I was appalled Thursday night while watching the TV program, ER. I am not one of those folks who takes my television viewing seriously, but in this case I really became incensed.
In one scene, an elderly man suffering from chronic severe hip pain due to a condition that could only be relieved via replacement surgery was explaining his situation to the doctor on his case. He told the doctor that because he was uninsured due to his inability to afford health insurance, he had to wait over a year and a half to have the surgery performed through the public system. The doctor asked him how he was dealing with the intense pain.
The patient told him that for the past year, he had been taking Vicodin. The doctor gasped aloud, and said "narcotic pain medications are very addictive, you must get off of them." Then he asked the patient how many he takes a day, and the patient told him 3 or 4. Once again, the doctor gasped and told him how dangerous this was, and that he will need a support group in order to help him stop taking the meds.
As a chronic pain patient of many years, I have gone through, as I am sure many of my fellow members in this group have as well, tremendous difficulty locating doctors who know how to treat chronic pain, and are not paranoid about prescribing appropriate pain medications.
It is bad enough that the government harasses doctors concerning the prescriptions they write for their pain patients. It is bad enough that there is so much false information circulating about the so-called dangers of using appropriate narcotic anagelsics. But to have a hit TV series reinforce those myths in the minds of viewers is just simply repugnant and irresponsible.
As I said earlier. I do not take TV shows very seriously. I realize they are for entertainment purposes. But people do retain information from what the hear and see on television, and due to the importance of this topic, and the many hundreds of thousands of patients who suffer from chronic pain for various reasons, the writers should have done a bit of research before presenting such a powerful scene to their viewers.
And I do overall, agree with the point you were trying to make.
Hi zasu .. went thru and still experiencing finding legal drugs that will help with my issues.
And you are sooo right about listing my meds when I first moved here some of the meds are only allowed a one time refill. Which means I have to go back to the NP i see and have a new prescription written.
P.I.T.A. = disruption in my regiment. I struggled with the thought of taking so much Xanax over the last 6 years that I accused myself of being an addict.
Talking with other doc's and family + friends tell me to stop looking at it that way, I have been clean and sober for 17 yrs. last February, that's when I questioned myself and was upset that I was addicted ?
Weird, huh ? Anyway, I came to terms with it , thanks to my support team, and realized that of course the pills are addictive, but like my Vytorin, they are needed due to my emotional rollercoaster of emotions. See I already had clinical depression , as diagnosed 17 yrs. ago, that's when I went straight.
But if they are helping me to cope, then shame on the doc's that want to accuse , and shame on the government who want to put up roadblocks for people like me from attaining my meds.
Anyway, I forget what I am writing, an agreeance to your post or a gripe ? lol , gotta keep my sense of humor and laugh at myself every now and then cause I am silly sometimes ...