[traumahawk99]

what about the patients where pain is a "10"... you give them their dilaudid, and then they're laughing, joking, and sure appearing to have a good old time. you ask them their pain level and they say.. "it's at an 8".

of course, they aren't just getting dilaudid, they're getting oxycontin, ativan, etc... and they have a million needs for waiter service. after a few days, their doctors cut their pain meds, and then they're finally out the door.

with our system, we've certainly created some monsters.

[quezen]

I was listening to a talk show with an "advise doctor". He began talking about a clinic for suffers of chronic pain which is staffed with all kinds of specialists who help the patients to 'learn to live with a certain level of chronic pain'. Now the 'pain scale' tells us that the only acceptable pain level is O. Which is it you guys?

[earle58]

Originally Posted by RN1989

Pharmacies in "minority" and low income areas are not being discriminatory like you might think. Unfortunately these areas are high crime, including buying/selling/using drugs and the pharmacies that stock such pain meds have often had multiple robberies with these narcs being the target. The damage done to the building is only one of the costs of such robberies. Other costs can include being unable to get liability as well as structural insurance due to too many breakins. Some places have been told that they must get rid of the narcs or be without the insurance, in which case they would have to close completely. There is also risk of employee/patron injury and death in a robbery.

I do believe that there are people who have true pain that is not controlled. I also know that being overweight, being depressed, engaging in risky activity, and thinking that you can do anything to your body because there is always a pill to fix it, also contributes to people's perception of pain. These are cultural issues and personal choices that people make.

Pain is a good thing because it can tell us when something is wrong. It tells people that sticking your hand in a fire is not something you want to do. Our ancestors had pain but the majority did not let it rule their lives. They knew they had certain tasks to perform in order to stay alive so they sucked it up and worked through the pain if the doc couldn't figure out what was wrong with them. Now, people want to neglect and abuse their bodies and minds and be cured. They want to sit on their butts and complain about their pain instead of getting up and going to work. Sometimes actually going to work can help relieve pain because you are not dwelling on your pain when you have a task to accomplish. I find that many people who have started getting disability checks for intractable pain are much whinier about their pain because they dwell on it all the time and think about "oh poor me. I'm disabled and can't work. I 'm useless and can't do anything. And I hurt all the time."

I believe that this epidemic of uncontrolled pain is part of a cultural problem, just like minority areas in a city are usually high crime areas. Until we do something about the underlying problems in our culture, we will never cure everyone's pain, hunger, depression, etc.

dang 89, i didn't know what part of your post to quote.
every single word was right on.
there are (too) many who abuse their bodies, are grossly overweight, don't exercise, just don't take care of themselves and wonder why they're in pain.
living in a quick fix society, we are merely putting a bandaid on a huge, festering wound.
i'm confident that once people start caring for themselves appropriately, half of the chronic pain would dissipate.
we need to address the cause of the pain, rather than the effects.
it really is a cultural/societal issue.

leslie

[ingelein]

Pain presents itself so differently in every individual.I have daily pain D/T RA and OA in multiple joints, I was given some heavy duty drugs that didn't seem to work any better than plain old Naproxen and PRN Flexeril.I had one Orthopedic surgeon refuse to give me a script for Flexeril, while trying to push Vicodin on me.

The other Orthpod, said that it was ridiculous not to give me Flexeril and he wrote a script for 30 several months ago, I still have half of them left. Nerve pain in spinal conditions actually lessen over the years I was told, because the nerves, "burn themselves out"? This is true for me, I used to have to take Neurontin for the constant nerve pain, but now that is replaced with numbness and no more Neurontin needed.

Pain is a crazy thing and needs to be understood and followed in a better manner by health care professionals, who seem to jump too quickly to the conclusion someone is drug seeking.Sorry off my soapbox now.