I read these articles and they just make me sick! Literally, sick! So unbelievably angry and leave me feeling so helpless too. Helpless because the government will just keep pushing and pushing while more people suffer.
I would lay odds that none of these people have neither suffered in pain nor have they had to watch someone close to them suffer.
I'd worked as an oncology nurse for over three years before watching the death and suffering got to me so badly i had to change to another specialty. Not one person (i hope and pray) would be able to watch someone suffering with bone cancer, leukemia, brain cancer.....(the list could go on and on) and say that these people are drug seekers because they want pain relief. And that is just cancer.......that doesn't even touch on the hundreds of thousands of other diseases and disorders that cause pain.
I have watched a woman who's doctor did not adequately treat her pain be admitted to our floor for pain control. I have never (and hope to never again) see anyone suffering so needlessly ever again. I actually overheard a doctor and some nurses complaining that she was nothing but a drug addict. This woman was beyond screaming in pain. She was rigid in bed, unable to move, barely able to speak, lying on her side with a death grip on the side rail. I couldn't pry her hands loose. Every muscle in her body was tensed, sweat poring off of her, her breath shallow, ragged and labored, her eyes glazed with pain. I had to get on my knees beside her bed and speak sharply to her over and over again just to get her to look at me, to remind her to try to breathe. The nurses and pharmacist were scrambling (and arguing) with doctors to try to get her on our chronic pain protocol (one that gives them pretty much free reign to do what is need to get the pain under control). It took hours. And as her pain slowly came under control, then the screaming and moaning started. She hadn't even had the energy to cry before.........
I wish it would be mandatory for those that are on this "pain doctor" witch hunt to have to stand by the bed of someone like this woman and i would dare them to tell her it's all in her head. (BTW it was found out a few days later that the cancer had spread everywhere.....her bones were literally crumbling in her body) But hey, she was just a "drug seeker" right? Her doctor had been prescribing her vicodin 1-2 every six to eight hours. But hey.....he was better than the doctor (internal medicine-not oncologist) that had prescribed a man with bone cancer one HALF of a vicodin every eight hours. (no, i'm not joking)

Sorry to go off on a tangent. I just read these articles and i get SO angry. Is the government going to try to tie the hands of all the pain doctors in this country? They say all these narcotics are killing people. How many more deaths are attributed to alcohol or tobacco? But hey, those are legal right? And those companies have the riches to lobby (and bribe) those in the government that make the laws. Not to mention all the taxes the government collects on them. It's all a vicious cycle. All these diseases that are becoming more prevalent by the day and causing more pain and suffering. But instead of spending OUR tax money on treating these diseases or finding cures.....they are spending it to convict and condemn those that are treating them.
I don't like being in pain. I would choose to take no medications at all if i could function without them. Oh, i'm just so angry. When i think of the two (yes, only two) pain doctors that we have in this area and then think of some beaurocrat trying to convict them for treating people like that patient whose pain and suffering will be forever etched in my mind (and in my nighmares)..........
What is happening to our government!!! Sure there are drug users out there. There always has been, there always will be. But taking out the people that are treating legitimate suffering??? The drug users can turn to the street.....but where are the others suppose to go? What do they do when the only choices they have are to suffer or die? And i know because i've seen it firsthand, those whom their pain is not treated often choose to just give up and die. What quality of life can they have? I wonder "what will i do" when my pain becomes unbearable and i have nowhere to turn? When i was diagnosed my doctor told me that i would just "need to get used to the pain, because it was only going to get worse" that it didn't need to be treated because i had to get used to it. Where will i be when they target OP's? where will any of us be that have nowhere else to turn?

Sorry to vent so much.........i am so grateful that i found DB, grateful to all of the compassionate people here. And so thankful for the OP's and all they do. I'm able to function most days. And when i say that, i mean function. That's all i do. My previous life is over, but i am grateful that i CAN do things like laundry, go for a walk, pick up and hold my cat...or any of the things "normal" people who are not in pain take for granted every day.

Thanks for letting me get some of this out, i know carrying around this anger just makes me even more tense. But it's impossible to read these articles and not get mad. We'll just have to keep these Dr's and their patients in our thoughts and prayers. And those legitimate OP's that so bravely help all of us here.

Take care all, God bless.

Teresa