Misc Advocating for yourself at pain doctor.

[Flippityflop]

Hey. I got myself hurt pretty bad a few years ago. I'm dealing with arthritis, degenerative disc, herniated discs...life is garbage, basically. Constant, chronic pain. When I first sought treatment, no one would even talk about opiates with me. Knowing my propensity for self-harm, I got on subs and stuck it out for over 2 years. I finally weaned off about 6 weeks ago, but my pain doc says that I will never get opiates from them because of my suboxone treatment. I have a meeting with the medical director tomorrow morning and have some ammo (medical journal articles) ready. But does anyone have advice for how to get through to him? I'm prepared to turn to street drugs immediately if there is no good result, and that scares me.

 

[KS78]

It should help you explain your situation better but in my experience, even if you genuinely need pain relief, most of the doctors don't like their views questioned or argued on. I hope you come across a more logical doctor but I wouldn't get my hopes up. I wish you good luck.

 

[WellTram]

Just tell your doc that meds are not working for you and your pain is so bad that it seriously decrease quality of your life and enable you to do daily activities. He have to offer u stronger painkiller or at least rescue medication for bad days.

 

[Keif' Richards]

I really feel for your situation OP, but we don't really advise people upon what to say to their prescriber in order to obtain a prescription. I have no doubt that your needs are legitimate and that you truly are in severe pain, but it doesn't really fall in the category of Harm Reduction so much as "feeling better". I really don't want you to be left out there alone with no idea what to do, so I'm going to move this to Drug Culture and see if they have a place for it.

In general, prescribers are significantly less likely to prescribe Opioids than they were 20 or even 5 years ago. There are pretty strict rules requiring stuff like Maximum Morphine Equivalency per day and it really fucks people over whose pain is not controlled by these dosages. No self-respecting doc wants to be that guy on the front page of the paper "doc contributes to Opioid Epidemic blah blah blah."

Feel free to PM anyone that you trust, myself included who you think might be able to help you out in this venture, but for right now I have to remove this from the Harm Reduction forum as you're not in any immediate danger. That doesn't mean we are wanting or are going to make you suffer, but we're just operating in the wrong place right now. Again, hit us up if you feel like it.

 

[Painful One]

It just goes to show you how bad chronic pain patients are having it when so many chronic pain patients are here posting about the same problem all the time. The amount of suffering and lives destroyed is staggering.

I can understand that these types of medications need to be controlled but they should not make it hard for people with legitimate issues who need these medications to function on any level and to have some kind of quality of life. It is a basic human right.

I am sorry to hear you are suffering with chronic pain also flippityflop.
Hang in there. Keep trying. Do advocate for yourself. Don’t turn to street drugs.
I do not believe your suboxone use should be a factor in treatment for chronic pain. Many doctors recommend suboxone for pain management.

 

[Zonxx]

i can't stand this ... so many people are being harmed by this full of shit opiate crisis its absurd.. i don't know how to connect that opium production is at it's highest that it's ever been yet... theyre restricting these much required medications... what're they stocking up for? seems like at some point this 'epidemic' is gonna fade and there's gonna be a loosening of restriction n' alot of money is going to be made, its all about money in the end, and its being made on the suffering of us pain patients..

 

[Zonxx]

you know... so damn many people that've never gone beyond using pot have started using heroin and whatever they can to get relief from their pain... and the worst part isn't the drugs, pain isn't just 'ouch' depending how bad it is, its ouch, all day long every damn minute every second of the day, which causes a load of other things such as stress, aggravation, hell it can flip your life upside down if you can't get that relief, theres times when my pain levels are really bad and taking a dose of meds feels like i've just gone on a 30,000$ vacation

 

[Zonxx]

do like i did, be honest. if you have to tell your doctor that you can barely do groceries without wanting to tear your head off, then let him know, there's no shame in it, and if need be you need to go into such detail until he wants to tear his head off from listening to you, because it seems like thats what it takes nowadays

 

[Hylight]

I had many great days and have thought alot about continuing on from here.
I do still struggle alot from having to give up my coping medication for pain. I will keep strong with my side xannies when i can and am definitely going to have to look into some valium for relief since the whole world is going ANTI - opioid or maybe there is just a shortage but it turned out like this for me in the long run. There is still hope that I can be strong again someday. I JUST DON'T KNOW HOW.

I was just dwelling on this. My whole body hurts and it is going to my head. I loved how you had made a post that you CAN function. They don't hold back peoples blood pressure medicine and asthma meds and insulin shots even though they need to be adjusted TOO for obvious reasons.

I just want to stay in bed all day. Oh like that's not harmful and unhealthy either. I'm goin to need a stent or diabetes medicine ifvthis keeps up, or worse. ☹.