I have been a pain management patient for 8 years now, due to FOUR cervical spine fusions and re-do's and 2 major lumbar spine surgeries. No hardware in my lumbar spine as I am an old OR nurse that's seen too many back fusions, with the rods, etc. Nobody's spine would be "right" after one of those. Trust me, it's a brutal procedure on a delicate part of the body.
Anyhow, I've been on Morphine Sulf ER 100 mg twice daily and MS IR 30 mg, up to 6x/day. I have been at this dose for over two years now and have become very tolerant to this. Very little pain control anymore.
My pain management doc has talked to me the last two visits about a "new" (old) drug called, levorphanol. Years ago when I was a young nurse, this was called, "Levo-Dromeran". Since the government will not let you have > 200 mg/day of the ER MS and I'm on the highest dose of IR MS allowable.
She told me both times that it was covered by Medicare. So, talked to the pharmacist this morning. They don't even have it and the cost (without insurance) is around $5K (yes, you read that right) per month. When I got home, I called the Express Scripts folks (that's who my Medicare drug plan is with) and they don't even HAVE it in their formulary. I called because I wanted to know what MY part would be for levorphanol. I can't remember the name of the company that makes it, but they're right up there with the Epi-Pen folks.
Can anyone shed some light on this? Everyone who lives with chronic pain can tell you how debilitating it is, in SO many ways. Life kinda sucks most of the time and these pain med prices have gotten so out of reach for most of us.
Is there anyone in the gov't that's worth writing to?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Anyhow, I've been on Morphine Sulf ER 100 mg twice daily and MS IR 30 mg, up to 6x/day. I have been at this dose for over two years now and have become very tolerant to this. Very little pain control anymore.
My pain management doc has talked to me the last two visits about a "new" (old) drug called, levorphanol. Years ago when I was a young nurse, this was called, "Levo-Dromeran". Since the government will not let you have > 200 mg/day of the ER MS and I'm on the highest dose of IR MS allowable.
She told me both times that it was covered by Medicare. So, talked to the pharmacist this morning. They don't even have it and the cost (without insurance) is around $5K (yes, you read that right) per month. When I got home, I called the Express Scripts folks (that's who my Medicare drug plan is with) and they don't even HAVE it in their formulary. I called because I wanted to know what MY part would be for levorphanol. I can't remember the name of the company that makes it, but they're right up there with the Epi-Pen folks.
Can anyone shed some light on this? Everyone who lives with chronic pain can tell you how debilitating it is, in SO many ways. Life kinda sucks most of the time and these pain med prices have gotten so out of reach for most of us.
Is there anyone in the gov't that's worth writing to?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
