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

[kag]

128. Thank you Soapbox...

I was going to post this same information until I saw your comment. I don't understand what is "new" about this policy. I, too, suffer from severe chronic back pain, and have been enrolled in a pain-management clinic for almost ten years. I have NEVER been able to have a doctor "call in" a prescription for narcotics--hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine, etc.; doesn't matter what it is combined with or if it's just straight opioids--I have to have the paper prescription, and it can't have any white-outs, scribbles, strike-throughs, or anything like that. If the doc screws up and puts the wrong date or spells my name wrong, they have to start over and make it clean. I have to see the doc once a month, and have to submit to two urine tests and one blood test every year at times chosen randomly by the clinic.

This has all been law for at least as long as I've been enrolled at the clinic, so I don't understand what this "news" is all about. Now, it is the case that last summer, because of a big bust in Florida involving certain doctors, patients, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical wholesalers, there was a huge crackdown on enforcing these rules. I don't know if it has helped fight the problem of abuse and overdosing, but I do know that the people who are suffering from this crackdown are people like your mother and myself. I have a two-day window to to get my meds refilled--meaning from the time I am allowed to get my script filled until the time I run out, is two days. So if the pharmacy (the only one within twenty miles of my small town) is closed for a holiday, or is out of the drug I need, I risk going into withdrawal. If my purse is stolen, or if I accidentally spill my pills, I'm just SOL for that month.

And what really sucks is that I can't see how any of this is keeping people who want to break the law in order to get their hands on opioids from doing so. The problem isn't that we have too few laws or that they're ineffective. The problem is that they're not being enforced. Those people in Florida who got away with fraud, theft, and illegally distributing a controlled substance, are not going to be stopped because I'm getting my pee tested every few months.

What a lot of people don't understand is that those of us who have to take these meds just in order to function would give anything to NOT have to take them. If I could get through the days without popping strong narcotics every few hours, believe me, I would gladly flush them all down the toilet. To not have to live with horrific constipation, constant sleepiness (while also having much difficulty sleeping), breakthrough pain that can knock me off of my feet for the rest of the day, the frequent hits to my self-esteem because of sideways looks from pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and anyone else to whom I must disclose my daily medications...would be heaven--or as most people call it--normal daily life.

Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble on so much. As you can see, this is a subject about which I am kind of sensitive. So, thanks for posting your info, and the best of luck to your mom.