Why are doctors so concervitive?

[mitogen]

I'm not going to pull out any neurobiology here. This is ethics...

It is stupid of addicts to get addicted. People do 'weak' things of varying nature on a regular basis. Some people do drugs: alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, heroin or crack - whatever. Some people go to church on sundays because they're scared they'll go to hell if they don't, rather than any desire to love god. Some people cheat on their partners even though they love them, because they give into sexual advances from other people. Some people decide to lose themselves in a virtual reality computer game world for all of their free time (eg Evercrack.) These actions can either be coping strategies, or just impulsive actions. Whatever - my weakness is opiates. I don't steal for my habit. I don't cheat those who I love for it. I'd expect not to be judged for it either.
Some people do do these things - sacrifice their morals for their addiction, and that's sad. I believe that if we didn't stigmatise these people and force them to pay vast amounts for their fix, maybe they wouldn't have to go against their morals. We end up judging these people.
Whats your weakness?

 

[omen_owen]

Well, i've experienced this today. I've torn the ligaments in my ankle and they won't even give me codeine to help ease the pain in the evenings. This is possibly the one of the only areas in the public sector where americans get treated better than us in UK. At least they try and help you and don't seem to be scared of making a decision for themselves (at least this is what anecdotal evidence suggests).

This pisses me right off because they're the ones who dispense the drugs therefore they can just refuse you ur meds if you get yourself addicted. How is it going to be a problem if i'm only asking for a small one off script? Fuck them, i can see what their concerns are but introducing a bit of logic to the decision making process wouldn't go amiss.

 

[gloggawogga]

^^^

Sorry to hear that, man. Yeah the doctors here in the US are actually pretty good about 1 or 2 time prescriptions for a surgery, physical injury, or even dental work. In most cases I've never even had to ask and the prescription is just handed to me by the doctor, "here, this is for the pain". Shit, one time a dentist even gave me a script for Vicoden after getting my teeth cleaned. I really wouldn't say doctors here in the US are conservative at all when it comes to treating acute pain. Its when you want to sustain regular habit they get nervous.

I think it's using compulsively AND without control that makes it's a disease. (Although can you use compulsively with control?)

Well yeah.

It gets complicated though when you start talking about it being a disease, I mean, is the doctor with a heroin dependency before the Harrison Narcotics act (who I would call addicted) but he doesn't have a problem, so does he have a disease?

He's physically dependant but his behaviour is not compulsive, so no, he doesn't have a disease, IMHO.

He would as soon as a heroin became illegal.

Only if he starts acting compulsively. Prohibition in itself does not force you to act compulsively. Look, if you are willing to steal for a fix, you have a problem, prohibition or not. Prohibition is just an environmental circumstance that makes opiate use a much higher risk of progressing into a disease of compulsive behaviour. In either sitaution it is the compuslive behaviour that I consider to be the disease, not the use of or even the physical dependancy on the drug.

Whats your weakness?

Blue light.

 

[BilZ0r]

Yeah, you're right, but I -meant-, that because he had a heroin dependence, he was using compulsively... I suppose it depends on how you define compulsive... lol

 

[andruejaysin]

The obvious answer is that they are not willing to lose a licence worth a couple hundred K a year. In their position I probably wouldn't either.

 

[brain4201]

The State of Texas has an intractable pain act which basically states that a patient complaining of pain should be treated with pain medication. If that patient turns out to be a drug abuser and gets into trouble or worse OD's the Doctor has recourse for liability. Texas has some strict laws, and for them to pass this one blew my mind. Just be honest with your physician, dont pull one over on him/her, they have seen it before and will spot a seeker in an instant, I have been spotted and called on the carpet for it. I am different now, but still I have an open relationship with my psychiatrist and he helps me out when I have a specific concern. I am faced with one right now, and I am going to talk to him about it. It will develop a productive doctor patient relationship and that will help in your treatment long term.

 

[deltablueslide]

I've personally been in situations before in the states where I'd go in with a friggin' kidney stone (no scam and it was later proven on X-Ray) and STILL had problems getting relief when that's REALLY all I wanted..... relief. I know they've all heard such a myriad of scams that it's sometimes hard to tell the difference but for example...

I was admitted to the hospital years ago to have a stone removed and the doctor had only prescribed one 5mg Lortab every 4 hrs lol. Obviously , I complained and was promptly given a good dosage of Demerol to be IV'd every 6 hours and the nurse would take it upon herself to cut the dose as she saw fit , making comments about me "being in my 30's" and not needing "so much strong pain medicine"........ this issue was later resolved too , but i didn't think I should have had to deal with that crap as much pain as I was in. Later the head nurse had the gall to ask me why I would just "lay there and hurt" lol

Flip side of the coin , I was admitted to the same hospital years later for a smaller kidney stone and promptly given friggin' Dialuid round the clock until surgery without question on a different floor.

I went into the ER of the same hospital a week ago with a hole in a back tooth and a front bottom tooth basically broken in half from eating hard Easter candy...... nerves exposed and it was totally obvious there was no scam here. I was sent home with a pat on the head and some Toradol that tore my stomach up. I saw a dentist the next day who would only prescribe a low dosage of Lortab even though the pain was excruciating......... I paid 50 bucks at a doctors office and only got lorcet 10's in spite of my assertion that the hydrocodone wasn't touching it at all and it was clear that I was not a drug seaker (I was totally honest with him about the dentist and even brought the bottle of the remaining 7.5's to show him I'd been following the directions to the letter and was in no way abusing them.....they just were not touching the pain , yet no dice.

went back to the SAME ER today as last weekend and got friggin PERCS without any hastle whatsoever this time.....so although I'm feeling much better now and I've got an appointment to get my teeth fixed in the morning , it looks like I just went through a week of total hell down here for basically nothing.


I totally understand people can and do pull crap to score drugs , but sometimes when you're in pain man you're just honestly in pain and REALLY need something to ease it. It depends on the area you're in I know , but sometimes I do think people are being a bit too cautious and cats like me suffer for it needlessly.

 

[deltablueslide]

The State of Texas has an intractable pain act which basically states that a patient complaining of pain should be treated with pain medication. If that patient turns out to be a drug abuser and gets into trouble or worse OD's the Doctor has recourse for liability. Texas has some strict laws, and for them to pass this one blew my mind. Just be honest with your physician, dont pull one over on him/her, they have seen it before and will spot a seeker in an instant, I have been spotted and called on the carpet for it. I am different now, but still I have an open relationship with my psychiatrist and he helps me out when I have a specific concern. I am faced with one right now, and I am going to talk to him about it. It will develop a productive doctor patient relationship and that will help in your treatment long term.

send my ass to texas lol


no doubt....as it should be