I hope everyone is well and that those living in areas that have received a lot of snow and are still having very cold climates are able to cope with these presents from Mother Nature and are not suffering too much. My body always reacts to extreme temperatures, on either end of the thermometer, because I live with both Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and chronic pain from a series of failed back surgeries that damaged my spine.
So, like many others my pain has been on the rise these past couple of months. And like many others, I have been watching the various legislatures and agencies around the country that are increasing their efforts to limit or eliminate the use of opioids for the treatment of pain. Much of this is because of media coverage whenever a celebrity is arrested or dies because of prescription drug abuse. This is a problem for many people who are not celebrities, too, however it should not, must not be solved by denying people in pain the most effective pain medication.
Raise Your Voice to Guarantee The Most Effective Treatment for Everyone In Pain!
I don’t question the fact that there is abuse of prescription medication, and that something has to be done about these dangerous practices. I can’t say if the numbers and facts being used to support certain efforts to ban some prescription medications are accurate, but I would like to see the actual citations that certain media and other “experts” use in the defense of their positions.
I agree that abuse and misuse of prescription medication is a problem, however instead of calling for an end to prescribing some of the most effective treatments for chronic pain, I propose that we take steps that would provide all medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, physician assistants, physical and occupational therapists, palliative care experts, pain specialists, pharmacists, and others, with the information and skills necessary to know about pain so they better understand when a person needs a serious pain medication and the effect that medication will have on the person’s pain.
In addition these professionals need to be able to identify a person who is having a problem with prescription medications, and the communication skills to be able to address this problem with that patient.
Raise Your Voice to Demand Better Education About Pain for Medical Professionals!
The cost of having millions of people living in pain is high and will continue to increase if we don’t effectively treat people in pain. Loss of days at work leading all the way to leaving work on disability, worker’s compensation, high medical expenses for people who no longer have insurance and are on Medicare or Medicaid, are all part of the cost paid in large part by those still working.
I have the ability to talk about these issues with knowledge and credibility through my life experience. I have lived with chronic pain for about 45 years and have had every possible pain treatment done to or given to me during these years. I have learned there is a big difference between addiction and dependence to drugs. I took codeine or morphine on a regular basis for years and not once did I get “high” from taking them. If I did I may have become addicted over time. But I needed them for my pain and because they helped me with that pain, I may have developed a dependence on them. I counted on them; depended on them to take my pain away, even a little. But when they didn’t do that any longer, I could stop taking them.
