Painkiller addicts,America's new "problem"

To react to,and to demand a SOLUTION for..A distraction from...

I hope all this "awareness" spread around recently about painkiller addiction does not get the public yammering for the paranoid DEA to find an excuse to remove access to pain medicine for those with chronic pain. because people can and do get addicted.
People can get life in jail for possessing a joint,but a murderer can get as little as 6 months? WTF?
http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Black_guy_gets_life_for_smoking_pot

There is something very wrong here. It stinks.
I find it strange how all these people, NOW of all times,are coming forth with their pain killer addiction stories.(of course they are no longer in pain now)

As I was looking for the weather channel today I saw there was someone famous(can't remember her name offhand) on Oprah telling her story of addiction.I hear alot about this issue recently.I saw a commercial warning adults teens could be pilfering grandma's drugs...Why NOW all this attention.?

Ironic Bush made sure the poppy fields in Afghanistan were not razed down..Why?? Prisons are private corporations..Bush's ownership society is meant as an Orwellian word...

I worry about this issue for several reasons, because Joe Q.Public is 30 points shy of being retarded. So I fear there will be a backlash against prescribed pain killers, A scapegoating process of the people who need them. Like making it so they can't get them or must jump through 1,001 hoops,to QUALIFY for them, and I fear unwarranted suspicion of legit doctors who DO prescribe them. I fear it. Why?

The main reason is I have ruptured disc's squishing some the nerves coming out from my spine in several disc's and let me tell you neuropathy is all about horrible unrelenting PAIN.I never thought I'd be one of those people looking into Pain Management say 6 years ago.The pain hurts so bad sometimes it makes me wish I was dead. It hurts THAT bad..I can't sit,lay in any position,stand up,prop up,or do anything to relieve it by usual methods one would do for a garden variety backache.I sleep on a heating pad and whimper to sleep.It fucking hurts like you would not believe..

It makes me angry and it sucks that the non-narcotic painkillers don't work on severe pain.And the drug companies waste time with viagra and baldness drugs pandering to rich vain old people,scared of being old or their insurance..

An example of how STUPID our FDA is, they'll forbid independent small beef companies to test their own herds for BSE, but ever hear of Tramodol? It is a drug I was given recently it didn't work,I wondered why,On Tramodol,I went to the ER, the pain was driving me up a wall.I sat there for five hours for nothing because I had no way home if I stayed...Well my spinal neurologist tells me it is useless for pain when taken ORALLY. But it is very effective in an injectable form at killing bad pain and it is non-addictive..

But get this: the fucking FDA does not approve of Tramadol in injection form over HERE. But over in Europe and pretty much everywhere else it is approved to get in an injection. It's like our fucked up phobic puritanical ass backwards government WANTS people in severe pain to kill themselves in anguish or become addicts just so macho cops or paranoid"homeland security fascists" or the DEA with nothing better to do can fine or punish them for seeking relief later when they are 'caught' possessing the drugs that are made into the devil itself..by STUPID PEOPLE who never have dealt with the magnitude of pain like neuropathy creates..


I hate that there are so few non -narcotic pain killers for severe pain available.Honestly,I am scared to death of becoming addicted. I hurt until I can't stand it,before I dare take a hydrocodone. Yet good pain management means you have to take the medicines before it's killing you,but I am afraid to do it.
I can't take percoset,allergic to it,thankfully.

But regardless degenerative disc disease fucking SUCKS and it hurts like you wouldn't believe. I got it from being hit by a car (a cab)going 45 mph in a 25 mph zone,I was slowly walking across the street holding my ex's hand .I had one foot on the curb and I was wrenched from his hand and I flew to the other side of the road.

Because I was naive about my rights,legally back than,and didn't even understand what "press charges" meant I didn't know what I should do or say. In the ER I was so drugged up when a cop asked me questions and I couldn't understand him or my own thoughts or words.I didn't know I should have gone to shock trauma,the general hospital didn't bother to x-ray my spine at all,they just reset my legs,sent me on my way in crutches I didn't know how to use.I'm a medical assistant patient I don't get treated like I matter,and MA patients do get shitty care,because we are the useless eater class.
And somehow I am supposed to NOT resent THIS shit? While rich people get five star care just because they are RICH or a Person of Interest? WTF.Fuck this class war bullshit.

Unbeknown to me or the ER my fucking neck was fractured!My spine was impacted!I didn't know how to defend myself,I was drugged up because I was in pain at the ER and because I didn't know or understand I never sought compensation. I was alone.The bastard cabbie was speeding and had his car lights off.Neither my ex or myself saw him coming.I had a huge neon pink 2 foot spiked Mohawk and GLITTERY Doc Martins on that day.
I was because of my financial and social status treated like I was some insignificant waste of money,(the way REPUBLICANS think)no one saw this injustice,not even ME at the time.I think the reason I went to the general hospital was to save a corporation's reputation(Jimmy's Cab co.).And my anger will come up every time I hurt.At the fucking cab driver,at the fucking ER the ambulance Co,myself the psych system,For the rest of my days. I have more pain to look forward to as my spine disintegrates..however. What a fucking wonderful life.

And because of my ignorance of the laws,(nobody bothered to explain it)the failure of having any decent advocate in the psych system (lazy ignorant residential staff) and my mom being in another state, I had no one to help me than,and because I had no one but my ex who was young and naive as I was at the time,I was so screwed.My reward? 15 years later I am in pain and scared to take the drugs that take the pain away.

I hurt.. and I am scared of becoming addicted,Scared of the DEA crazies coming to get me someday down the road or the spinal neurologist I go to who is one of the sweetest people...getting in trouble or being "investigated" because he wanted to HELP me. It makes my blood boil..And I know I am not the only one on this board with chronic pain.I wonder if they are scared of the DEA or addiction or being scapegoated too or worse forced to suffer because the climate could become so no doctor wants to RISK prescribing narcotic painkillers?
:rant:
I hate this world.And there is no way for me to get over it.I'll never get compensated for my injuries.(statute of limitations) It saves every corporate asshole,and abuser asshole).

I am so screwed .I am scared the hypocrite rich bully re thugs clinging to power will not step down, I am scared they may try to scapegoat liberal or politically left people in pain.You know bullies & re-thugs always pick targets who are the least able to fight back like the poor or sick. The hate I feel about all this shit is magnified to epic despising levels.I hate conservatism to it's rotten core.I DESPISE authoritarians,hypocrite rich criminal assholes. I hate them all.I hate their world.They make everything WORSE.

I would love to see the rich and corrupt lined up and laugh my ass off as I watch each hypocrite tyrant wealthy pampered thieving pig "conservative" dragged onto a platform by a bunch of fed up and exploited people, sick of their crap,laughing as the "conservatives" lose their heads by a guillotine blade and their wealth is redistributed,their families frantically fleeing the country in shame and impoverished..all the secrets let out to the light of day,the cancer cut out,and 'family values' bullshit ,the class/ culture war ended, destroyed forever, as the psychopathic ideologies of the right wing are finally debunked and tossed OUT of power and the believers in it are rooted out and never allowed to participate in ANY politics forever..laughed at and hated everywhere they go BECAUSE of what they believe in and who they ARE.

I'm tired of this fascist class war christian nazi drug war puritanical fanatic right wing bullshit.
:nuke:

I was in serious pain in the 90's and all I got for it was codeine. It wasn't enough. I can't offer any advice but I can give you a hug.

Ok? I wish I wasn't stuck here alone this weekend. Roommate is out for bike week. Oh well, I can't expect a roommate to put their life on hold ya know..glad the net's here.I'd be thinking about my x-acto knives in non-therapeutic ways if I didn't at least have a way to communicate with someone ..

eom

:hug:



it's not much, but know that I think of you often.

Chronic pain kills the soul. I know. :hug:

And only take them when you need them you are unlikely to become severely addicted.

It's actually harder to break a nicotine addiction than it is an opiate addiction for a great many people.

I've dealt with chronic back pain and it is indescribably awful.

And your rants about the medical system in the US are well taken.


:hug:

Well I used to have insurance,but I lost it because I married a jerk,while being manipulated by a cult(assemblies of gawd)and I couldn't get back onto my old insurance because of pre-existing conditions,and marriage fucks you over that way if you are disabled..Now all I got is medical assistance,so I get the"useless eater" treatment. It really pisses me off, not just for myself too.. However I am damn lucky to have found the therapists and docs I got now.They actually give a shit,they are awesome people and I am grateful for them all.. Sadly that's a rare thing to find when on Medical Assistance.Because MA don't pay shit. I wonder when the greedy rich will make further cuts in MA and SSI and they finally nail the poor and disabled to the wall? Fuck us all over until we all lose it and they find their excuse to put us in prisons(clamoring scared public (read: middle class suburbanites fearing for their children & stuff) and kill us covertly if we can't work for Unicor or fingerhut fast enough?
and I am not entirely being sarcastic here.

i'm a chronic pain patient who takes 50-70mg/day of methadone for chronic pain- i've been doing so for over 10 years now, and probably will for the rest of my life, due to the mechanical damage that's been done to my spine by the condition i have(ankylosing spondylitis).
am i addicted? probably. but since i'm going to be taking the narcotic pain meds for the rest of my life- so what? :shrug:

and pops 6 powerful percocets a day..all day...she is addicted I am sure, but at least she can cook and clean. She is 82.

Wish I was 82,too.

but i OFTEN feel (and move) like i'm 82.

But you know I don't want to be addicted because I am thinking,if things go nuts politically and MA is cut, how in the hell will I deal with the pain and the withdrawal at the same time? How will I get the meds I need than? Logically it sounds like something I'd want to avoid.
But if I can't live with this pain with out becoming addicted,what can I do if I can't get the medications I need for the rest of my life??

I dunno.Every angle of this situation sucks.

I'll take my meds, because it fucking hurts either way,and I guess I'll cross my paws and hope that I'll be dead before I am cut off of disability and unable to get meds to stop the pain..I can always off myself if it gets to be that bad, right?

you need to deal w. the pain and take your prescribed meds NOW, unfortunately, when pain is not aggressively treated early, then for some reason it has a much greater risk of becoming chronic which appears to be what happened to you -- you already need meds to control your severe pain so that you can function, there is no use with frightening yourself with "what ifs" about the future -- i think with pain you have to take it one day at a time


things have already gone nuts politically, the DEA does harass doctors, but you have a good relationship with a doctor already established and a medical history that you can prove goes back many years, the people i know who have had problems getting proper pain medicine didn't have this advantage

And you are right.I was scared. I know things already have gone nuts.I saw my neighbor get disappeared it was horrendous,they pretty much barricaded my street and had soldiers with ak 47's in my yard and I think that incident upset me more than I thought it did. Contact with the military as a kid is part of what caused my PSTD.
So I am very mistrusting of anything/anyone having to do with state force, cops military or anything like that.

My Dr. is well known around here.He's a spine neurologist.One of the coolest people I know.

So I have been taking my meds when I feel that"twinge" right before it begins to hurt.

Like I was told to. I hope the side effects wear off pretty soon tho.I'm getting irritated with the dry mouth,tiredness,the threat of nausea and constipation.It just sucks.But the side effects doesn't suck nowhere near as bad as the pain does.

I've been on opioids for almost ten years now . . . I was taking oxycontin, but that stuff is just too expensive once your Medicare Part D "donut hole" kicks in, as mine did in June . . . so at my doctor's suggestion, I'm now taking morphine sulfate er, which does the same job but costs a whole lot less . . . it took me awhile to get over my fear of the word "morphine," though . . .

am I an addict? . . . not at all . . . am I dependent on the medications? . . . you bet . . . could I stop taking them if the pain problems went away? . . . absolutely, but in a controlled, weaning off manner . . .

if, like me, there are no good alternatives for you, don't be afraid of the opioids . . . they've been an absolute lifesaver for me, and I have no regrets whatsoever about using them to control pain that would otherwise render me completely dysfunctional . . .

The thing a great many people fail to understand is that opiates are remarkably benign as to their physical effects on the body. Even heroin is not a dangerous drug as long as your supply is pure and of a known potency so you can properly gauge your dosage.

i'm disabled and on medicare, but i haven't signed up for part d, partly because my med costs are all that high yet, and also because i'm hoping they'll come up with something better.

I had a fusion in '07 but only got so much better. I'm left with that damn neuropathy in both legs like you are. And actually my back still aches. Just not as bad. I just went through an 'independent medical exam' for the insurance company. I was left stunned by the inhumane treatment. He is recommending that my Norco and Lyrica are taken away. I have spinal stenosis in the level above my fusion and radiculopathy demonstrated by a recent EMG. He ignored all of it. There are two sets of nerves leaving the nerve roots in the spine. The ones that control movement are ok, thank God. The ones carrying sensation tingle, buzz stab, and prickle. It is very annoying at the least and painful to the point of distraction at the worst. I really don't know how I'm going to work like this. All prospective employers are very wary of taking on a damaged potential employee. The meds are the only thing that help.

That stuff really helped me.My doc got samples he gave me two bottles for 2 months.But the pharma company passing him samples got stingy and of course MA ain't gonna pay.Fuckers.They don't pay for the drugs that WORK,like I said Ma and medicare people are considered "useless eaters" by the greedy pigs in Washington who if hurting would be given lyrica without question.

I still have like 6 or 7 lyrica pills leftover after the time I took the samples and stopped it when that round of pain was controlled .I hold onto them in case the hydrocodone isn't cutting the pain enough which happens once in a while. After those are gone or they expire.. well...?? fuck,I gotta wait after I take one until 4 hours have passed or so until I can take the next dose.Usually I take one in the evening and one before bed.Sleep on the heating pad.So I am good in the early day,most of the time, minor pain,2 extra strength tylenol and a flexaril kill it decently..until around 2:00 pm than it starts kicking my ass.Some days it just hurts all the time and I am struggling through that hour and a half..

And lyrica makes you"buzzed" until you take it long enough for that to wear off..and that side effect of lyrica I just hate.Being in an altered state of mind triggers me.So here I am trying to stop pain and sometimes even the stuff meant to help me has side effects that trigger my pstd crap.Damned if I do and damned worse if I don't.

Some days when my PSTD is kicking my ass I am too freaked to take any pills that effect my lucidity.I just hurt than and feel panicky because I don't know what to do,sometimes I call up my shrink and they tell me to take some of my klonopin.

Guess I'll be on prednisone when it flares up bad .That shit is tough on your body.My endocrinologist (I love her she is awesome and brilliant) told me exactly what prednisone does to you (yeah I HAD to ask because well,Inquisitive felines wanna know all sorts of shit). And prednisone messes with my head unpleasantly,because of my psych issues it's worse. I can tell my thinking gets off the rails on that shit and the depressive effect just gets nasty and lasts for a few days AFTER I have stopped taking it.

This so sucks.I hate the greedy people. I HATE them for what they CAUSE how much suffering.profit is theft,getting something for nothing for selling something.
This system is ghastly it's so unjust and wrong.
It really PISSES me off.And there isn't anything I can do.

And you know what I miss most?..Dancing,Not anything professional or whatever(I have acted& danced in some plays years ago and was a stage builder/helper(lights and painting scene backgrounds mostly )

But just putting on some good tunes all alone and just dancing around the room,it's so well, happy for me.

At the club I go to once in awhile with my friends. This guy there VJ Umbris puts on a kick ass projected light show. Dancing inside that is just a too wonderful .Most of the time at the club now, I plant my ass at a table ,draw and talk or do tarot/energy work(reiki) for people when I can't dance.

I miss it, the escape the feeling of just flying with all the other people dancing the energy, in the room, the lights is one thing that gives me relief from the horror this world shoves at me.trying to bind me. Reminds me of my true home.

I can still sufi spin,without hurting my back,if I'm not on predisone or lyrica. That I do and it brings me peace.Not a muslim,christians and muslims both worship the archons as far as I am concerned,So I spin and call Sekhmet. People always ask me how I can spin around for so long and not get dizzy, there is a technique to it and it is a spiritual discipline.,I did it as a kid because it was fun and I never stopped .The questions I got at psych wards were hilarious to horrible.I have been restrained for it too..

Here is a pic of me at the club wearing a peacock feather mask dancing in a fractal.I am up against the wall because of my back and the floor was packed...one of the few times I feel at peace inside.

I had epidural steroid injections on the 28th of last month in both sides of my L5-S1 spine. I don't know if I'm just stressed because of that insurance-whore doctor but I had a god-awful migraine yesterday that barely responded to my imitrex. I've been goggling everything to find answers and came upon, 'arachnoiditis'. I've considered things like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue but I'm not sure I believe there are really any such things. Although I seem to have all the symptoms, that are listed. Man, I hate this. I've been thinking that the steroids are wearing off and the inflammation is returning in spades. Even my face hurts.

I NEVER EVER want to go through THAT again.

fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue ARE real disorders now.There are a certain set of symptoms. Like sensitive pressure points in certain locations that are tender and inflamed,and other clinical signs, and several causes. Lyrica is FDA approved to treat it.

I had a kind of mycoplasma infection that is a bio-weapon form of it. I think I caught it in the psych ward,from a fellow patient who had it from the gulf war. It made me so sick it almost killed me.The doctors was stymied.I was taking some of the strongest antibiotics that existed than,yet my symptoms didn't cease .My blood test was sent overseas to test for this strange new strain of mycoplasma,Mycoplasma incognitus.That is what I had,and only erythromycin will effect it. Mycoplasmas are everywhere and they are usually harmless,So what I had was a contagious bio-weapon.

My body has not been the same since.

I have had alot of the fibromyalgia symptoms.Luckily when I HAD good insurance I went to an allergist,he saw I had candida in my bloodstream(no doubt from the massive numbers of good bacteria killed off by those antibiotics,and my body had not recovered all the way) and so I went through a change of diet, took supplements.It was a very rigorous program to get the candida out of my system. As I did this program my doctor set up, I felt the yeasts dying because it dumps toxins into you as it dies off.This causes some symptoms of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.Candida feeds on sugar and carbs, it throws the body's PH off and I remember when I was recovering from the infection I was almost acting like an addict in recovery around sugar because the damn candida was trying to survive.It was very weird.I wouldn't believe it could influence my thoughts in an almost hallucinatory way if I had not experienced it myself.All I can say is this world is so very fucked up.

But apparently parasites can do that. No SHIT,I am not kidding you.
http://www.zoology.ufl.edu/bolker/eep/notes/week5.html
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060210_technovelgy.html

Yeah I have taken those too.

Prednisone mostly.Ugh that stuff makes me loopy in the head. However it gives me some pretty weird and cool dreams tho.Some of my artwork has been inspired by it.