Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Thursday, May 2. 2019

The CDC and opioids


Doctors have become fearful of prescribing opioids. I hear stories about terminal cancer patients being denied adequate analgesia out of "fear of addiction."


Until new non-opioid and promising pain meds are available,  I am in favor of adequate dosing for pain when nothing else works. Chronic pain is a terribly disabling thing, mentally, spiritually, physically, etc.


The two best things medicine has provided mankind have been antibiotics, and anesthesia/analgesia.


 Can the Damage Done by the CDC's Opioid Guidelines Be Reversed?


Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Medical at 16:43 | Comments (15) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

My poor aunt was caught in this mindset. The last eight months of her life would have been much more bearable if they hadn't been worried that this terminal patient would become "addicted." More likely, they were worried about staff stealing drugs. She was under hospice care, for Pet's sake, where you'd think they'd figured out the right balance between pain meds and short-term side-effects, the long-term effects being quite meaningless.
#1 Texan99 on 2019-05-02 17:08 (Reply)
Back in the later 90s while my mother was in the long process of departing this world, the nursing home doctor wouldn't give her enough pain meds telling us "she might become addicted". Parkinson's, a broken leg and other painful issues and they were afraid she might become addicted while trying to die. It was awful.
#2 JC on 2019-05-02 18:55 (Reply)
Not to worry, such patients will be offered euthanasia. After all, it's much easier (and cheaper) to off Granny than to walk with her on her final journey.
#3 Frances on 2019-05-02 18:58 (Reply)
The funny thing is that generally if you ARE in physical pain you don't become addicted.

You'd think medical doctors would know that.

Then again you DO know what they call the medical school graduate with the lowest GPA, right?
#4 William O'Blivion on 2019-05-02 19:39 (Reply)
FALSE
#4.1 mike m on 2019-05-02 21:34 (Reply)
Please tell that to our handyman who has bone spurs, is in constant pain and who is sadly addicted to prescription painkillers.
#4.2 Yii on 2019-05-03 12:11 (Reply)
My father, diagnosed with terminal cancer wrapped around his spine, was initially given the "but he'll get addicted" treatment, but when my mother quickly and emphatically objected, his final two + months were well-medicated.
#5 Gringo on 2019-05-02 19:44 (Reply)
The past two years have been agonizing. I have a degenerative spinal disease that causes me a lot of pain. I have handled this by taking small quantities of Tylenol and codeine when the pain becomes unbearable and I can't sleep or really do anything. I had a very small life during the times I could take the medicine. A bottle of 60 pills would last for two years. I have stopped almost all activities except doctors visits where they tell me to just grin and bear it...and that I have lost another inch in height and have nerve damage. Our medical society are heartless wretches and I call a pox on them!
#6 Judith on 2019-05-02 20:20 (Reply)
Judith, I am so terribly sorry. I've had friends who ultimate beat this problem by changing doctors, though it's difficult. My aunt couldn't change doctors, having given her power of attorney to the wrong person, but I hope you'll be able to find a way. I know that the current insane state of the health insurance system may make this awfully difficult.
#6.1 Texan99 on 2019-05-03 08:31 (Reply)
Good to see that commenters know that the addiction trope is pure BS. The "crisis" of opioid use is due to illegal use, not responsibly prescribed pain killers. That many medical professionals buy into this says something about them as well.
#7 tim ferrell on 2019-05-03 06:21 (Reply)
My daughter recently had her tonsils/adenoids out. I was a bit surprised they now rely on acetaminophen only because "it works just as well as prescription pain meds" (a lie). The guidelines for recommending the surgery are pretty ridiculous now too. I think our Dr had to stretch the truth a bit just to get the procedure approved/scheduled. Then there's the bums rush out of the hospital within 2 hrs of surgery. The only thing that hasn't deteriorated (yet) was the short wait time to get on the schedule. But that's coming. Probably just in time for me to be old and in need of medical attention.
#8 itsatax on 2019-05-03 07:59 (Reply)
It's strange: our dentist prescribes strong painkillers quite freely. Is it possible dentists aren't caught up in the same level of red tape and threat?
#9 Texan99 on 2019-05-03 09:15 (Reply)
My entire stable of doctors, rheumatologist, endocrenologist, primary, heart and two dentists are all on board for denying me pain medication. One is all for me smoking marijuana (I'm an asthmatic). They are all, however, on board with treating the drug addicts with all kinds of expensive medications (taxpayer paid), rehab and heroin facilities so the drug addicts are safe while administering their heroin. Massachusetts is not the state you want to be in when you are old, ill, or suffering from pain.
#10 Judith on 2019-05-03 10:15 (Reply)
They say methadone is excellent for pain relief. It's as if Massachusetts were urging chronic pain sufferers to become heroin addicts so they could get access to methadone.
#10.1 Texan99 on 2019-05-03 12:21 (Reply)
black cherry juice
#11 friend on 2019-05-03 15:31 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.