Pain Pill Limit Aims To Curb Abuse At City ERs, Bloomberg Says

[Akoto]

4. This is how discrimination against people like me grows.

I have a chronic pain condition. It's incurable, and it's of the sort that has its highs and its lows. Sometimes, it outright flares and goes out of control. That's a point where even my best pain management medication isn't sufficient.

I've been to the ER twice in my life, once for a flare. Why only once? Well, because I saw the change in demeanor the very moment they realized I was a pain patient. I had gone because the pain was so bad that time, it concerned me that something else might be going on. Doubt and suspicion throughout. That's even though I had my meds with me, so they could see exactly what I was taking and even count the damn pills if they thought me an abuser. I get my meds from a university, not some corner Pills-R-Us!

When I had to go again a few weeks later, it was because I had tried a new medication and developed urinary retention after the first pill. Needed a catheter. I have chronic pelvic pain, so you can imagine how excruciating that was. When they finally took the damn thing out, I asked the doctor if I could just stay until the pain settled a little. I didn't feel safe getting up. He told me, without understanding my condition, that I need to detox. I was astonished, and I've never seen my dad so furious.

Laws like these create more paranoia and make doctors afraid to adequately treat pain, which can have negative consequences in the long term (we tend to only think of addiction in that sense). Sometimes, when it's chronic, the timing is really bad and you have nowhere else to turn.