How the Opioid Crisis is hurting those in pain — especially the elderly.

Nana Pennypockets
Sep 6, 2018 · 5 min read

Well, let me tell you a tale about a little old lady with degenerative disc disease, an arthritic elbow that the orthopod describes as ‘trashed’, bilateral rotator cuff tear, and severe neuropathy.

Pain??? Sure. So what does she do? She starts off using OTC meds, tries chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, physical therapy, TENS units, reflexology, shoe inserts, and trigger point injections of cortisone. All to no avail. Pain persists. Aqua therapy helps but she doesn’t have a pool and Medicare pays only 80% with her supplement picking up 50% of the balance.

Finally, she goes to a pain clinic — regular doctors don’t want to prescribe those nasty opioid drugs — might get the Feds tracking them. So — 14 years going to these ‘pain clinics’ — have to show up for that pain fix once a month, and push, push, push, to undergo more and more expensive ‘treatments’ in addition to the drugs. (None of which gave any relief to her but did increase the doctors’ income). She’s now on oxycodone and oxycontin and then increased to methadone and oxycodone for breakthrough pain. Still living with pain in the 5–6 range.

Now the pain increases with age. No longer able to drive because of the meds. Trapped in the house, playing on the computer and reading books. But — how do these doctors respond as the pain increases? Why — they cut the doses, of course. “Don’t want to risk you becoming addicted.” (Did you know that the addiction rate for those in pain is less than 0.1%? And at 78 — who cares?) Pain is now consistently in the 7–9 range. Hubby is doing shopping and cooking and granddaughter is doing the cleaning.

An aside — less than 1% of pain research has been done on the older generation yet 65% of elders in the community and up to 80% in nursing homes suffer some degree of pain. In addition, once you go on methadone, no insurance will accept you so you’re stuck with the current provider whether good or bad. I would bet that the ‘overdose’ rate of death among oldsters is due to the fact that they either are trying to get at least one day of relief or have given up and overdosing as a way out.

But it gets worse. The number of pills — which heaven forbid — could never go up to 100/month, is quietly reduced without telling her. And poor soul, she didn’t check the prescription before she sent it in to her provider. She continued taking medication as before. Oops — not enough to last the month. She knows better than to call them — that’s a no-no. Next appointment — you guessed it — the urine test showed she hadn’t taken the drug that day. No — don’t let her explain. Because, today, her regular doctor didn’t see her. The owner of the practice was there instead, seeing patients. And wow, what a bully he was. Push, push, push, another ‘treatment’ on her — which she says she wants to think about. (Her reasons for not undergoing the treatment had been discussed numerous time with the regular doctor and he was in the process of attempting to evaluate a possible new diagnosis from new research she had done.)

Oh dear — forgot. Can’t think about anything the doctor wants to do to you. So, because she wasn’t a drab little sycophant, she was accused of selling her drugs on the street. Having had it up to here — you know what she does. She storms out of the clinic and says some nasty words. All in all — she had a good old hissy fit. She let it be known that was her last visit there. And with that, the prescription was ripped out of her hands. “No drugs for you.”

No problem, right? Oh yes — big problem. Doctor then writes her a letter telling her HE (Doctor GOD) has canceled her from HIS clinic for ‘narcotic-non-compliance’. Now, not only does she have no prescriptions for meds, but with that in her record no other pain clinic will touch her. Oh yes, he included a list of several other doctors, including 2 psychiatrists. After all, this must all be in her head and she must be crazy if she won’t take his offered treatment.
Bullying doesn’t happen only to children, it happens to adults as well.

Being an educated lady, with computer savvy, she turns to the internet for alternative pain remedies. Naturally, CBD oils are on the top of the list and she orders some immediately. Only, turns out the portion of CBD (hemp) oil that helps pain most is C B C — which is a component of the THC that is removed from most oils to stay in line with the law. The legal CBC oil helps a wee bit but pain now rages on at the 8–9 level. In addition, with a monthly SS income of $932.00, it eats into the budget. Silly her — she has a bad habit of eating 2 meals a day.

What would you do? Anyone else having these kinds of problems?

She wrote a registered letter, return receipt requested ($6.91) to the doctor requesting it be included in her chart when it was sent to a new provider, explaining her view of what had happened. Will the letter be included? Will she get into a new clinic? Waiting to see what will happen.

Time to legalize medical marijuana? Make cannabis legal nationwide? Punish doctors who don’t adequately treat pain? Move away from family to a state where it’s legal? Suicide? Not for this lady — she’s a fighter. Oh yes, she’s a Registered Nurse with a BS degree and halfway through a Master’s degree. Before retirement, she owned and ran a Home Health Agency. She knows her way around the medical field an now looks like she might be looking for a lawyer who would like to do some pro-bono work. That accusation was defamatory and granddaughter, driving her that day, was there to witness it all.

Time for some research on pain control. Medication for most elderly is the most cost-effective option and easiest to deal with. And yes, it needs close monitoring. Surgical procedures, injections, ablation treatments, are limited in relief and painful. In addition, most receiving them have to continue with pain medication as well.

The opioid crisis for those doing it for a lark is hurting those who need the medication. She agrees, some doctors are overprescribing them and need to re-think before handing pain meds out so freely, but let’s face it — no one likes to be in pain. Time to put this opioid crisis in reality and not punish those who need the medication.

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