"The War On Doctors"
I wanted to follow up what i touched on in previous post. The war on drugs has been taking away what Dr's spent most of thier lives to achieve. Thier ability to help people !! I personally have lost a Dr. when his license was taken away !!!
He was treating my severe pain which another Dr. was unable to because he was scared. Apparently with good reason !! And I had to suffer with this pain for a long time. I only got connected to the second Dr. after 2 emergency room visits with a diagnosis of "pain improperly controlled". After this Dr's license was taken,I had to travel almost a 100 miles to a Dr. that would treat me.
This was very hard on me since I was beimng transported to my Dr. visits by ambulance on a gurney. After a couple months of this, the Dr. said he wouldn't be able to treat me anymore, because I lived so far away.
I found a local DR. that would treat me, but he would only prescribe a low dosage. After many months of suffering due to this low dose ( I had to ration my meds, so i could take the higher dose needed to get out of bed, and only get out of bed once or twice a week) I asked if he could increase my dose so I could get out of bed more and try to have a life !! His answer was "increase your ibuprofen dose. thats all I can do for you"
Since that wasn't going to work, I went online and found the nearest pain clinic, made an appointment, called my Dr. and asked that the paper work they requested be faxed. I was told to go to the hospital and have records from my last stay faxed.
It was very hard to make my appointment about an hour from my home. the Dr. spent about an hour with me going over my history and concluded that my dosage was to low, and that he would recommend that my Dr. provide my meds since I lived so far from the clinic.
I finally got in to see my Dr. about this, and told him that I researched pain on the web, and that if I had a diagnosis of "Chronic Intractable Pain" the DEA would not be able to bother him about my presciptions. His response was "if you need it, you need it". I didn't respond, but I wanted to say "excuse me, what happened to increase the ibuprofen, thats all i can do for you ?"
Anyway, the only reason he now had no problem prescribing what I needed, is he now was covered by the pain clinic's findings and recommendations. I know there are many people not getting proper treatment for pain because Dr's are in fear of their life being crushed by having thier license to practice taken away !!!
I don't think the people that are truly in pain should have to suffer like this because of the people who lie to thier Dr's to get high. And I also don't think Dr's should have what they worked thier whole life for, taken away because of these same people !!! But I doubt it will change soon !! Until lawsuits for improper treatment of pain are won, it will be business as usual.
People that have never been in extreme pain, have no clue what we that are have to deal with !! I am grateful that I am able to get the meds I need, and I feel very sorry for those who can't. I truly feel your pain !!!
http://www.med-help.net/Pain.html
http://www.partnersagainstpain.com/PainMatters/article1.asp
http://www.paincare.org/pain_management/advocacy/ca_bill.html