Friday, March 19, 2010
People With Chronic Pain
Here is a rant to get the ball rolling. I (like so many other people here in the US) suffer from chronic pain. My doctor is very understanding, but is so hog tied by government regulation caused by presciption drug addicts, that he cannot supply me with the medication I need to simply function throughout the course of the day. It is this very problem that drives people like me to use barely legal online pharmacy services just to be able to get up and walk more that a few yards in a day. What's worse is the way most medical professionals percieve us.......as nothing more than closet addicts just trying to get drugs! I have tried nearly every existing pain control therepy, and nothing works very well. I have been diagnosed with both degenerative disc disease and ankylosing spondylitis, and I suffer from a significant amount of pain 24 hours a day. I have a 'legitimate medical need' for pain medication, but my doctor is only able to prescribe in the amount of one tablet per day. That is not pain control......it's a cruel joke. I get 4 hours of relief, and then have to suffer for the remaining 20. I can no longer even think about indulging in the simple outdoor activities that I love so much because I cannot walk more than 100 yards before being in agonizing pain. If you are rich enough (or famous enough), you can get what ever you want, whenever you want it, and in any amount. But the average joe with no health insurance (other than what the state provides) has to just grin and bear it. It's no wonder why some of us resort to suicide to end the pain.
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Christine it's not the same thing, but I've started experiencing and slowly creeping over my entire joints arthritis...
ReplyDeleteI have a tough time using my hands, now my feet give me excriciating pain, when I walk briskly and I don't know any other way to walk.
You bring up the issue of health insurance!
Funny thing...
I am a Financial Planner, who started out in the business of insurance. As a part of my occupational obligation to my clients I have to cover all the leaks and the gaps which could drain money from their savings.
I cringe at the health insurance premiums my clients pay, shiver at the gargantuan deductibles, and humongous co-insurance amounts.
The fact is the haves and havenots aren't that much far off. Folks who have health insurance are very frustrated and why not?
We are a very silly nation as far as I am concerned, we like to cut off the branch we sit on.
There aren't many nations who doesn't give a shit to its citizens as we do. How do I know, because I wasn't born and raised in the U.S. Yet by now my life in my native country and my life here are equal duration. I am livid because we in this country do not understand what a country this is, and leave our own behind with the excuse of "rugged individualism" and call helping the rest of the nation as socialism. If that were true all the major three religions would be nothing but socialism.
Anyway, sorry my dear about your experiences. The health insurance is a sore spot with me in this country. Sometimes it bothers me to my core to witness how the health insurance industry works. Yet it's hard to understand why people are so naive to be fooled by these large conglomerates and do not fight against them as one power.
What I am trying to say is, that the health insurance and attempts to rectify it are not and should not be deemed political. Sadly though we vote for these bums and we get treated as expendable commodities.
I wish you well Christine. As well as possible.
The point I was trying to make near the end of the post was that if you have enough cash, there is almost always a way around 'the system'. If I had enough money, I could get whatever I needed to live a reasonably normal life. But since I don't, I can't. Granted, I would be running the risk of being arrested, but most people in my posistion consider the online pharmacy route worth the danger. There are just some days when it's so bad that anything is preferable to hurting that much.
ReplyDeleteMmph. Ironically, the same fame and fortune that would afford you the ability to acquire the medication you need 'by any means necessary' would also get you out of trouble if you ran afoul of the law. I say this as empathetically as I can without truly understanding what long-term, chronic pain is really like. I suffer from periodic episodes of 'cluster headaches' which are excruciatingly painful (think migraines on steroids), but these episodes don't typically last very long and they occur infrequently. I'm so sorry that you have to endure the pain and the frustration of having to try to manage the pain within and without The System. That kind of intellectual "WTF?" aggravation just makes everything that much worse.
ReplyDelete@ Steven64
ReplyDeleteCluster Headache?? Dude, I am so sorry. I know what those are like. I also have severe headache.....on occaision they can last for days, and not even Demerol can stop them. I truly sympathize.
steven & Christine
ReplyDeletemy husband has been a chronic pain patient for more than 15 years, being on heavy medication himself, experiencing that sometimes nothing helps. I have had experiences with a trigeminus nerve inflammation for more than a year, including heavy dosages of morphine, I was lucky it stopped before I decided to go (shortly before). Pain , constant pain can even break you if it is not 'impossible to bear'. It kills you more slowly than the strong one.
And it takes parts of your energy you need for daily use away, so somehow there is never left enough energy for the things you want to do... even for the good ones.
It kills you because it tires you out.
Just my 2 cent, you are both in my thoughts...