The Opioid Crisis

Spiky Bugger

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Jan 5, 2014
Messages
6,186
The pattern caused me to jump to several (political, so I won’t go into them here) conclusions. But look at the maps:

1–this map shows how many opioid prescriptions were issued, per 100 residents, in 2017. Note that two states have more people getting opioid prescriptions than there are people. You can click on your state or look at the list.

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxstate2017.html

2– this map breaks it down even more...by county and, in some cases, by city:

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxcounty2017.html


I thought it was enlightening.

Additionally, I have a 24-hour urine collection test to start tomorrow...so I’ll be here posting other random nonsense to entertain myself! I hope I don’t annoy y’all too much.
 
LOLOL The ONLY other time I have heard of storing urine up was when Teflon Mary (aka my bankrupt sister) saved hers to refill her husbands windshield washer fluid resevoir in his new truck. She was under court order to turn it and the house over in a divorce agreement. She also "top shelfed" the toilets and other disgusting things. I still wonder if she was switched at birth.
 
My son has to do 24 hour urines fairly often. Ugh. If it's any consolation, once I had to walk his heavy orange jug of shame down Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills (from our hotel to where his specialist's office is located). I didn't have anything to wrap it in, so I held my head high and marched down the road (in my sensible shoes), pretending at least to myself that it was a designer handbag. Somehow the look wasn't copied by the "it" crowd and didn't make it to the runways at fashion week....

Hope you feel better soon!
 
On a more serious note, when you read about county morgues running out of space for drug OD deaths, cops learning how to administer Narcan in the field, and some drug concoctions so toxic that cops have been sickened by getting small amounts on their hands or clothes, we have a terrible drug problem with no end in sight.
 
And then there is the other side of the problem. People who NEED meds can't get them! I was denied for 2 pills after dental surgery. 2 pills! That's
all I asked for. And I was made to feel bad for even asking. Yup...those 2 pills would have fueled an overwhelming epidemic.
 
I was going to say something snarky the regions being such that perhaps a great deal of opioids are required to live in those depressing states. Then I look at the map by county and saw that I live in one the counties in TN where the prescriptions are >112.5. In all honesty, I was not surprised. For the first time (after many years of fierce independence) I registered as a Democrat so I could vote in the primary for a physician running in our district for Congress. Her main platform was the opioid crisis. She lost (by a lot) to a smug ass who refused to debate and outspent her by about ten times. I expect the statistics to remain high.

Kidney stones have caused me to have several 24 hour collection tests. I don't ask for the toilet seat collector thing. I have one in my linen closet. It's my little part to keep the prolific use of plastics to a minimum.
 
Okay, Larra, top shelfing is pooping (or the placement of feces) into the back water tank of a toilet. This reportedly causes an intense stench that is difficult to diagnose. I guess similar to the shrimp carcasses in the curtain rod prank.

My brother confirms top shelfing is about as nasty as it sounds. He worked as an apprentice plumber for some time and was asked to diagnose and then clean up a case of this in a rental unit. He puked repeatedly.
 
Okay, Larra, top shelfing is pooping (or the placement of feces) into the back water tank of a toilet. This reportedly causes an intense stench that is difficult to diagnose. I guess similar to the shrimp carcasses in the curtain rod prank.

My brother confirms top shelfing is about as nasty as it sounds. He worked as an apprentice plumber for some time and was asked to diagnose and then clean up a case of this in a rental unit. He puked repeatedly.
Ugh.
 
I was going to say something snarky the regions being such that perhaps a great deal of opioids are required to live in those depressing states. Then I look at the map by county and saw that I live in one the counties in TN where the prescriptions are >112.5. In all honesty, I was not surprised. For the first time (after many years of fierce independence) I registered as a Democrat so I could vote in the primary for a physician running in our district for Congress. Her main platform was the opioid crisis. She lost (by a lot) to a smug ass who refused to debate and outspent her by about ten times. I expect the statistics to remain high.

Kidney stones have caused me to have several 24 hour collection tests. I don't ask for the toilet seat collector thing. I have one in my linen closet. It's my little part to keep the prolific use of plastics to a minimum.

I was doing a chicken-egg wonderment. Did you vote that way because you were loaded or are you loaded now because of how the election went? The part I don’t understand is how some of the states w/some of the worst problems are represented by EXTREMELY powerful senators who could maybe address this issue at least in their home states.
 
And then there is the other side of the problem. People who NEED meds can't get them! I was denied for 2 pills after dental surgery. 2 pills! That's
all I asked for. And I was made to feel bad for even asking. Yup...those 2 pills would have fueled an overwhelming epidemic.

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!)
 
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I was doing a chicken-egg wonderment. Did you vote that way because you were loaded or are you loaded now because of how the election went? The part I don’t understand is how some of the states w/some of the worst problems are represented by EXTREMELY powerful senators who could maybe address this issue at least in their home states.
Part of her appeal was that she isn't a politician. She's a physician who actually cares about the health care crisis. Part of her platform was opioid abuse and access to healthcare. This area has had a problem with the over prescribing of opioids for years. I don't know if it's a budget constraint that there aren't more arrests for possession or at least TennCare fraud. On the other hand, there are dozens of busts for meth labs. The state pays hires vans to drive people to pain clinics. The "patients" arrive home to a yard full of people waiting to buy the drugs. Swear to god, when I was working at my last job, a 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.

As for the powerful senators, why would they care about reducing drug abuse when Big Pharma is a major contributor to their campaigns? Cynic that I am, I believe 98% of elected officials don't give a shit about their constituents, but they're very beholden to those who line their pockets.
 
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Part of her appeal was that she isn't a politician. She's a physician who actually cares about the health care crisis. Part of her platform was opioid abuse and access to healthcare. This area has had a problem with the over prescribing of opioids for years. I don't know if it's a budget constraint that there aren't more arrests for possession or at least TennCare fraud. On the other hand, there are dozens of busts for meth labs. The state pays hires vans to drive people to pain clinics. The "patients" arrive home to a yard full of people waiting to buy the drugs. Swear to god, when I was working at my last job, a 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.

As for the powerful senators, why would they care about reducing drug abuse when Big Pharma is a major contributor to their campaigns? Cynic that I am, I believe 98% of elected officials don't give a shit about their constituents, but their very beholden to those who line their pockets.


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.)

And YOU JUST REMINDED ME! (I was going to remind hilary1617 ). ALL OF US WHO HAVE FAMILY MEMBERS WHO NEED PAIN RELIEF AND RESIDE IN GROUP LIVING SITUATIONS WHERE SOMEONE LIKE A “MED TECH” DISPENSES MEDICATIONS, NEED TO DO DRUG TESTS ON OUR LOVED ONES...ESPECIALLY IF THEY SEEM TO HAVE UNRESOLVED PAIN.

Family members who have done that sometimes learn that the meds prescribed for their mom or dad or disabled child somehow don’t make it into their urine or blood stream.

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.








 

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