Big Brother Does it Again

New Law on Painkillers Please  click the link to the left and read this short News story.

Big Brother does it again. In trying to protect us from ourselves, they end up harming the most vulnerable of us. Due to several untreatable medical conditions, I have suffered from chronic and sometimes acute pain, moderate to severe, for about ten years. I am on two opiates to try to manage this pain, one slow release to give a base level of relief and the other fast acting to manage breakthrough pain. It is a regime reserved for cancer patients and those who suffer from untreatable, long term conditions with moderate to severe pain.

Without these meds, I cannot function, period. The pain takes over, demanding all my attention and driving me to do anything for relief... I pray, I lay in bed sweating profusely, often vomiting, and I moan because I can't help myself. Tears come, accompanied by anger and frustration that the medication that can make my life bearable is almost impossible to get. And no, I am not an addict. One look at my X-rays and there is no doubt of the need for medication. It's crazy!

The face of advancing pain. It is moderately bad here and can progress to severe within 30 minutes or less.

Our nation and especially Florida has been waging a war on prescription drugs. Sadly, their efforts have added to the suffering of those with legitimate needs than cutting back on those with recreational drives.

For months now, pharmacies have been experiencing a contrived short supply of opiates. I have to spend days trolling for a place where my prescription can be filled. One month, we could only find a place that had 35 pills out of the 120 I was prescribed. I gladly took the lesser amount only to later discover I could not fill the remainder since controlled prescriptions cannot be split. It took two more trips to the doctor's office and many trips to pharmacies to finally fill my whole prescription, but the sad affair left me in several days of agony because I was out of meds. 
Also, in a relatively short time the cost of a month's supply of one of my pain meds soared from $45 to $280!!! This means my copay is now more than the entire cost of the med only a short while back.
Today, I went to fill my prescription for the long acting med, but the new law, which took effect July 1st, requires a diagnosis and specific wording be written on the scrip, so the pharmacist, who knows me well, could not fill the prescription. I was sent back to the doctor who has been my physician for over ten years, and she immediately wrote a new prescription. The one it replaced had been written in June so that I wouldn't have to pay again for an office visit. She didn't charge me for today. 

Then, when I got back to the pharmacy, they only had 35 of the 60 that I needed! We hit the streets again, drug shopping. Finally, after over an hour, we got my meds. It had taken all day and to stay relatively comfortable, I need to spend several hours laying flat in bed... So it's been a painful day and promises to be a worse night. Ridiculous.

Pain keeps me flat parts of every day, but my trusty guard dog keeps me company.

So, here I have a doctor and pharmacists who know me... but on the road, I will just be a stranger looking for pain relief. How hard will it be for a doctor to look at my X-rays, believe I am legit and haven't got falsified papers... These laws turn me into a potential "druggie" and I may really have a time getting help. I am praying.

I am one of the lucky ones, those who are terminal, have cancer or long term incurable disorders. Those who simply hurt from accidents, surgeries, or any less dire causes of pain, no matter how severe can only get a prescription for a 3 to 7 day supply of pain meds! Are they kidding? There is no estimating the amount of suffering that has already been caused by these politicos tampering with drug administration, but now they have, knowingly or not, inflicted a near fatal blow to the humane practice of medicine.

What makes me most frustrated is that there is no real concern for the patient. Most of it is political posturing from both parties. The doctors and pharmacists hate it and they were not really consulted! The government has usurped the ability of professionals to care for the medical and pharmaceutical needs of patients.