Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Why are so many of us with chronic pain regarded as "Drug Seekers?" when we want something stronger than tylenol for pain?
We are not stupid. We have learned that if we we need to fix a nail in a board, we need something stronger to pound the nail in than a feather. We have learned through experience that it takes a hammer to do the job.
Our past experience with pain has taught us that we need something stronger than a "feather" to fix our pain. Why should we smile and say "thank you" when we are offered a tylenol? 
It's not fair at all. We have enough problems to deal with without being labled a " drug seeker " The first doctor I went to for my back pain told me he thought I was a drug seeker. At the time I was working in the ER as a secretary so he knew who I was. I was humiliated. The next I saw him was when I was at work. He came to my desk and asked me how my back pain was. The tone in his voice told me he still thought I was a druggie. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him that I had had a back surgery and was already scheduled for another one. I've had 5 back surgeries total. The ER staff were very judgemental about me having to take narcotics. I was treated like I was scum. After working there for 20 years you would think they would show some compassion. I haven't worked now for 5 years and it still hurts to think about how they treated me. Thank God I was able to get disabilty right away.
I agree!
Some docs are great about helping; some are not. Some comprehend that pain needs controlling-- some do not.
Even in the same office, I found that the PA in my doc's office (pain doc, who has rx'd my meds for YEARS), wants me to think about LA vs SA narcotics. Now, I would be thrilled to take two or three pills a day, rather than what I am currently taking. However, until a CODEINE (and not hydrocodone) LA is made, I am SOL. and i explained this to the PA. She sent me home with a prescription to google the LA drugs.
Funny, having been in chronic pain since 1988, I have researched ALL LA;s. But, other than finding Codeine-Contin (available IN CANADA, not in the US), there seems to be nothing that I tolerate well and that ACTS well for me.
How sickening. Of course, I am thrilled that I have a great doc, but I am not so thrilled that he cannot seem to hang onto his PA's, and each time I go in there, I have to get used to "someone new", who invariably tells me the opposite of what the doc says, "Why don't we try something else?"/
I'll tell them and you why. I have MANY allergies to MANY drugs. I do not respond well to those that I am not allergic to, per-se, and i am sick of having to defend that MY body is this way. It is not like i would not like to TRY somethng else; it is that my body would (probably) give out. and, I HATE to be hospitalized!!
In fact, maybe I would like to take that hammer to the PA, instead?
(*no, of course NOT!!).
best wishes!
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I agree with all these comments. It's pathetic... Do they not see that we MUST do things, just like they do... I must work everyday, 9 hours. The piddly amount of pain meds I get just don't cut it. I too have been in a gov job for oer 30 years, and one would think these people you have worked with would realize that something has obviously changed when you aren't happy anymore, you avoid people because you hurt so bad you don't care what they have to say, or you just don't want to offend someone. The whole thing just stinks!