#copingwithpain

First let me predicate this by saying that I acknowledge that there is an opioid problem in this country, and that countless Americans are affected either personally or by association, but may I be the voice of reason on another side of the dilemma.  I am a long term chronic pain sufferer.  I have a pain management doctor whom I have been working with for years, we have tried spinal injections, spinal cord stimulators, and morphine pumps.  I have had 3 life threating infections and over 30 operations to combat this problem.  I have CRPS for which there is no cure. I have only management in my future and I have been living with this for 16 years. 

This newfound interest in this opioid crisis has caused me and others like me to suffer needlessly.  My doctor used to be able to make me comfortable enough to give me back some quality of life that I had before my diagnosis, now I am forced to live on half the medication that I was on before the new CDC guidelines went into effect. I fear it will only get worse.  The scariest part of the opioid crisis is the movement to change the CDC guidelines from “voluntary” to “enforceable” unless complex bureaucratic barriers are climbed and unfortunately most doctors are not willing to jeopardize their careers and climb these barriers for the best interest of their patients.  With a threshold of 90 milligrams of morphine equivalent per day many of us will lose access to the vital medicines that we are currently taking.  The unfortunate part is there is no evidence that taking a stable pain patient off or dramatically reducing the amount of narcotics they receive helps said patients or solve the problems of the opioid crisis.  What is happening throws me and others like me into an involuntary experiment, one that leaves us with our lives on the line.  This new found interest in the opioid crisis has taken what “normal lives” we mapped out for ourselves and thrown them into chaos leaving us three undesirable choices:  first, reduce the quality of our lives and no longer be able to function in any capacity, unable to work and forced to live on disability; second, resorting to street drugs which compounds the larger problem; and finally, unfortunately all to often suicide.  The new guidelines and enforcement leave doctors in fear of investigation or sanction, they have to make a choice between caring for their stable patients or facing a bureaucratic strangle hold and losing the protection of their profession.  In other words everyone loses.

Please believe me when I say there are 6-8 million chronic pain patients in America that are faced with this dilemma each and every day and there is not one of us who would not gladly give up their narcotics for a cure.  My greatest fear is that this “opioid crisis” is going to leave millions of chronic pain patient’s bodies in the streets of America and everyone will just shake their heads and say “it’s an unfortunate situation, but they are casualties of war”.  I want nothing more than to get my quality of life back, to get off disability and to become a productive member of society again.  I make so little in disability that I sometimes have to choose between medications and food, so let me reiterate I WANT A JOB, but I can’t even think about it at my current pain level. 

This is my long sad story, and I am reaching out to the one person that could potentially help me.  Will you PLEASE HELP US GET OUR LIVES BACK?

For all those out there who suffer daily with chronic illness/pain

Who suffer every day in silence and alone

Who have illnesses that are invisible to others

Who can’t sleep at night

Who have pain flares on a regular basis

Who are criticized by family and friends

Who are told that they are making up symptoms for attention

Who are told that they are lazy

Who are told “at least it’s not serious”

Who aren’t given respect by the medical community

Who feel isolated and alone