Big change to make it harder for patients to get pain killers like Vicodin

[Ms. Toad]

34. Obviously you have not lived with chronic - or even longer than expected acute - pain

and have unlimited time and money to visit the doctor.

I have chronic pain - fortunately I don't need narcotics to control it. If I did, the increase to my family's already exorbitant medical bills would be significant because of the additional number of doctor's visits that would be required to get the medication needed for pain control.

I have also had post-surgical pain that lasted longer than expected. The surgery was 50 miles away (and many people travel much farther to visit this particular facility), so I would need to travel 100 miles round trip - in pain - in order to get relief from acute post-surgical pain.

The abuse of the system by a few does not justify imposing these additional barriers on a population which lives in managed pain - because even the best medical care does not really alleviate it - which will increase their pain (and likely suicide rate - which is already a significant issue in this population.