Why hasnt the opioid epidemic hit other countries?

[cannabis_flower]

21. Oh boy, where do I start?

I'll start with what happened to me.

In 2008 my right knee started hurting really bad. I wasn't sure how I had hurt it. I went to my primary care physician and he told me I probably twisted it and to stay off of it and take Tylenol. So I tried that for a while. I had a cane that I had used when I had an ankle injury and I was using that too. I tried that for about a month.

I talked to someone who recommended I go to Dr. Lee (not sure his last name but it as some Asian name that started with L). He was a orthopedic surgeon and my insurance didn't require referrals so I made an appointment.

He sent me for an MRI and to come back and he would tell me what was wrong. I went back and he said I had a bone bruise and that I should take Tylenol, stay off of it as much as possible and that it would get better. It didn't and after about 2 weeks of pain I called the doctor's office and told the nurse I was in a lot of pain and needed something for the pain. They asked me what I wanted and I told them "I don't know, maybe some Darvocet. So they decided to give me a prescription and I got 30 pills.

I would take half of one in the morning so I could put weight on my leg and walk and in the evening I took the other half so I could sleep because otherwise I would move my leg while I was asleep, and wake up several times a night in pain.

After almost a month, my friends were telling me I should find another doctor because neither of these doctors and done shit for me. So I went to another doctor (we'll call him Dr. Jerk) who I had been to before (he did surgery for me for a torn ligament). I told him about the pain in my knee. I told him the other doctor had given me Darvocet and he barely looked at me and gave me a prescription for 90 Darvocet.

I went to Walgreen's to get the prescription filled and because I was 2 days early they called Dr. Jerk and Dr. Jerk called Dr. Lee and they decided that they weren't going to fill the prescription. I called the doctor, pointed out to him that I had told him about Dr. Lee and that I was in a lot of pain and they decided I had to sign their pain management agreement again (I had already signed it) and they let me get the prescription.

Well, I continued doing what I had been doing for about about a week and one day I forgot to take my pill in the morning. (What kind of drug addict does that?) I was able to make it to my desk and things were not getting any better so I called Dr. Jerk again for another appointment and his receptionist said that he was on vacation and to call Dr. Hume (real name). I called and made an appointment for the next day. But by 10 am break time I got up from my desk and couldn't put any weight on my right knee. I had someone wheel me out in an office chair to an ambulance and took me to the hospital. They gave me a shot of some kind of tranquilizer, a shot of some kind of opiate and gave me a prescription for 7 Vicodin (which they filled at the hospital) and told me to see my doctor the next day.

I had a friend come and pick me up at the hospital, slept on her couch and she took me to see Dr. Hume the next day. He looked at my knee and moved it. He did an X-ray and told me I had significant arthritis in both knees. He gave me a cortisone shot, a prescription for Meloxicam and a prescription for a brace for my right knee. I was walking without pain for the first time in several months less than a day later.

I haven't seen Dr. Hume in several years because I no longer have health insurance but he was the first doctor to take my knee pain seriously and not just assume I was just looking for drugs. I didn't take the opioids again except every once in a while when nothing else worked and I think they lasted 2 or 3 years and I finally threw them away since they were expired.

So why didn't the first 3 doctors do anything that Dr. Hume did? He didn't assume I didn't have pain because I couldn't tell them how I injured the knee and did a thorough exam.

Later another doctor gave me a prescription for 75 mg Diclofenac and that seemed to work really well. After I lost my insurance I found that the Salvadorian grocery stores sold a pill called Dolo-neurobion that has 25mg of diclofenac and B vitamins (you can buy Dolo-neurobion at Walmart but it has Acetaminophen instead of Diclofenac). My husband bought it an I looked at the ingredients. We have also had them sent from his doctor in Honduras. I don't even take them very much because I found a home remedy that seems to work really well. We steep tumeric and ginger and then strain it. Then we add coconut oil, honey and pineapple juice. After about 3 days of this drink the pain goes away. Only in rare cases do I even take the Dolo-neurobion.

So why did I have to suffer for 3 or 4 months because these doctors decided without even doing a real exam that I was a drug seeker? I only asked for something for the pain. I'm not a doctor. The Tylenal wasn't working and I needed something. The only things I knew were Tylenol, aspirin and opioids. Doctors are supposed to know what to give you and perhaps they would have given me the right treatment if they had even bothered to do an adequate exam. By the way, I never went back to Dr. Jerk or Dr. Lee (and never will) and joined Angie's List so I could put a bad review for each of them. I can't say enough nice things about Dr. Hume though.