK A CHRONIC PAIN PT HAS TO DO!? WE CANT AFFORD HALF THE TREATMENTS OUT THERE AND INSURANCE DONT COVER IT, SO WE GO FURTHER IN DEBT TO PAY FOR ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, AND NOW YOU WANT THE CHRONICALLY ILL TO PAY FOR AN ABUSERS TREATMENT!? GET THE **** OUT OF HERE! HOW ABOUT TAKING THE MONEY OUT OF YOUR OWN GREEDY POCKETS IF Y'ALL ARE SO CONCERNED ABLE ABOUT ADDICTS. IM SICK AND TIRED OF PAYING THE House GH PRICE WITH MY HEALTH B/C OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO ABUSE. I URGE YOU ALL TO WRITE TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, AND TO JOIN PAIN SUPPORT GROUPS, MANY ARE IN THE PROCESS OF LEGAL REPRESENTATION The MSUE THE*****OFF THE CDC, DEA AND THE GOVERNMENT FOR VIOLATING OUR HUMAN RIGHTS TO MEDICINE, AND NOW THEY WANT TO MAKE CPP'S FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ADDICTS. I LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY YOU ALL ARE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE! http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/6/2/senators-propose-tax-on-opioid-pain-medsREPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Freehold, NJ writes:
Human Rights Watch is collecting letters from pain patients who are affected by these guidelines. They say we are being denied our right to medical care and tortured when left without medication which is available to help our pain. WRITE; Human Rights Watch, 350 5th Ave. 34th floor, NY, NY 10118-4700 There are 100 million pain patients. Let's let our government hear us. I have never seen so much NEGLECT AND ABUSE ON CHRONIC PAIN PTS IN MY LIFE!. This is abut my brother, ive written about me multiple times.My brithers pain dr last year jerked him around for eight months, refused any pain medication until an mri was done, which my brothr had no problems doing. He has plates, screws,rods from the neck to his tailbone. His pain dr delayed the mri for eight months til the pain was so bad he had to opt for a surgery instead if being properly medicated. His surgeon Dr. Oppenheimer out of NJ, opened him up in December, eight hour surgery, sent him home the same day with tylnol!! WTF!? I fought for my brother and finally got him on the right meds, BUT , Oppenheimer failed to close him up properly and he got MRSA. Long stor short, the chief surgeon, Dr. Katzman, took iver, opened my brother up five more times to "wash out" and remove infected hardware. My brother is in hell! Katzman decided to stop the IV therapy he was on since January, and decided we will wait and see what happens. If the MRSA is still there and attacking his organs the plan was to get him to the hosp for emergency surgery. That was ten days ago. His last visit katzman lowered his pain meds and said hes not wroting them anymore and referred him to a pain dr.. The pain dr treated him like an *******,mdidnt believe my brother had been put thru the hell he was in four months, wants to lower the meds even more or hentold my brother to go on suboxone. So is this what the governments plan is!? To abandon chronic pain pts, put us all on suboxone!?!? and watch us suffer in agony!! My brother just got off with the surgeons office and was told a letter was sent discharging him!! What the hell!?!? How NEGLECTFUL Katzman has been thruout this whole ordeal. NEVER ONCE GAVE MY BROTHER HOPE, DIDNT HAVE THE BALLS TO SPEAK TO HIM ABOUT LOWERING MEDS,MHAD HIS SECRETARY DO IT,MMY BROTHER WAS JUST AT THE OFFICE TENNDAYS AGO AND THE SURGEON PLAYED STUPID, NEVER MENTIONED HE WAS DISCHARGING MY BROTHER, IN FACT MY BROTHER WAS SUPPOSE TO GO BACK IN TWO WEEKS TO BE MONITORED. THIS IS MALPRACTICE AT ITS FINEST, First they tried to blame MRSA on a wire from a previous surgery many years ago. If that were the case why the hell did they even operate in December!?!? Now he is stuck in severe pain with no help and we know the MRSA has not been cured. Our healthcare in this country is horrific! When innocent law abiding citizens who are in severe pain are being turned away, being discharged, having life saving meds lowered or abruptly stopped. THE GOVERNMENT IS KILLING OFF THE CHRONICALLY ILL!! SHAME ON YOU!REPORT COMMENTS
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No, CancelJun 3rd, 2016Someone from Lapel, IN signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Pueblo, CO signed.
Jun 3rd, 2016Someone from Jacksonville, AL writes:
I am Outrage that the State Of Alabama Medical Examiner Board stopped my Doctor Danny Sailsbury from being able to write me and his many other patients who are suffering with severe chronic pain. And the saddest part was that when i walked out, there was so many elderly who were sitting there with missing LIMBS and some on walkers and in wheel chair that are now without anything !!!!! As well as other adults from their late 30's up to in their 70's. How can you the State Of Alabama do what you did to a great doctor who cared for his patients with his whole heart to help them live a half way descent life again after they were injured !!!!! We were not even given any pain medicine to last us till we could find another doctor. I have been in 5 car accidents and suffer with chronic pain from spinal injury myself ! This is absolutely wrong to do this to people who actually need pain medicines...... You the state of Alabama should be ashamed of what you have done to so many peoples lives !!! Go do your job and go after your street drug dealers not our Doctors.. Need i say more.. May God help you see what you've done to so many disable people and people whose families are going to be and are being affected by your decision to stop him from treating their pain. I pray you make a change in your decision . And give this Doctor is giving back his ability to continue to write Pain medicine so he can continue to give the care for his patients that he was providing for," before you chose to interrupt him from helping the people of Alabama who are in desperate need of it and are not abusing it!!! This was wrong and has caused many to suffer greater pain because We were not given Any of our Medicines and many of us work in the communities of Alabama to help others and give back to our communities and our state..REPORT COMMENTS
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