Once again I was woken by pain well before 1 am. I am really tired, pun intended, of this. Not only do I suffer from chronic pain but I also suffer from lack of sleep which can cause the pain to be magnified. Well okay that last is my own opinion. It sure seems that way to me. I can't understand why I am left in pain. It seems a completely arbitrary decision made not by a doctor but by The Dragon Lady She is the wife of the doctor/owner and a practicing PA at my pain clinic. I have never met her husband or any other doctor there except for the doctor who gives the shots. Never had an evaluation or treatment plan made up by a doctor. That to me sure seems like malpractice. Well back to The Dragon Lady. She was the PA who did my last office visit. Once again I told her that my medication was wearing off around 4 hours after I took it. I told them this back in November, December and again in February. I told her I took on average 20 ibuprofen to make it to the 6 hour mark when I can take it again. She flat out refused to change my medication. She stated that all they were doing was getting me to 50 to install a pain pump. So because of her unilateral decision I get to suffer for 2 years until I hit 50.
That pissed me off. If you went to the ER with a broken leg you would be screaming at the doctor who only gave you half a cast. If you had cancer and the doctor said sorry I am only going to do surgery and not chemo or radiation therapy you would be screaming and heading for the nearest lawyer. But here is the problem You can head to another ER or find another cancer doctor. It is almost impossible to change pain management clinics. The new clinic looks upon you as a doctor shopper looking for drugs. They will often refuse to take patients being treated by another PM clinic. So what can you do if you are stuck ? You have to try and get into another clinic but that is no guarantee you will get a better one than you currently have now. The bad ones out number the good. There is good news from California. They have set up a pain patients bill of rights codified into law. You can take a look here : California
That is a start. We need more states to take the same stand as California did. we need to get bogus laws that most states have passed repealed. Some states have gone overboard in their attempts to curb prescription drug abuse. Some of the good laws are the prescription drug databases. These actually work in curbing prescription drug abuse and are not invasive to a patient. It runs in the background and you never see it. Doctors and pharmacists are required to check it to see if a patient is getting multiple scripts from multiple doctors. Some of the worse are the piss testing every 30 or 60 days. Way to make a patient feel like a criminal and run up their bill. I could understand if the doctor has suspicions to have the patient tested. I could also go along with maybe twice a year mandatory testing. Every 30 to 60 days is way too invasive. There are so many ways pain management is causing patients to feel like criminals.
Let's jump on down past the orange jungle gym.
Part of the issue is that each state is left up to it's own devices. There is no federal law in place to give pain patients rights. Every state has to come up with it's own mish mash of regulations. Most of these throw hoops in the way of real patients getting relief. Some legislatures have taken to practicing medicine without a license. They have placed prescription limits on doctors and said how often a patient must be seen by the clinic thus usurping the doctors authority. All of this is done in the pursuit of curbing prescription drug abuse.
This is a growing problem in our society. It is not just one state or another but a problem across the land. Take a look here at the CDC figures on drug over doses. CDC This problem has been growing worse and worse and our politicians can't figure out how to fight it. The heavy hand of the DEA is also present. Where there are no prescription limits the doctors are afraid of being raided by the DEA. Here is another agency practicing medicine without a license. The DEA is scrounging around for something they can look good at. They are losing the war on drugs. Sure they make drug busts and confiscate money and drugs but they are replaced by even more money and drugs. The public knows this and so the DEA is trying to show they are still needed.
What can we do ? The answer is a lot. But we can't do this alone. One person can't stand up and make changes on this broad of a scale. It will take action by all of us, working together to bring about change. California's law is great but to me it sure doesn't go far enough. I want stiff regulations on Pain management clinics. I'm not talking about how wide the hallways are. I mean who can work as a doctor or PA, NP or any medical position. I want requirements on education and continuing education every year for all medical personnel. I want restrictions on getting dismissed because you refuse shots or other procedures. I want the doctors to be free to prescribe pain medications at levels that will help those of us in chronic pain. I want ways for patients to complain about their doctors and clinics and not be retaliated against. I also want real data about pain medications. Not this data from small studies by Big Pharma that show what they want it to show. When I say real data I mean just that. Data from us. How long it lasts, What side effects you have. How well it works to bring down the pain. This data can be collected in anonymous form so no patient health information would be available. The only information would be directly related to the drugs. What drug, what dose, how often, and then side effects like constipation or rash etc., manufacturer, generic or name brand etc. This information could be very valuable. With concrete data about doses and schedule a doctor could make a better medical decision. Currently the rely on information from the manufacturers and we know they would never lie about their products right ?
We need a change for the better and soon. Way too many people are suffering every single day with chronic pain that is being under treated. This affects our lives in many ways. It can even lead to suicide by people who are at their wits end and just want to end the pain. I can understand that feeling. Depression walks hand in hand with chronic pain. It is another branch of the same tree. We need to realize this and treat it as part of our treatment for chronic pain. We need pain management to actually treat the patients and manage the pain of their patients. Not just manage their stock portfolios and retirement plans.