General Discussion

Instead I will do an honest and outpouring kind of post. Ignore it as a lot will.

Is there an opioid epidemic? Not really sure. I have not seen the studies and don’t really care about them? Why not? Because I am deeply affected by the doctors being unwilling to prescribe these pills to anyone.

Background: two years, almost to this very day, I was rear ended by a car. I was stopped at a red light, so it is not like I am one of those folks who break this arm just to get pills. There were 8 cars stopped in front of me. So, me stopping should not have come as a surprise to the guy behind me.

The ambulance took me to the ER. I left with a single lidocaine patch, a Valium (they said it would relax my back spasms) and Motrin. I was told if the pain keeps up, take some more Motrin.

Since then, I have been in constant, unrelenting pain. The type of pain where I started not brushing my teeth, because I hurt too much and would cry afterwards. I could only brush my hair once every couple of weeks, because I could not be able to do anything else in the next few days. It was a twofer with brushing my hair. My back hurt but since my accident, raising my arms over my head hurts a lot. Enough to bring me to tears.

I was in such unrelenting pain, I started having suicidal ideations. It was too much. The pain was so bad, sometimes it kept me up for days.

Some of the medical professionals saw my pain, my speech therapist saw me cry through entire sessions. My first PT gave up after only two sessions. They stated I was in too much pain to help. When I went for a sleep study, they saw me cry and tick back and forth for 7 hours straight. In the report, they said I used a whole box of tissues.

The only reason I am here is my son suggesting I try Delta 8 edibles, which were legal in my state. When I told my concussion specialist I was doing them, he said they will use it against me in court and how it is not regulated by the government. I explained the pain would have caused me to commit suicide if I had not started doing them. He shrugged.

If you want to get an idea of how people in chronic pain feel, go to the chronic pain subreddit.

It is ok to fight illegal drugs out in our society. I have nothing against that, except work on the hard stuff and not marijuana. And even though we (chronic pain folks) have copies of government guidelines stating it is ok to prescribe opioids for pain, doctors have become conditioned to all of us being drug seekers, even when we have several different professionals saying they have personally witnessed the abyss of pain some of us experience.

I hope anyone who is behind the opioid crackdown never has anything happen to them that is out of their control - like someone rear ending them. It can happen. And most reasonable folks would think it is ok because if you really need pain pills, the doctors will give it to you. Wrong! Wrong ad anyone can be.

Go to the chronic pain subReddit and see how many people talk about the doctors and ending it all. It will shock you. Remember, this can easily happen to any one of us. Please think of the people who are suffering and unaided in their life changing pain. Please, for the sake of goodness, advocate for those who are in pain but are then labeled drug seekers.

That is all I have spoons for. I hope you and yours never need pain pills the way I do. No one cares. Not a single freaking one of them. Going off to cry now. Even talking about it is traumatic. So much has been stolen from me!!!!!