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Posted 3/2/2008 12:34 PM (GMT 0)
I took some advice from you and forwarded a few of the articles you have posted to my Congressman and actually got a Thank you reply via email and a promise to look into the bill that died on the floor!

My Congressman was or is a Doctor in his past life and so I thought it might be good to start with him.

I certainly cant see where it will hurt anything and who knows maybe he will really look into it or at the very least he will know I am out here and I vote and my issues are not being taken seriously!

Want to add here he is the same Congressman that I filed my "dire need" request during my fight for a faster hearing date for SSD so he has some background info on me.

Thanks Gramps and who knows maybe it will do some good if everyone takes these posts and forwards them to the Congressman in their states? At least whehn issues that concern us come up they will recall that at least one of their voters have some interests in these laws they have to vote on.

Posted 3/3/2008 10:30 AM (GMT 0)
Gramps over the years I have seen numerous shows on prescription drugs from Oprah and the others and it seems they dont put us in a good light.

Alot of them have catchy names like" housewives addicted to prescription pain meds" Just once it would be nice for them to show the other side of this wouldnt it?

All the hype over Oxy and now methadone and the increase in deaths and overdoses but who and where are the shows that indicate these meds change lives for some and actually save lives for others?

A few months back the local paper here ran a month long story on how this lady got addicted to oxy and how it sent her to jail and made her lose her kids,destroyed her life and marraige,isolated her family and forced her into homelessness. These are the kinds of articles that forever hurt us! Not once was there any mention of the many many folks helped by these meds or the lives saved by them. It was all about her and her loses and they even went so far as to ostrazize the Docs who prescribed these meds for her and the ER for "handing out" these meds like halloween candy? Cant say I know who these Docs are or even the ERs handing out meds this way as I am familiar with all the ers and most of the Docs as I have lived here most of my life!

The point is the meds didnt cause her all this greif Gramps her search for happiness and peace all of which she must of been lacking in her life did,no one forced her to lie to the Docs about her pain issues to obtain meds,no one bent her arm to forge scripts or rob folks for money to obtain them illegally and no one is to blame for her putting an addiction before her family and kids,she alone made those choices but yet it made her out to be a saint gone bad by way of the pharmacuetical companies hypes,the Docs who would rather treat pain then deny someone pain meds that actually might be in pain.

How do we get the otherside of this story told? Who will listen to our voices when their storeis make more dramatic reading?

Some days it is just too big a picture to look at and not get discouraged.

Posted 3/4/2008 8:31 PM (GMT 0)
Gramps...it is too cool to hear of all the work you are doing to make this a better world for us all...

Now if only I could be as strong here in AZ. They are pushing legislation "for the children" to record and restrict pain meds and clinics. The legislation wants to track patients, so they don't "doctor shop" and create a state-wide registry for all opiate users and prescribers in much the same way but more thorough than the anti-histamine, sudephedrine. Some of the legislators also want to limit what the doctors can give patients, because extras "will end up in little Timmy's hands".

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Posted 3/5/2008 10:19 AM (GMT 0)

Gramps do you possibly have a link to that email? Want to make sure we all get those letters to the same place!

Sounds like maybe we might in sticking together get the otherside of the story out as I am so sick of opening a paper and turning on the tele to see yet another story of on the housewives addicted to prescription meds!

Posted 3/5/2008 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
I'm also a bit concerned about how the story is presented. Most people don't have a problem with treating cancer pain, or even pain where there's a diagnosis they can come to understand as 'unusual' like RSD. But I think those of us with various back and other pain syndromes, where it's just seen as "back pain" that's "normal" as we get older, then the general public has a more difficult time understanding the need for chronic pain meds. I really hope Dr. Phil or someone can do a show on chronic pain which is undertreated and may not be able to be precisely diagnosed, but the results of the undertreatment are lost lives, including lost work productivity which costs everyone money. And to help the general public understand that all "back pain" is not just a result of aging. I'd give anything to simply have the aches and pains of normal aging. I don't bat an eye at the stiffness in my hands or or knees from arthritis. But that nerve pain and numbness in my feet that others can't "see" is a different story.
Posted 3/6/2008 9:39 AM (GMT 0)

Great point PALady!

No one wants to deny a cancer patient meds in the end and everyone can see some folks pain in their very demeanor and disablities but those you cant see and those who have no cut and dried answers are the very folks that seem to have the most trouble.

Hoping that if the story is done these issues come to the forefront as well,I like you would love to have the normal aches and pains and would take them in minute and run!

Also needs to be addressed is how some folks surgeries to correct only make things worse or at the very least do no good at all. I dont have any more answers as to why some people have success with some OPS and others get no benefit other then to say like always we are individuals and our treatment has to be on those basis as well. You will get those that say " I had my knee replacement" And it worked fine,no more pain! Then like me one worked and one didnt? Same surgeon same procedure,nothing went wrong it just didnt stop my pain afterwards. There is no ryhme or reason and thank God I have a doc that see's these things happening and believes they do.

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