What's the logic to changing med schedule?

This is just a general question as it's been bouncing around in my head out of curiosity...

Why do our PM docs work so hard at getting us to a "manageable" level, and once we're there, they then decide to take some meds away and reduce that very balance patient and doctor worked so hard to achieve in the first place?

I'm of the mindset that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I'm getting the impression the idea is to give you a month of quality and cut your meds back so you're back to being less than optimal.

So what gives? Are we only supposed to have juuuuust enough pain management to not be 8/9/10 and be housebound? Is it assumed we must be over-medicated if we finally get the point where we can now shower comfortably, clean the house and manage a load of laundry or do groceries only twice a week instead of every day because you can only stand in line or walk for 20 minutes max?

I do not understand what appears to be a mysterious game of pain management.





M.

Merrida, I think you hit the nail on the head. Since the push to cut the amount of pain med rx's, it seems that altering your lifestyle is something we are now expected to do. I think the theory is that the reason so much pain meds are needed is because people don't want to stop doing the things they enjoy. I didn't say it made any sense.

But if you're at the first month after med changes and you finally feel alive during the day, even functional, and just have to slow down at night, not all the time,....what's the logic behind changing your meds, and then the one month you find that balance that let's you take a breath of fresh air,.....the doc discusses how now it's time to start taking you down.

Now?

Now that a balance has been achieved that allows the patient to be functional?

What is the point of trying a new blend of meds, taking them, discovering you finally feel as close to functional and normal than you have, and you're getting on with your life,....and it's as if we can feel sufficient relief in that first month of new meds......what on God's green Earth possesses them to mess with this newly created balancing act.

Now that we've found what works for you, let's start taking meds away? Just seems illogical. I'm not talking about adding meds (dosages or increasing mg's)...just letting the same thing work IF the same thing is working.

It's a tease to let patients feel one month of almost-normal, then tell them (as if that one month healed some underlying issue)......that now it's time to cut those meds that we discovered are working well for you, ....out of the program?

I really don't get it. Why try to make the patient comfortable at all if they're going to disrupt it 30 days later after this discovery?





M.

Thank you O Wise One.

And for the record, I appreciate the boot in advance.




M.