Guy54435 Cannabis first, pills can kill.
First of all, I know that my post here is very very long. This is just an issue that I am super passionate about. I am more passionate about this than I am with politics.
I am wording this carefully because I don't want this to become political.
I could get a Marijuana Card here in Florida since it is approved here for medical. The only main issue is that insurance isn't going to cover it until it's no longer illegal across the country.
As far as pills kill, that's the stigma that we as patients that are in pain have to fight all the time. The pills don't kill. Now it is possible to have an adverse reaction that could do it with one pill, but that's the same with any type of medication.
I have been on Opioids since 2006. My dosage has been low for all of the years that I have to take them.
I started on Oxycodone 5 mg twice a day. This would last me about 2 months. However, I did have to start getting a script every month. At some point the pain increased. This is when I went back to my back doctor to see if there was anything that could be done. The hardware broke at some point. Two broken screws on a spinal fusion of L1-L5 with a cage in L4-L5. (I am not sure why he fused L1-L5, when the fusion should have been done on L4-L5, but that's another story.)
So he sent me to their pain management doctor which is the same group that my back doctor is in. He doesn't prescribe opioids and no pain contracts at that time for this office. We do more physical therapy. I get put on gabapentin. It helped but didn't get rid of the pain.
So a spinal cord stimulator trial was talked about. The pain management doctor felt that I was and wasn't a candidate for it because of the broken hardware. He felt that it needed to be fixed first. I was also told by the pain management doctor that it wouldn't help with back pain only nerve pain. (which was incorrect information) but I think he was trying to talk me out of it.
So the pain management doctor sends me back to the back doctor to discuss possible surgery. I signed in, was called back and then left in the room for about 3 hours before one of the PA's came in because they didn't realized I was still back there. The doctor refused to talk to me and just stated that the spinal cord stimulator was my only option.
I was sent back to the pain management doctor, now for these type of appointments, I make sure someone was with me when I went. So the pain management doctor decided that I could try it out. I started the process by going to physico therapy to get a report of it I would be a candidate or not. However, I decided to after getting my report to get a second opinion.
So it was recommended to do the spinal cord stimulator. So I gave it a try. It was not good. I ended up with a spinal cord leak and felt like I was actually going to die. It lasted three weeks with no type of support for it. I ended up losing a good amount of weight and couldn't eat for about two weeks. I even went to the ER because of how bad it was, but the idiot doctor thought that I was just having a bad migraine and gave me psychedelic drugs.
They did a few potent drugs but I didn't feel them at all. I tried to explain to the idiot ER doctor about the stimulator trial and that I felt I had a spinal cord leak. The doctor there didn't really understood what a spinal cord stimulator was and if he had known then they would have done either a cat scan or mri of my brain.
Finally get to my follow up appointment after two weeks and was told that I did have a spinal cord leak, get plenty of caffeine, and lay on your back. I was also told not to cough. Now meanwhile, at the same time, the doctor then tells me that I could still get the spinal cord stimulator trial. It would be two surgeries, one to place it, and if it helps then a second one to install it perm. I just started to laugh (that hurt my head so bad though). I flat out said no.
I was just diagnosed with diabetes and wasn't under control yet, so I didn't want to take that risk. The doctor wasn't happy with me but told me if I change my mind then I can come back to get it done.
So in 2015, I was sent to pain management. Which was actually a good thing since the laws were being changed around that time. Plus the pharmacy were started to push back on filling the scripts for pain meds.
After all of this, My SO and I decided not to do the spinal cord stimulator trial. I was even told by my SO that divorce papers would be put in against me.
So we decided that taking medication for the rest of my life was best.
Now from 2006 - 2015, I was just taking oxycodone 5 mg twice a day. The pain management doctor tested me to see if I was just there to get pills or if I am really in need of pain relief.
In 2015, we changed my script to be 10/325 Oxycodone with Acetaminophen 3 times a day.
In 2018, we switched the medication from Oxycodone to Morphine.
So I am taking Morphine 15 mg three times a day. This is equivalent to the oxycodone in strength, just a different medication.
That worked until 2023. The issue I was having was that the pain relief only lasted for about 4 hours and not 8 hours.
So we decided to switch to Morphine 15 MG Extended release tablets. Since I am getting them through mail order we changed it to 3 times a day instead of 2 times a day with 1 Morphine IM.
Now because of the shortages on Morphine (See Rant) I am back on the imm release temporary until the issue with the shortage is sorted.
Now the reason I take issue with the pills kills is because as patients in pain we have to fight to get help. We had to fight the doctors that told us that we don't have pain, the pharmacist to give us the medication.
In my area, there was this guy that was 25 years old. He got hooked on the pain pills and he did die. The parents put up the sign saying that the doctors and the pills killed him. It wasn't the pills, it was him.
He choose to abuse his medication. The people that I know that are in the same situation as me do not abuse our meds. We can also stop taking them if need be with out having withdrawal symptoms.
However, because the parents choose to put that sign up, helped with the stigma of opioids are bad. I even had friends tell me that I need to not take the pain medication because they swear I am going to die from taking opioids. I had to cut them off, it was crazy. My pills are safe, they are locked in my filing cabinet. I have to carry Narcan on me. Never will need it but I have to have it and I do carry it with me.
Everyone is fighting the wrong side of the opioid crisis. I also understand why they are fighting our side as well but abuse can be found out and the person will be cut off and then helped to get over their addition.
Even some doctors that aren't pain management doctors has told me that I should get off of the medication and just take CBD. He told me that they are cracking down and that I most likely won't be able to get the medication for that much longer.
I hate it when they do that. I didn't like this Endo, so I changed to a different one that didn't say that to me.
So pills don't kill, just like guns do kill. It's the person that abuses the medication that has a potential to overdose. Which is why the pain management doctors prescribe Narcan, for just in case issues. My pain management doctor told me that I would not need to use it, but he did say that it can come in handy incase a child got ahold of the medication and ate it like candy.
Most likely I will end up using it on someone that overdose on herion on the side of a road. That's also brings me to another issue I have on this "war on opioids". They classify both the illegal and legal opioids under the same "class".
This makes it look bad for the people that really need pain relief. Because you hear about herion killing people or really bad additions and people assume that it is the same for the people that take opioids.
Its all nonsense.