This was an interesting article about the history of Oxy, but I’m not sure it told me anything I don’t already know.
http://static.latimes.com/oxycontin-part1/#nt=oft12aH-1gp2
But OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. OxyContin is a chemical cousin of heroin, and when it doesn’t last, patients can experience excruciating symptoms of withdrawal, including an intense craving for the drug.
The problem offers new insight into why so many people have become addicted to OxyContin, one of the most abused pharmaceuticals in U.S. history…
“What was happening was that they were taking more than they were prescribed because the pain medication wasn’t working,” Hughes recalled in an interview…
The doctor kept raising the dose, eventually putting Bodie on 400 milligrams a day…
Holy cow, that’s a high dose. And it’s probably very rare.
Anyone who has taken Oxy knows that it doesn’t last for 12 hours, even though our doctors have tried to convince us otherwise.
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/the-effectiveness-of-pills/
I understand that some patients experienced the symptoms of withdrawal as described in this article, but that didn’t happen to me. I had to convince my pain doctor to lower my dosage of Oxy, as the main side effect I experienced was nausea. Yuck. And the nausea wasn’t worth the very small amount of pain relief I obtained from Oxy.
I don’t have proof that my doctor accepted bribes from Big Pharma, but he didn’t pay for all those international vacations on his own. So, I had to keep taking the Oxy, because the medical industry decided that short-acting pain medication could only be used for breakthrough pain. As the article details, breakthrough pain only happens because the stupid pills don’t last as long as they’re supposed to. (Doctors suck.)
All Things Chronic 
I believe that some doctors suck, after all, they are people. But all of Pharma sucks. Their goal is to bandaid a symptom, not make you well. After all, if they cured you, their bottom line would drop out. Sad really. Health care, not health cure. If cancer wasn’;t such a money maker, don;t you think they would have cured it?
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No, not all of Pharma sucks. Prescription drugs help millions of people every single day. After all, someone has to be the drug dealers — it’s not like drugs are going anywhere. The only thing patients can do is become better informed. If people want to believe everything their doctors say, that’s fine, but understand that there could be consequences to trusting those working in our medical industry.
Perhaps they haven’t found a cure for cancer because they’re looking in the wrong places. Medical science has become… privatized.
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I just want to point out that there are GOOD doctors out there. I had a great one for about 12 years, then a horrible one for about a year, and then found another great one – and not just for pain management.
My current doc was able to figure out and fix a symptom that had been troubling me for a decade by making a connection between a medication’s harmless side effect (water retention) and my burning pain.
Plus, she never doubted my pain or tried to push ineffective therapies. She believes and acts on what I tell her, she supported my SSDI application, and lets me decide what side effects and risk I want to tolerate with medications (not just pain meds).
I was terrified and miserable after having a horrible neurologist who was just the opposite, and her willingness to prescribe opioids literally saved my life.
It’s hard for me to read such blanket condemnations of doctors when I practically owe my life to the one I have. I’ve seen both sides, and I want to remind people that there are still really great doctors out there, even though they seem frighteningly rare these days.
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When I look over the quarter of a century I spent seeing doctors, I have a hard time finding even one that I would recommend to someone else. And while I’m sure there are a few good doctors left in this industry, I’d say that a lot of people have had similar negative experiences.
Without trust, what’s left? Just handing over money. And reading statistics like over 1,000 people die every day from medical mistakes.
When patients find good doctors, I wish they would plaster that information all over the internet. But if you find a good pain doctor, that wouldn’t be advisable. Once other patients learn of a good doctor, that doctor would become very popular, which would then draw the attention of the DEA.
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short-acting pain medication could only be used for breakthrough pain. As the article details, breakthrough pain only happens because the stupid pills don’t last as long as they’re supposed to. (Doctors suck.)
Amen gurl….
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I was given Oxycontin when I was hospitalized 3 years ago.
I practically begged the ER doctor not to give it to me because I was aware of its addictive qualities, but that was the only thing they decided would do the job fast enough.
Later during my hospitalization, I had to beg the attending physicians to take me off the Oxycontin because it was making me hallucinate and unable to communicate but not helping to relieve my pain.
Because of that early mismanagement I’m a full-blown chronic pain patient now.
Some doctors do suck!
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