Grandmother’s Little Helper
What a drag it is getting old. And with friends like Peter Eisler and USA Today, it certainly, as Bette Davis said, “ain’t for sissies.” Suffer in pain or become a zombie – out of the frying pan and into the fire.
In what has virtually become a prototype for how to write an article on painKILLERS, start with a sampling of people who have had a bad experience, bemoan the over-prescribing of NARCOTICS, mischaracterize the definition and risk of addiction, extrapolate to everyone in the country and their likely experience and then call for the complete elimination of opioid therapy, in this case for older people. Thank you, Mr. Eisler for setting back the quality of life of older Americans a quarter of a century in one fell swoop. Thanks for scaring them into thinking they will all be turned into ZOMBIES (Opioid induced cognitive symptoms aren’t treatable are they?) Better to leave old folks in untreated pain and have them contemplate suicide. Or give them acetaminophen or NSAIDs until their liver and kidneys fail, or they bleed out before making it to the emergency room – what are you thinking? Oh, that’s right, you’re not!
For anyone that knows better, click on the link, watch the video, but first take an antiemetic.
We also eat a lot of bacon in this country. Between the fat and sodium it isn’t risk free for the elderly and many shouldn’t eat it but love it so much they just won’t stop. And anyway, it improves their quality of life momentarily even if it does constitute use despite harm in the long run. LET’S BAN BACON before old folks turn into edematous PORCINE ZOMBIES.
Mr. Eisler couldn’t find one of the hundreds of thousands of older people who use these medicines to their betterment and who couldn’t function without them? He didn’t bother to interview them – nothing very sexy about a little old lady taking hydrocodone and dancing at her grand-daughter’s bat mitzvah or participating in her grandson’s communion, or playing Mah Jongg.
This article is particularly noxious because older people are so fearful of addiction, are more likely to confuse dependence, tolerance and side effects with addiction and are particularly likely to suffer rather than take their medications. Yet they have the lowest risk of developing actual addiction as a group.
Now none of this is to say that polypharmacy and the offering of drug only therapy isn’t a problem in the pain and symptom management of older people. In a particularly ageist aspect of our healthcare system, older people are probably offered non-drug, psychotherapeutic and alternative treatments for pain at a FAR lower rate than younger people. And with lower gastrointestinal acid production, aging kidneys and livers they are particularly vulnerable to the side effects of their medicines. Many will have med-lists as long as their arms. Their providers are so swamped, seeing so many people per day that they don’t have the time to go through the list and weed out the meds that interact (if they could even sort it all out), that have outlived their usefulness and/or may have become contra-indicated due to the piling up of medical co-morbidities as people age. Doctors need more time. They need better reimbursement for the cognitive exercise of weeding out a med list. Clinical Pharmacists need to be incorporated more frequently into clinic practices (see this recent link containing several supportive letters from NYS doctors working with pharmacists onsite in pain clinics), and Congress needs to expedite Pharmacist Provider Status so that Pharmacy Clinicians are paid for their 10 plus years of specialty training including their earned doctorate. Physicians and physician extenders need more education about pharmacogenetic testing/interpretation, drug monitoring, pain treatment, opioid rotation, side effect management, risk assessment, risk stratification and a million other topics or they need to incorporate those with this important expertise into their practices, but the practices need to be compensated for these skills and the time commitment. In response to all of this, USA TODAY AND PETER EISLER THINK THE ANSWER IS GET RID OF THE NARCOTICS. PERIOD. PROBLEM SOLVED. SORRY GRANNY.
She Goes Running For The Shelter Of Her GRANNY’S Little Helper
Dr. Mel Pohl appears in the video. God love Dr. Pohl. His Las Vegas Recovery has helped hundreds, if not thousands, of people suffering with pain and addiction to get off of opioids, find recovery, work and maintain recovery and find other ways that are less risky for them to manage their pain. His treatment center is a shelter in the storm for so many. And he is correct to point out that we don’t know the rates of long term efficacy of opioids for older people and which subsets of them are likely to do best. But in the usual blind man and elephant reasoning, he extrapolates from the population he sees to the entirety of the population of older adults with pain (a large and growing population of people) and states that opioids should “never be started” to begin with. Dr. Pohl, what percentage of the population of people with pain in general and older people specifically with pain make their way to your clinic in Vegas to justify this reasoning? Sometimes what happens in Vegas SHOULD stay in Vegas.
Doctor please….some more of these. Outside the door, she took four more.
One poor woman in the video, with a 20 year history of pain, complained that over the years she had multiple drug trials, that the dose was raised over the years and that she was heavily sedated and ultimately had cognitive side effects from medications and couldn’t function on them. To me, this means she was tolerant, probably had a narrowing therapeutic window as she aged, and had side effects. Probably when she tried to take herself off, she even had some withdrawal. So she was physiologically dependent too. Would she have traded all 20 years in because of her more recent difficulties? And now she is on acetaminophen and just fine. If her doctors are asleep at the wheel and not managing her med list, I hope she at least is keeping tabs on her daily acetaminophen intake before her liver objects. She is portrayed as a victim. And maybe she is….older people do as they are told. They trust their practitioners. Hers doesn’t sound ignorant or even out of touch. But he or she was probably seeing too many people for too short a time thereby stifling med reconciliation and weed out the med list. He or she might even have made some unwarranted assumptions about there being no need to closely monitor overuse and abuse in an older patient. Certainly (s)he didn’t create an atmosphere at their visits for the patient to discuss her declining function, her fears, her side effects. I feel for her and the ordeal she has been through. But this is not a reason to hysterically raise fears of turning older people into zombies and addicts and scare them so badly that they go back to the bad old days of suffering in pain, isolated and withdrawn and wishing their Maker would just take them.
PROBLEM SOLVED. SORRY GRANNY.
As always, comments are welcome and met with enthusiasm!
I just discovered this site searching for a report on a new Kolodny investigation.
I am a Intractable Pain Disease Patient, Very Complex, Senior 70 yrs old. 1 Chronic pain is the WRONG word. 2 ILLICIT STREET DRUGS ARE NOT LEGAL PRESCRIPTION OPIOIDS that are Highly controlled. First it was HRT’s causing GERD, Gastro issues including the Precancer Barrett’s Esophagus and Gastropresis which took 5 yrs to diagnose from Idiopathic Colitis, I dutifully reported them to the Bad Drug WORTHLESS hotline. Followed by Osteoarthritis drugs doing more GI damage. At 32 I popped a T-11/12 disc opening a heavy college door. Suffered back pain, saw the Chiropractor, helped for a while, then came Predisone for Hives from drug reactions, Steroids for ear infections, Cortisone shots in the spine. Never told the side effects. I now have a RUINED spine, and Osteoporosis -4 because these drugs cause these issues. The OP started when I was 50, they don’t do bone density test at that age. I was young and dumb then and raising 3 boys, fighting parole hearings to keep the Sociopath killer of my 16 yr old in prison. I didn’t have time to be sick. FMS, oh how I’d like to shake the researchers to wake them up it starts at Puberty small issues because that is the first hormone shift for females, and we make up 80% of FMS sufferers. More drug reactions, only worse than Hives. I’ve reached a full Typed Sheet, many grouped. Neurotin, Lyrica both ER trips for AFib. Seems I’ve had a Enlarged Heart with a Mitral Valve leak that was MISSED for 65 yrs. Now FDA is recalling many Hypertension drugs due to Cancer from Chinese Manufacturers. I only get high BP when the pain is excessive of level 10. Now I can’t even have a lowly 5 mg of NORCO because I take a BENZO for Muscle/Nerve/Seizure…Valium a whole 10 mg x 2 a day. Because that is all the FDA says I can have. I need it 3 times a day if you don’t control all the OA, OP, FMS, Thyroid, Neuropathy, Gastropresis (thank GOD 1 Reglan pill broke me out in Hives) It’s Black Boxed for Neurological side effects short term use only,) issues. 1 Undereducated APN refused to refill my Valium for fear of losing her license, not even a Bridge 1 month till I could see my Neurologist. I ended up in the ER with SIBO. BUT ER’s are not equipped to diagnosis SIBO. So they called it Diverticulitis the first time, 2nd time a UT. Both times the PA sent the Amoxicillin to a CLOSED pharmacy when there was a 24 hr 1 half a block. 2 away. 2 wrong diagnosis, 2 wrong antibiotics. Dehydration was not treated, pain not treated when I was nearly Stage 3 Hypertension. Failed to monitor the heart of a known Cardio patient. I see 4 Specialist, besides the Opthamologist or occasionally the Ortho when I suffer a fall. Yes, there are quite a few of those, not just age related, Meniere’s too which is another reason for the Valium, the other med used breaks me out in Hives. Tennessee now has some of the Most Draconian Prescription Opioid laws like Oregon. All based on Kolodny’s, Redfields, and PROP committee LIES. CATO has proven they LIED. Less than 1% become Addicted. Yes, we are dependent on a pain med. So are Thyroid, Diabetics, MS, MD, an a whole list of people on their medications. How many are dependent on GERD medication?
Thank you Dr. Fudin for this blog article; once again, very necessary.
I also appreciate the courageous pain warriors posting comments. They inspire me.
The USA Today video confuses addiction (a brain disorder) with physical dependence (a normal physiologic response – not a disease).
When journalists do not do their homework, harm can come.
Thankfully, blogs like yours, Dr. Fudin, help balance the unfair advantage a large outlet like USA enjoys.
Thank you. All most Media do is regurgitate Kolodny and Krebs. LIES.
We need more Geriatric doctors who can devote more than 10 minutes to our health care. Just as children need Pediatricians who are more patient with them and more focused on childhood diseases.
It’s why I have 4 Specialist, for the extra time they spent in Med School and more knowledge of the disease. It took a Thyroid crisis to teach me that fact.
Dr. Fudin,
It is always disheartening to hear these stories of individuals and families who have suffered great adversity and then see the media take advantage of such misfortunes. It is downright inhumane and very one-sided. The media misconstrues the facts and starts to point fingers without even being educated on the matter and understanding the counter viewpoint. Upon watching the video, I also read the article which appeared below the video. Upon briefly scanning the article, I was not surprised to see Dr. Andrew Kolodony’s name and his contribution. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe Dr. Kolodony and members of PROP’s have also employed these techniques, to play on the emotions of individuals, and have failed. Furthermore, these tactics eventually tarnish the image of patients who have legitimate need of opioids for their chronic pain. These individuals with chronic pain already have numerous tension to overcome, let alone the mental tension that is added on from all the negative media regarding this topic.
Thank you for your insight Dr. Shrivastava. FYI, I do intend to expose the voices of blog participants widely.
It is sad, we now have Intractable Pain Patients moving to Illicit drugs, Alcohol, or Suicide or having Heart Attacks that kill them from pain that goes into Heart Attack zone.
This is March 12, 2019, in the past few weeks 6 Pain Warriors have lost their lives. 1 of our Pain Advocates was killed in a small plane crash.
It has damaged the relationship of doctors with patients. Cancer patients are being denied adequate pain meds by Pharmacies like Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and Hy-Vee.
reason.com/archives/2018/03/08/americas-war-on-pain-pills-is
https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/11/nan-goldins-misleading-oxycontin-story-r
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/overdosing-regulation-how-government-caused-opioid-epidemic?fbclid=IwAR0DGdVANQuo09QYb3X7tt5ixKtHV-x0tVE72eDNzmbuIm3A4q0teMWpHBY
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/3/21/cdc-admits-rx-opioid-deaths-significantly-inflated
http://www.wistv.com/2019/03/03/dea-finds-enough-fentanyl-kill-nearly-million-people-drug-bust-investigators-say/
I’d say this journalist is a misinformed idiot. I worked in nursing homes for 20 years as a medication nurse. We had to beg for pain meds for patients who desperately needed them. I also have the privilege of having many elderly people in my life. If they can get a doc to prescribe something to relieve their pain and allow them to enjoy life some idiot pharmacist gives them “crap ” for taking it. Or some misinformed idiot scares them number telling them you will get addicted or they are drugs and bad for you, so they end up suffering in pain un- necessarily. This journalist is out of touch with reality.
Dr. Fudin,
Like Herb Neeland, I am a member of COFWA. I not only suffer from Adhesive Arachnoiditis, but many other spinal problems. I hate having to go to my pain doctor every month to give a urine sample and ask for a prescription for my opioids, but there is no alternative. I have tried physical therapy, alone as well as with my medications, and it doesn’t work. In fact, my last PT appointment ended in me having more pain because of faulty equipment. I have tried epidurals, and found that they increased my pain. I have taken methadone, and I might as well have been taking a sugar pill.
If it weren’t for my opioids and narcotics, along with muscle relaxers and Lyrica (for neuropathy), I wouldn’t be getting out of bed. I wouldn’t be enrolled in college, trying to get my BS in Criminal Justice. I wouldn’t be able to watch my grandchildren for a few hours while their parents work. I wouldn’t be able to do any of my craft work, and give it as gifts on birthdays or holidays. I wouldn’t be able to take care of my animal companion.
In fact, without my medications, I would find a way to suicide. What I want is quality of life. If my medications give me that, the length of time I live doesn’t matter. I want to LIVE, to be alive, to be able to do things for myself and others, in the remaining years of my life. I am still young (59), and I have so much left to do before I die. I can’t do it without my medications.
Fabulous! The alternatives to opioids, anti-depressants and anti-convulsants, cause far more problems with cognition, fall risk, and medication interactions in anyone, let alone the aging. The hype is instigated in many cases by pharmaceutical companies wanting to push their wares for the latest “reformulated” (really, relabeled) medications. They have deep pockets compared to the average pain patient who benefits from opioid therapy. But our voice is not being heard.
I had the privilege of attending a symposium “Patients as Teachers, Clinicians as Learners” where the media was represented. They want success stories. How can we go about doing this collectively? As a disabled RN – young old – from multiple musculoskeletal pain disorders, I believe any medication, therapy, or alternative treatment should be done with the goal of improving function. I am appalled that persons living with chronic pain have become criminals according to our nations present way of thinking. I am appalled that there are physicians who exploit the elderly for their own agenda. It seems our leaders all have narcolepsy. So who is the Zombie?
It is sad, we now have Intractable Pain Patients moving to Illicit drugs, Alcohol, or Suicide or having Heart Attacks that kill them from pain that goes into Heart Attack zone.
This is March 12, 2019, in the past few weeks 6 Pain Warriors have lost their lives. 1 of our Pain Advocates was killed in a small plane crash.
It has damaged the relationship of doctors with patients. Cancer patients are being denied adequate pain meds by Pharmacies like Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, and Hy-Vee.
reason.com/archives/2018/03/08/americas-war-on-pain-pills-is
https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/11/nan-goldins-misleading-oxycontin-story-r
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/overdosing-regulation-how-government-caused-opioid-epidemic?fbclid=IwAR0DGdVANQuo09QYb3X7tt5ixKtHV-x0tVE72eDNzmbuIm3A4q0teMWpHBY
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2018/3/21/cdc-admits-rx-opioid-deaths-significantly-inflated
http://www.wistv.com/2019/03/03/dea-finds-enough-fentanyl-kill-nearly-million-people-drug-bust-investigators-say/
Do you have Netflix? Look for the Streaming documentaries The Bleeding Edge, STINK, Take Your Pills and Root Cause. All quite enlightening.
My Brother in law has late onset Duchene’s MD. So does his brother who is seeing organ damage already. His son missed it, but his grandson is Early onset, he has been gene tested. The Adult Neurologist won’t treat him until he can’t raise his arms above his head, he has been in speech therapy as the tongue muscles don’t work well. Rural health care is the PITS it mostly doesn’t exist. Last week a Road Rage Bully twice his size (he is 13 and slight) beat him on the school bus. It was videoed. Driver failed to do anything, Principal only gave 3 day in school suspension. His mom is suffering the effect of a Severe Concussion can’t drive, can barely stand. She also has Lupus, Lymes, Liver, Kidney, Lung damage along with 2 botched Knee surgeries. PE teacher thought it was a sprain. Torn Ligament.
Without the OFFICIAL diagnosis of Duchene’s he doesn’t come under Disabilities Act, or apply for Disability, life expectancy is in to his 30’s at best.
You’re right to point out that most articles about opiates are mere repetitions of a “standard” formula for scare-mongering. They are quite predictable, repetitive, and ignoring the other side of the story, despite always having many (sometimes hundreds) of protesting comments from legitimate pain patients.
I also commented on the USA Today article, but we need more articles, not just comments, highlighting the plight of pain patients to balance the picture. I’ve been trying to speak up for us pain patients and recently wrote an article defending Zohydro on Substance.com, but I’m just one tiny voice against the tidal wave of misinformation regularly regurgitated in the media.
It drives me nuts when they keep insisting opiates don’t work long-term, since I’ve been taking them since 1995 (almost 20 years) and they still give me relief. Most of us have tried absolutely everything else and only use opiates as a last resort, but the articles makes it sound like we’re all opiate fiends who can’t get enough.
The anti-opiate folks insist chronic pain can be better treated with various other pain management medications and treatments, but we’re often already using these. The problem is that the other methods don’t work nearly as well, so we can only use them to minimize – not prevent – our need for opiates.
While these drugs are addictive if abused, they have proven to be safe for thousands of years if taken properly as medication. We don’t outlaw cars or alcohol just because some people use them abusively, so why shouldn’t I be able to use prescribed opiates just because other people abuse them and get addicted?
Zyp,
I have published two such articles in two different well respected peer review scientific journals. They include the following:
Atkinson TJ, Schatman ME, Fudin J. The Damage Done By the War on Opioids: The Pendulum Has Swung Too Far. Journal of Pain Research. May 2014. 265-268.
Fudin J, Atkinson TJ. Opioid Prescribing Level Off, but is Less Really More? Pain Medicine. January 2014. 2014; 15: 184–187.
I couldn’t agree with you more!
There is a fine line between addiction and dependency ,I don’t feel as though I’m addicted to pain meds just dependent upon them to give me a better quality of life. I don’t get stoned out of my mind like this video describes, you would never know I took these medications if you didn’t know me .Without these meds I would be paralyzed with intractable pain and not able to function. As it is I’m able to fast walk 3 miles most every morning ,do 100 crunches to keep my abdominal muscles tight . When walking my 3 miles I sweet like a pig and a cold shower afterwards feels great in the summer time. This starts my day off after a few cups of coffee and checking my emails. I have to keep moving and not sit around playing games like the people living here. They tell me I’m not nice because I don’t play cards or dominos with them during the day. They don’t understand just sitting there is painful for me. I must keep myself moving at all times. I make plans the day before to accomplish something new every day. Now my way of life is being threatened because of stories like this one in the video. The guy that said pain medications is just not the answer now days, I didn’t hear him say what to do when all else has failed a person. I’m not about to go back to that life of suffering before I found what best helped my intractable pain. What works for me might not work for the next person ,so don’t tell me what I’m doing is wrong when I’ve been getting by just fine on the pain program I found that works best for me. This media coverage only tells the bad side of opiates and not how these very same medications gave me my life back. I think we need to tell our side of the story and describe how these medications that are so bad for some people gave us our life back that the chronic pain had stolen away.
Hey Dr. Jeff,,,,,,,,,,,I watched the video. USA today, the journalist, the older patients. It was “LUDICROUS”. “YOUNG OLD”, I’m in their category. I would just be preaching to the choir if I told my story, but, I cannot function without the opioids I am prescribed. I have TRIED. I sat in the chair, cried, tried to get comfortable, which was absolutely impossible. So, that’s it……..I know a hundred of these patients. Everyday I read their stories. I am one of the moderators for COFWA. You know who we are……..And for those that don’t. “Circle of Friends with Arachnoiditis.” Spell check refuses to acknowledge the name. So do some docs. Like I said, just preaching to the choir, but thankyou for being our voice. I would rather be addicted, and able to function , interact with my grand daughter, laugh with my wife, than become a “PAIN ZOMBIE”. Crippled with debilitating pain that literally was driving me out of my mind………God bless Doc………Herb “doc” Neeland. OH, btw, for the folks that don’t know me, when I was hurt I was the charge nurse on a detox unit in Las Vegas. So, I know both sides of the fence. Most I took care of belonged there. BUT, there were some that needed to go back home , take their meds, and enjoy life………………thanks!!
I have NAFLD, have had hep c. I have so many things wrong with spine there’s not enough space to name them all. My spine was crushed trying to save my coworker in an on the job accident.in which he died. I haven’t slept in a bed in 8 yrs.Opiates are the only med or therapy that allows me to get up and even go outside, it might be weeks before I even set foot outside my house.I have never did anything wrong and I still can’t get treatment. God bless you Dr Fudin for being a voice for us I just hope we get something done in my lifetime.
Would just like to be able to play with my granddaughter.
Timothy, you might check with your local Hospice, and see if they have a Palliative Care Unit. In these, there are doctors that treat chronic pain, and are under the auspices of the Hospice, which treats end-of-life pain. Sometimes, if you can t find a Pain Management Specialist, Palliative Care can be used.
Hmmmm…. seems that the links to the Eisler article/video are no longer working. Maybe, somebody came to their senses?!
Ooooo, interesting Stew. I’ll see if I can find an active one, but I’m guessing if you didn’t, perhaps they were made to take it down! I’ll be back in a few to check it out! THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!
OK… I found the story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/20/seniors-addiction-prescription-drugs-painkillers/9277489/ Unfortunately, stories like this always expound the evils of drugs for pain management, especially opioids, but say little about the alternative solutions that work better.
Stew, Thanks for the active link. I updated the blog with new link. Hopefully they’ll come to their senses at USA Today and disable all of them! It disgusts me to think how many innocent people could suffer simply because of the USA Today post.
Dr. Fudin,
I was already shaking my head and feeling no wonder my dad can’t get the appropriate medicine for chronic back pain (worsened by a surgery) when suddenly it dawned on me, “What age do they consider old?”
I had a horrified thought: I’ll be 60 in 4 years. I look 40. I feel 100. What age will my fabulous doctor cut me off? I’ll still have that rare genetic disease, assuming I beat the odds and live longer than expected.
How old is old?
Barbie,
That is a great question! Check out this link, http://transgenerational.org/aging/demographics.htm#ixzz1qh5CsFzI
In summary, “Elderly Sub-populations” are as follows…
The “Young Old” 65-74
The first wave of aging Baby Boomers reached full retirement age in 2011.
10,000 new retirees will be added to the Social Security and Medicare rolls each day.
The “Old” 74-84
During the next decade, increased life expectancy will strengthen the wave of aging Boomers and steadily increase their total number contained within the elderly sub-population.
The “Oldest-Old” 85+
In the United States, this group now represents 10% of the older population and will more than triple to 19 million by 2050.
Bottom line, though, I guess as old as you feel both mentally and physically.
I sincerely don’t believe I would be here today without the medication that allows me to stand,walk and sit for brief periods of time. I am a grandmother although the legal reduction of pain medication prevents me from doing what grandmothers should. Please notice that I said the reduction has caused the lack of ability to tolerate the pain and decreases what little activity that I could do. I know that I have tried the useless painful dangerous injections, that surgery is not a option and of course the physical therapy with the well-known pharmacy crawl. I am not a criminal and do believe dealers should be arrested. But to deny me the chance to live a life pain free is cruel. I do see a lot of polypharmacy because socially acceptable medications are being pushed like antidepressants and seizure medication in a attempt to deal with pain. Many of those medications have side effects also that need to be considered. Lack of medication and lack of being active may cause my death even quicker. Will that help my family? I applaud Kim Miller for what she wrote so clearly.
Thanks, Dr. Fudin, for this. I commented as well on the article.
God, I’m getting so tired of that klod, er…Kolodny.
You’re right Jeff, nauseating best describes my feeling after resding this article. Totally one sided. They fail to interview the many pain patients who live with unbearable amounts of pain and opioid therapy provides them with clear thought, alertness, and the ability to get out of bed and function. This saddens me to read these articles one right after the other. It’s such an uphill climb for pain patients to be heard and understood. Thank you for bringing this outdated, inaccurate, one sided article to my attention.
Thank you, as ever, for taking lazy and sensationalist “journalism” to task. I’m just 34 and have been prescribed opioid medications for over ten years for chronic pain from scoliosis and multiple major spinal surgeries. I have two small children and run a business from home. My medications, while not perfect, allow me to function and take part in my life. I take responsibility and have an active role in working with my physicians to find the right balance of treatments to maximize the effectiveness of all the therapies employed to manage my pain. Understanding risks is just as important in pharmacology as it is in surgery or other medical considerations. I’m absolutely disgusted and weary of the vilification of people who take narcotic pain medication. Politics and sensationalistic media have no place in this discussion.
That last sentence really hit home. It has only been a matter of weeks since that was exactly where I was — and I can’t even take pain meds. I believe that chronic pain is so devastating to the human body and brain that deterioration like this can happen because of the pain alone. I could be wrong, I know. But I have been given another chance to participate in my world, thanks to alternative therapy. Of course, since the problems I have will continue, the spectre of being back in that state again sometimes haunts my dreams. So glad for those like you who don’t believe that I, and grannies like me, need to be so limited.
Dr. Fudin, I saw the article of the “Zombie ” old lady earlier today and made the comnent below on the Opposition to Kentucky House Bill 1 Page. It’s amazing (sort of)t hat you and had nearly the same response to the article. Another masterpiece of one-sided media coverage, when there are ample pain patients to offer the counter point to the argument, BUT NO ONE EVER ASKS, as we both point out.
Thanks for always bringing a reality to the crazy Kolodny-driven media pieces of which we are all accustomed to reading unfortunately.
MY COMMENT TO THE ACTUAL ACTICLE FROM USA TODAY:
First, let me say that where Dr. Kolodny is involved, there’s a required amount of skewed numbers and overly dramatic rhetoric about the “evil opioid”. He and his organization, “PROP” are fearmongers responsible tor many one-sided reports on one thing, “Don’t use opioid medications for any reason or they will surely KILL YOU”. While he and his group spout this mantra of doom, the average, legitimate pain patients in this country are NOT getting medications just by asking a doctor. You can barely get post=operative treatment for pain many places in this country,
As long as reports such as these, with data from 2010 and back often cited for criteria, the situation deteriorates for pain patients, People believe what they read in these kind of stories where no patients who are suffering needlessly are interviewed. No stories of the number of suicides from patients’ families whose loved ones ended their lives because they could no longer endure the pain.
The media is as much to blame for this misleading type of coverage that does nothing but misrepresent the situation for chronic pain patients in this country, where we have ample means to take care of people’s pain, but they are denied their basic human rights to have a somewhat enjoyable life because for many just getting out of bed hurts too much,
See the link for “Opposition to Kentucky HB 1-Reform HB 217 aka “Pill Mill Bill”
https://www.facebook.com/…/Opposition…/595049517218134
Kim Miller