The Opioid Crisis

Oops...I’m sorry...the “you” was a generic “you.” I was “asking” all the folks along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and in the states that are the centers of the apparent overuse. (I say “apparent” because, since I get twelve 30-day Rxs per year, I must be moving the needle on behalf of 11 other folks who aren’t using opioids.)

Some will blame it on poverty. As in in Angela's Ashes people claimed there was some relief from poverty in smoking and there might be something to that seeing as how it's the justification for alcoholism. etc. I suppose numbing oneself with pain medications is not so hard to imagine. It works with alcohol, right? So I do understand now that the "you" was generic. I still stand by my theory that most politicians don't give a shit about poor people, they just pretend they do. Poverty is/was a big factor in Trump's ride to the White House. This area lost a lot of manufacturing jobs that left a lot of people suffering. Desparate people cling to any shred of hope that Trump will bring back jobs. They feel betrayed by both parties. It doesn't matter to them that he lied, just that he challenged The Swamp. I kind of understand how they feel while reminding (a generic) you that doesn't mean I agree.
 
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Yes, ma'am. I forgot to address that part of your post. I just watched Trevor Noah on Colbert. He said that he thinks ALL our politicians should be limited to one term in office. That way, they could actually WORK for that one term...two, four or six years...instead of spending their time raising $$ for the next election. I think I agree.

Again, sorry about the "you." I was so busy trying to NOT name any politicians or specific states, I just started "talking" to the constituents of the politicians I dislike the most.

And why are you up? It's way too late here and I'm likely two times zones behind you and ready to crash again!
 
Ok, ladies....y’all are skirting very close to the line on politics outside of R&R. I understand that politics can affect the health care issue but be careful here.
 
And since I’m waxing eloquent here... hilary1617 Karen and I and our (combined) three daughters went to the beach. Karen and I were in our late 30s and early 40s...5’4”-5’6”-ish...maybe 200# or a bit more. As evening approached, Karen changed her clothes in the restroom/dressing room while I helped the girls shower outside. I sent them in to her one at a time and she dressed them. Then she took the girls outside and put their wet stuff into the fancy trunk, the one that opened ONLY via a button inside her new car. She closed the trunk and I reminded her that my clothes were still in the trunk. She pushed the button. Nothing happened. Again and again. We stopped at the first store that sold clothes, a Montgomery Ward’s. Wearing a swimsuit, sandals and a towel, I proudly strutted in and purchased a dress off the clearance rack. (I went ahead and bought two...same dress, one blue and one black.) We went to dinner. I was wearing my new dress over my swimsuit. We couldn't stop laughing.

Hahahaha! :) When I wore a bigger girl's clothes, I spent a few days of my honeymoon wearing a beer t-shirt that read "So Mauritius - So Delicious" on top and two sarongs tied together to form a skirt on the bottom. That combo was all I could find in local stores that would fit. It was right after 9/11 and somehow when we left Rome our luggage was routed for special bomb-sniffing treatment in Germany - which was the opposite direction from where we were headed. Forced me to hang out beach-side and at very low-key casual locales until my actual clothes were delivered (which was fine by me).

Fortunately Dad doesn't take any painkillers at present, but good reminder to test when he does (gout flare-ups) to make sure he is getting them. Sad to think that is needed, but you're right, it is. There's one resident on his floor who seems to have nearly unbearable, constant back pain. Now, you've got me to wondering if he is being prescribed anything that that isn't being administered.
 
doctor ordered a drug screen to make sure his elderly patient was actually getting her drugs. As he suspected, her results were negative and her family was charged with elder abuse due to them taking her pain meds.

I have no doubt this is happening in nursing homes, too. :mad: people who do this make me hope there is, indeed, a hell for them to burn in!
 
Yes, ma'am. I forgot to address that part of your post. I just watched Trevor Noah on Colbert. He said that he thinks ALL our politicians should be limited to one term in office. That way, they could actually WORK for that one term...two, four or six years...instead of spending their time raising $$ for the next election. I think I agree.

Again, sorry about the "you." I was so busy trying to NOT name any politicians or specific states, I just started "talking" to the constituents of the politicians I dislike the most.

And why are you up? It's way too late here and I'm likely two times zones behind you and ready to crash again!
Gotcha. I have insomnia. I hate insomnia. It's not unusual for me to be up until 4:00 AM. Of course, noon seems to be my wake-up time. I always worked evenings if given a choice. I am not nor have I ever been a day/morning person in any shape or form. Imagine my agony at having to be a TI in the Air Force and teaching a class that began at 0600. Sheer hell.

southernlady Sorry. I will learn to pay attention to what forum a post is on before I go off on a political bent.
 
I live in a county with <30 Rxs per 100 residents in a state with <40 Rxs per 100 residents...why do I have to suffer because of a crisis hundreds of miles away? My pain is chronic. Interstitial Cystisis doesn’t “get better.” It occasionally goes onto remission, but then it appears again later. I haven’t read of any arthritis cures, either. I am VERY fortunate that, so far, my PCP writes me 10mg Percocet, 4x daily, every month. But she could move. (Which is why I order every 30 days, whether I’m out or not. I coulda fronted you two pills!)
He Hon. I am sorry that it has been a long time since I have been around but my life has been so upside down. One of the things I now have and it is related to the Mast Cell Activation Disease I was diagnosed with about 2 months ago, is that wonderful Interstitial Cystitis you mention. I have had urinary issues for years because a Urologist roto rootered my prostate and bladder neck at 35. It took me 3 months to recover from that surgery because he obviously did nerve damage, and now I have this shit like you said goes away for a little while and then I fell like I have to piss all the time and a pain in my groin where I am sure bladder is at and in my schlong. Do you take pain meds for it? The only pain med that works for me is Opana (Oxymorphone) and because of my absorption and metabolism I have to take insane amounts to get any relief. It works well when I can get the dose I need, but Docs are scared to death to write the script for what I need. I was taking 60mg at a time and that is the max daily dose my insurance company will cover if I don't have cancer. Yeah, fuck them. I was taking it for my horrible chronic back pain and then my old PCP basically called me an addict even though the pain Doc (in his same relatively small hospital system) who was trying to fix my back pain said I wasn't anything close to and addict or dependent but since that assbag put the not in my file in the system she couldn't prescribe. I ended up getting a pain pump and it finally has my back under control and some help in abdomen, but the IC it doesn't touch. In fact my new pain Doc put baclofen as well Dilaudid in my pump and I think the baclofen causes flares because I have noticed if I need a bolus (can administer 7 a day) it seems to aggravate symptoms. There are days when I wish I had some pain meds for the IC but I haven't asked my Doc for anything as I can typically manage okay. It sucks but I drink a ton of liquids to keep bladder full and peeing a lot. That helps and my flares are typically a few days.

Do you follow a low histamine diet? I try to watch and I take DAO before eating to help with high histamine foods. FYI - with MCAD there is an overload of histamines and varied symptoms. Anyway, I would love to get some help with the IC but other than heat, walking and keeping the pisser full I don't know anything to help it.
 
He Hon. I am sorry that it has been a long time since I have been around but my life has been so upside down. One of the things I now have and it is related to the Mast Cell Activation Disease I was diagnosed with about 2 months ago, is that wonderful Interstitial Cystitis you mention. I have had urinary issues for years because a Urologist roto rootered my prostate and bladder neck at 35. It took me 3 months to recover from that surgery because he obviously did nerve damage, and now I have this shit like you said goes away for a little while and then I fell like I have to piss all the time and a pain in my groin where I am sure bladder is at and in my schlong. Do you take pain meds for it? The only pain med that works for me is Opana (Oxymorphone) and because of my absorption and metabolism I have to take insane amounts to get any relief. It works well when I can get the dose I need, but Docs are scared to death to write the script for what I need. I was taking 60mg at a time and that is the max daily dose my insurance company will cover if I don't have cancer. Yeah, fuck them. I was taking it for my horrible chronic back pain and then my old PCP basically called me an addict even though the pain Doc (in his same relatively small hospital system) who was trying to fix my back pain said I wasn't anything close to and addict or dependent but since that assbag put the not in my file in the system she couldn't prescribe. I ended up getting a pain pump and it finally has my back under control and some help in abdomen, but the IC it doesn't touch. In fact my new pain Doc put baclofen as well Dilaudid in my pump and I think the baclofen causes flares because I have noticed if I need a bolus (can administer 7 a day) it seems to aggravate symptoms. There are days when I wish I had some pain meds for the IC but I haven't asked my Doc for anything as I can typically manage okay. It sucks but I drink a ton of liquids to keep bladder full and peeing a lot. That helps and my flares are typically a few days.

Do you follow a low histamine diet? I try to watch and I take DAO before eating to help with high histamine foods. FYI - with MCAD there is an overload of histamines and varied symptoms. Anyway, I would love to get some help with the IC but other than heat, walking and keeping the pisser full I don't know anything to help it.
That all sounds so hard. I live with a chronic intractable pain syndrome too because I have fibromyalgia and also arachnoiditis from back injuries and back surgeries. It gives me all the symptoms of a partial spinal cord injury without having had a broken back. It's like torture so I have a spinal cord stimulator.

But I weaned off Fentanyl pain patches, neurontin, baclofen, norco, arthrotec and then two more prescriptions for the side effects about 4.5 years ago to try and have another baby before I got too old. It was so hard but in hindsight I am glad I did because my pain doctor no longer treats people with intractable pain syndromes anymore. So I would've have been forced to wean even quicker! He just does injections (which no longer work for me, pain pumps and spinal cord stimulators. He said the DEA made it too hard for him! I know quite a few other people with chronic pain who have had their medications cut by half or just dismissed from their doctors. My friends are the lucky ones because pot is legal in their state. But one is getting a pain pump soon.

I recently had my SSDI review and they wanted to know what kind of treatment I had! Well what kind of treatment can I even get when there's no one who will treat it?! It was frustrating. So I put every single doctor appointment including my ob appointments because I was pregnant and chiropractor too. Being pregnant made my pain so much better so I am going to call that treatment!
 
He Hon. I am sorry that it has been a long time since I have been around but my life has been so upside down. One of the things I now have and it is related to the Mast Cell Activation Disease I was diagnosed with about 2 months ago, is that wonderful Interstitial Cystitis you mention. I have had urinary issues for years because a Urologist roto rootered my prostate and bladder neck at 35. It took me 3 months to recover from that surgery because he obviously did nerve damage, and now I have this shit like you said goes away for a little while and then I fell like I have to piss all the time and a pain in my groin where I am sure bladder is at and in my schlong. Do you take pain meds for it? The only pain med that works for me is Opana (Oxymorphone) and because of my absorption and metabolism I have to take insane amounts to get any relief. It works well when I can get the dose I need, but Docs are scared to death to write the script for what I need. I was taking 60mg at a time and that is the max daily dose my insurance company will cover if I don't have cancer. Yeah, fuck them. I was taking it for my horrible chronic back pain and then my old PCP basically called me an addict even though the pain Doc (in his same relatively small hospital system) who was trying to fix my back pain said I wasn't anything close to and addict or dependent but since that assbag put the not in my file in the system she couldn't prescribe. I ended up getting a pain pump and it finally has my back under control and some help in abdomen, but the IC it doesn't touch. In fact my new pain Doc put baclofen as well Dilaudid in my pump and I think the baclofen causes flares because I have noticed if I need a bolus (can administer 7 a day) it seems to aggravate symptoms. There are days when I wish I had some pain meds for the IC but I haven't asked my Doc for anything as I can typically manage okay. It sucks but I drink a ton of liquids to keep bladder full and peeing a lot. That helps and my flares are typically a few days.

Do you follow a low histamine diet? I try to watch and I take DAO before eating to help with high histamine foods. FYI - with MCAD there is an overload of histamines and varied symptoms. Anyway, I would love to get some help with the IC but other than heat, walking and keeping the pisser full I don't know anything to help it.

Scott, the thing about IC is that it’s a YMMV disease. What I do...

•after spending a few months in a fetal position on the couch having to pee every 30-40 minutes, I was prescribed an almost unknown drug called URISPAS. Sometimes, I took two. But, like magic, the bladder spasms controlling my life subsided. For a while. There were times I needed Urispas daily for weeks or months on end, and then not again for six months.

•and, opposite of you, I need to keep my bladder empty (while drinking enough water?) because in my mind there is an area in my bladder that is unhappy when urine shows up there. So I need to drink lots of water, but time it so that I can take naps...voiding my bladder right before I nod off.

There are a couple of IC support group sites. I don’t go there much because of the YMMV aspect...but you need to seek them out.

I think I know about your pain, so I’m sorry. (But today I’m recovering from something ugly that happened at Tuesday’s root canal...I may be more help later.)


ETA: I take opioids daily. But they are for everything.
 

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