#painkills

Way too many doctors forget about the human behind the patient. They see a problem to solve, and bristle when those problems don’t uncritically accept their diagnosis and treatment, or lack thereof. They have to maneuver around annoying things like a person’s religious beliefs, distrust of medicine, or god forbid a desire to be a functioning human being despite their illnesses. A recent op-ed was published in JAMA Internal Medicine entitled “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for Prescribing Opioids, 2022—Need for Integrating Dosing Benchmarks With Shared Decision-Making.” Quite a mouthful, but nothing unreasonable on the face of it. No, you have to dig a little deeper and read the text to find the ignorant drivel of doctors who have no interest in understanding their patients. The opinion piece is about the implementation of using something called the Shared Decision-Making method, where patients and doctors work together to make a treatment plan for their condition. That sounds perfectly fine to me. However, according to the authors, it is a problem to use it with people taking prescription opioids. The reason? We’re irrational, of course.

I have laid in bed, sobbing, in too much pain to roll over, and honestly, truly, sincerely praying for death because of the pain. I have to ration my pills because the next pain might be worse and my doctors would not give me more pain medication. (I take codeine with tylenol, by the way, which is basically the weakest, least addictive opioid out there.) I've been terrified of asking for more pain medication, in case I came across as a drug seeker and was cut off completely. I've had to be satisfied with crumbs when I needed the whole loaf of bread.

Multiple doctors have told me they want to treat the cause, not the pain, conveniently forgetting that it takes three to six months for rheumatoid arthritis medication to work, if it does at all. One doctor told me to trust cannabis oil and tinctures, which I found much more addictive than opioids, and a lot less effective.

July is Disability Pride Month in honor of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26th 1990. Any and all events held in honor of it vary by city and country, but it’s also a time for people to share their experiences of disability on social media. There is also a flag associated with disability pride.

Much like it is for LGBTQ pride, there are a lot of different experiences under the disability banner. Whether your disability is physical or mental, visible or not, curable or not, and so forth; people have different reasons to feel or not feel pride in their disability.

For people who are born with disabilities, it can be an intrinsic part of who they are from the moment they begin to perceive the world. There isn’t a desire to cure themselves to be like other people. They love themselves and their disability because it is no less a part of them than their hands and feet.

For others, disability was thrust on them through incidents such as an accident or sudden illness. Some want to pursue a cure to end their suffering and to return to how things were before, and some will. Others have to accept their life has been changed forever and cannot feel anything good in regards to their disability. They can still find pride in how they persevered and changed for the better despite their disability. (Read more at link)

It is completely normal to become physically dependent on medication and go through withdrawal from its absence. Withdrawal from opioids is most stigmatized, but many drugs cause this unpleasant effect. Anti-depressants come to mind, as well as the everyday cup of coffee.

Withdrawal is, of course, unpleasant and to be avoided when on a drug that causes it. For people on regular prescriptions causing withdrawal, they can fill a prescription early to ensure they do not run out. Not people on opioid prescriptions. You have to be constantly aware of your supply and when you can get a refill. However, nothing ever goes perfectly and something always happens eventually. For me, it was a pharmacy policy I was unaware of because I had recently switched from CVS to Walgreens after having enough of CVS. Walgreens is only marginally better.

Halloween is hands down my favorite holiday, taking place in the best season of the year. Everything about autumn makes me smile, but nothing more so than Halloween. Candy, horror, and costumes. What more could you want? So, with Halloween just a week away, I wanted to address this holiday through a disability lens.

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Recently, President Joe Biden announced that COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic in a TV interview. It has sparked some commentary and repetitive news clips of his claim. I’m not a scientist, so I cannot say if the US is technically in a pandemic or not right now and I don’t plan to try.

Here is what I do know. (Read more at link)

I became a pain patient right around the time the CDC published its guidelines regarding opioids. I was initially given opioids for acute back pain and then suddenly no more. It was as if in the blink of an eye my doctors no longer cared that I was in pain. Many of the guidelines were codified into law by my state’s governor and no one wanted to help me anymore.

One practitioner told me to my face I just need to exercise more. Months of arguing with doctors until finally getting an MRI to diagnose my degenerative disc disease. Only then was I referred to a pain clinic and eventually I found someone who was willing to treat my pain. I was lucky. Many pain patients during this time were absolutely not. (Read more at link)

Check out my new website: http://painkillsproject.com/

Dedicated to issues regarding chronic pain, disability, and the 2016 CDC Guidelines for opioid prescribing. As a pain patient myself, I know how harmful these guidelines are as they punish legitimate opioid users and fail to curb overdose deaths by illicit opioids. It is my hope to bring attention to these issues and help people get inspired to get involved in trying to change these restrictions.

Furthermore, I want to continue to promote the use of #PainKIlls on social media as a way to spread the word on this issue. When you're disabled and in pain, it's all we can do to get through the day, never mind our fight for our rights. We need people to learn of our plight and encourage taking action, in whatever form that may be!