Hello everyone. I am very new to this forum and not a drug user. Regarding drugs, my personal and professional interest in pain management, because I have a family member living with a chronic pain and because I am a nurse. Changes I currently see in approach to pain management simply make me scared. I was born and raised in Russia, where doctors couldn't care less about the patient's comfort. I had undergone a tonsillectomy without anesthesia, and witnessed my grandparents dying of cancer in unrelieved pain. Needless to say, American healthcare felt like heavens for me... And not a surprise, pain management is my professional interest.
Now I am scared. Recently I took my mom to an ER for back pain. My mom is a senior citizen, and her diagnosis is confirmed by Xrays and MRIs. She wasn't prescribed opioids for years. Her pain was 10, she literally couldn't move. She was given toradol, steroids, and one pill of Vicodin... Yes, just one. No more. I felt like my eldely helpless mom is being treated like a drug seeker.
And at work, I see patients being undertreated for pain all the time. I am advocating for them like a bulldog, but doctors can't do much because of regulations.
I am so scared. The healthcare system is losing respect for human beings, losing empathy. We the healthcare professionals feel helpless. I always liked palliative and hospice nursing, but now I feel that only with terminal patients I can be a caring and helping nurse, because I can give them enough meds to make them comfortable.
I think that these new regulations are harmful, and the people who suffer the most are the most helpless patients. People with chronic pains and limited income. People with limited English skills. People who do unskilled labor. The elderly, especially single.
Lawmakers who pass such regulations and scream about "overuse of opioids" have the best healthcare and all the meds they need. People who suffer from their regulations have pain, fear, and suspicious attitude toward them. Unfortunately I know all to well where this road leads. And again, I am scared.
Thank you for listening.