Day: 02/18/2015

We are the Chronic Pain Patients of America…

http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=9313

I’m always looking for a pain patient group, so let’s see what this group has to say, shall we?

We have never, ever, taken more medicine than we should.

One should never say “never, ever.”  After all, we’re all human beings and nobody’s perfect. And I find it extremely hard to believe that not one person in this group ever took an extra pill during a pain storm.

Yes, the picture in my head is of a group of people (mostly white men) standing on a mountain, looking down at all of us “flawed” pain patients who haven’t always been able to manage our pain with the dosages allowed and prescribed.

We have never been “high” on anything, in our entire lives. We don’t even know what it means to be “high.”

Yeah, I call total B.S. on this one.

Whenever you take a prescription medication, it takes time for your body to get used to the effects of the drug, including any side effects.  One of the side effects of opioids is the “high” — your brain’s reaction to the introduction of this new chemical — along with the usual ones, like nausea, dizziness, etc.  But the side effects are wide and varied and sometimes hard to pin down.  (That’s true with any drug.)

After taking an opioid, sometimes the brain will call the stomach and say, look, you need to get upset.  I don’t like this stuff. (What happens when I take anything stronger than hydrocodone.)   But then, the brain says, wait, I’m feeling some relief from the pain, I think the pain is getting quieter… (What happened when I took Oxy.)  Maybe then you have to help your brain a little by taking another medication for nausea, but unless you can control this side effect, you basically have to try another opioid.  (Well, pain patients used to have choices…)

But the “high” effect happens a lot more often than just “sometimes.”  This is your brain saying, welllll, lookee here, this makes me feel good!  But within a relatively short period of time, your pain, which is a lot stronger than just about any drug, will rise up and take control.  The pain will tell the brain, look, I’m stealing this good feeling from you — I’m stronger than you, you should know that by now, you stupid twit.

And when the brain starts belittling itself, well, that’s when the real fun begins. 🙂

The length of time a patient will feel this “high” side effect varies greatly, depending on such things like weight, metabolism, and of course, DNA.  But by the time a chronic pain patient is prescribed opioids, it doesn’t take long for the “high” to go away.  Sure, some patients chase that high, but what they’re really chasing is more pain relief.  How do you know how much pain relief can be achieved until you… try?

In conclusion, there is no way that a group of pain patients could make these statements.  You know, without being hypocrites.

People who get “high” on any substance, whether it’s a drug of choice, or alcohol, disgust us.

Funny, intolerance and ignorance disgust me.

They can all go to an island and enjoy altering their states of consciousness, together, alone, for the rest of eternity, for all we care.

In fact, we prefer they would.

I propose the idea that’s visualized in the above photo.  In fact, I’ve got my bags packed… just point me in the direction of this island, where I can escape attitudes like this.

One of three things could be happening here:

Perhaps these deaths were caused by an allergy to the medication. This type of tragedy can occur even with Penicillin.

Or, maybe these people actually took this sometimes-life-saving medicine to get “high,” and they took too much.

They should have been on that island.

On second thought, maybe ya’ll should go live on that island.

Or, they simply could not find enough relief from the medication they were given, and took handfuls instead. We certainly hope not.

Well, I’m glad ya’ll finally arrived at an actual problem.  But you can take your hope and… well, you know.

https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/do-you-recognize-your-addictions/

I think the chronic pain community and the addiction community should come together, although I know that would be really difficult to accomplish.  Many pain patients don’t feel they suffer from any addictions, and many blame drug addicts for the war on pain patients (which is really just an off-shoot of the drug war)…

Voices of pain patients

http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=9313

Google search for:  “Chronic Pain Patients of America”:  4 results

http://www.topix.com/forum/health/T8DT2APRSTHQM42UN

https://www.tumblr.com/search/your%20not%20alone%20together%20we%20stand

https://www.tumblr.com/search/dear%20sir%20or%20madam

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/whats-a-doctor-to-do/?_r=0

C.M.Phillips June 15, 2007 · 9:05 am:  …For the MILLIONS of people out there left under-treated or completely untreated, just trying to get through the day is hard enough but having to fight a seemingly endless battle for pain treatment is practically impossible. I have sent in SO many letters to congress, my state reps., my governor, the pres, news stations…everywhere, WITHOUT EVEN ONE RESPONSE FROM ANYONE!…

Pain patient June 21, 2007 · 3:40 pm:  THE CHRONIC PAIN EXPERIENCE. Chronic pain destroys our normal assumptions about the world. It never releases us from its grip and continually frustrates our hopes for gradual improvement. Ultimately it introduces us to an unsettling counterworld where, as Emily Dickinson described it, time has stopped. (The time before pain is almost inconceivable, or else recedes in memory like a faded dream) It is a place where, gradually, almost without noticing, you find yourself at last all alone. Chronic pain penetrates so completely that it leaves no escape. It lives within us like an unimaginably dull nightmare.

Nightmare is not simply a figure of speech when applied to chronic pain. Lawrence LeShan, from the Institute of Applied Biology, described the universe perceived by the patient in chronic pain as structurally identical with the universe of the nightmare…

Voices of pain patients

https://lifelessonscats.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/my-life/comment-page-1/#comment-418

Under comments:

Outlier Babe
Feb 18, 2015 @ 21:17:55

I have always considered myself a nice person. I like to think I treat everyone equally. Now I find that I do not always act like a nice person. Too many nights with too little sleep. Or too many “aches” (such an innocent light-sounding word) that have gone on for too many decades. I am worn down. Pain grinds, and grinds and grinds, doesn’t it? Big pain drives away all else–there is nothing but the pain. Smaller pain is like a a leak, allowing our energy and happiness to drain away, leaving behind crankiness and depression.

Happy belated birthday. I do what painkills2 advises, and it works for me. I think the trendy phrase now is “Mindful Meditation”, but I just call it “being thankful for the little things”. I’m pretty crabby even about those, since a super-antibiotic turned me celiac-like, and wondful foods used to be a giant part of my little things–all the foods I can no longer eat. Sure miss fresh bread, d#rn it! Grump, grump, grump…. But there are lots of other things. And if you heat up cardboard-like rice bread, and put enough butter on it, even that is not bad 🙂

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Whenever there’s a Windows update, my computer goes bonkers.  So I’ve learned to stop whatever I’m doing when that happens, close everything down, and download the update.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop the damage that can result.  Specifically, I tend to lose documents I’ve stored in Notepad (I don’t have Word) — letters, research, etc.  So I’ve learned that for the really important stuff, I need to copy and paste it into an email, then store it in the cloud.  Well, I’m trying to learn this…

I’ve been working for weeks on a letter for my Unum long term disability case, and I’m facing an important deadline.  And what do you know, the latest update totally erased all my work.  The document is gone.  Dust.  Vanished.  And of course, I didn’t save it in the cloud.  Because I’m stupid.  Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

And I just don’t know how I’m going to recreate it, especially before the deadline…  When you’re in constant pain, it’s so hard to care about shit like this…

In other words, I believe I am fucked.

And computers can really suck:  https://mamamaitri.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/dear-universe/

Collagen: More Powerful Than Muscle

https://edsinfo.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/collagen-more-powerful-than-muscle/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/337020-collagen-vs-cartilage/

Collagen Vs. Cartilage

Consequences of Cartilage Degradation and Loss:  Cartilage degradation refers to the breakdown and loss of cartilage caused by wear and tear. Osteoporosis is the most common joint disorder resulting from cartilage loss. Without the protective cushion of cartilage, bones rub together and cause pain, inflammation and joint stiffness. It is not uncommon for bone spurs to develop around the unprotected joints. Ligaments and muscles at the hip joint become weak and stiff. Cartilage loss can also result from a tear in the meniscus, or the cartilage disk that cushions the knee joint.

http://www.sookhongdds.com/tmj/whatis.html

You may not have heard of it, but you use it hundreds of times every day. It is the Temporo-Mandibular Joint (TMJ), the joint where the mandible (the lower jaw) joins the temporal bone of the skull, immediately in front of the ear on each side of your head. A small disc of cartilage separates the bones, much like in the knee joint, so that the mandible may slide easily; each time you chew you move it. But you also move it every time you talk and each time you swallow (every three minutes or so). It is, therefore, one of the most frequently used of all joints of the body and one of the most complex…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporomandibular_joint

The unique feature of the TMJs is the articular disc. The disc is composed of fibrocartilagenous tissue (like the firm and flexible elastic cartilage of the ear) which is positioned between the two bones that form the joint. The TMJs are one of the few synovial joints in the human body with an articular disc, another being the sternoclavicular joint…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrocartilage

White fibrocartilage consists of a mixture of white fibrous tissue and cartilaginous tissue in various proportions. It owes its flexibility and toughness to the former of these constituents, and its elasticity to the latter. It is the only type of cartilage that contains type I collagen in addition to the normal type II. Fibrocartilage is found in the pubic symphysis, the anulus fibrosus of intervertebral discs, menisci, and the TMJ. During labor, relaxin loosens the pubic symphysis to aid in delivery, but this can lead to later joint problems…

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7965312

Temporomandibular joint disc replacement made by tissue-engineered growth of cartilage. (1994)

New rules on narcotic painkillers cause grief for veterans and VA

http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=9279

But after the DEA regulations were put in place, he was unable to get an appointment to see his doctor for nearly five months, [Craig] Schroeder said. He stayed in bed at his home in North Carolina much of that time…

His wife, Stephanie Schroeder, said getting him a VA appointment turned into a part-time job and her “main mission in life.” While part of the problem was a shortage of doctors, she said she also noticed that VA had become hostile toward patients who asked for painkillers.

“Suddenly, the VA treats people on pain meds like the new lepers,” she said. “It feels like they told us for years to take these drugs, didn’t offer us any other ideas and now we’re suddenly demonized, second-class citizens.”

The agency recently set up a Choice Card program for veterans, which would allow those facing long wait lists or who live more than 40 miles away from a VA hospital to use private clinic visits. Veterans say the initiative is complicated and confusing. VA officials acknowledged this month that veterans have been using this program at a lower rate than anticipated…

As part of a $21.7 million initiative with the National Institutes of Health, VA is looking for therapies that could substitute for opioids…

Yeah, perhaps the NIH and the VA should have started this initiative BEFORE the DEA began its war on pain patients.

But Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, called the new DEA rules “the single most important change that could happen. The best way to treat any disease, whether it’s Ebola or opioid addiction, is to stop creating more people with the disease.”

This is “the single most important change that could happen” — for doctors who treat addiction ($$$$$). And the best way to stop chronic pain is to aggressively treat acute and severe pain before it becomes chronic and intractable.  It’s called prevention, although Kolodny appears unfamiliar with that term.  Perhaps because he knows nothing about pain management. After all, if you successfully prevent addiction, Kolodny (and Jennifer Weiss) would be out of work.

But no, the DEA, PFROP, and the medical industry would prefer to see people suffer.  When in fact, they’re just creating more pain patients, drug addicts, and patients on disability. And when all this untreated pain turns into chronic pain, what then?  Massages and acupuncture for everyone?

The disease is the drug war.  Let’s stop creating more people who suffer from this disease.