Opioid Crisis is Hurting People Who Really Have Pain

I have had Fibromyalgia for 6 years. In the beginning, before I started treatment, I was given Tramadol for the pain. I took it about once every two weeks, only when my pain was really bad.

My doctor would give me refills because I took it sparingly. Today I can still get my prescription but with less pills and no refills. I have chronic pain. I have a bad back from all my years of nursing. Sometimes I could just cry because the pain is overwhelming.

I had some extensive dental work done about a month ago. My dentist told me to get some Motrin PM at the pharmacy. I said "you are kidding right"? She said "no this is the new law that has been passed to give out narcotics sparingly". I left the office and suffered with pain because I could not get any pain relief with Motrin.

Chronic pain sufferers are getting the shaft because of drug addicts. Pain management use to be the fifth vital sign and you better make sure you give them pain medicine it's their right not to suffer. That was many moons ago. When I worked at the hospital, the same patients would come over and over again stating they had severe pain to get narcotics. They would visit every hospital in the vacinity to obtain pain medicine.

Someone caught on and that was that. People were dying daily because of narcotic addictions.

The first wave of Opioid addiction started in 1991. Physician's started prescribing narcotics for any and every kind of pain. It was first used to treat cancer patients and then things blew up.

The second wave began in 2010 as the deaths increased of heroine overdose. From 2002 to 2013, approximately 80% of heroin users admitted to misusing prescription opioids before turning to heroin. It was then that a crackdown came to pill mills and doctors prescribing narcotics. After prescription medications went on lock down, heroine became the next drug of choice. Deaths due to heroin-related overdose increased by 286% since 2010.

Pharmaceutical companies were pushing narcotics telling doctors that these pain medications are non-addicting which is farther then the truth.

There have always been drug addicts, the drug of choice has just changed. Now we watch our loved ones die horrible over dose deaths because of pain medication addiction leading to heroine addiction.

I had major abdominal surgery a year ago. Before surgery they gave me Celebrex, which is a medication for arthritis and 1350 milligrams of Tylenol. The nurse said this was supposed to help with pain after surgery. What? I had my guts ripped out and you want to give me Tylenol that wore off before my surgery ended.

People with chronic pain are receiving topical creams, non-steroid pain medications such as Tylenol and Motrin, Anti-Depressants, Muscle Relaxers, Anti-Convulsion medications, heat and ice and injections of steroids. When these fail, you will be given a three day supply of Narcotics. Who cares that the other drugs can cause your liver to fail. This is considered a safe alternative.

Doctors are under scrutiny because pharmaceutical companies were greedy. Before my doctor would give me a prescription for Tramadol he told me to use Aleve first and then take the tramadol if it did not help.

I have chronic pain and I feel like I am being treated like a drug addict. I think that most people with my condition are not abusing narcotics. We just want to live a life of being pain free which has now become a real problem.

Its like the epidemic of Benzo's. Women became addicted to Xanax and Klonipin which used to be called mothers little helper. It is for anxiety and doctors never had a problem prescribing it. Women in the 1950's were prescribe Xanax like it was candy and now you must be drug tested to see if its in your system in order to get a refill.

I think for the most part, people with chronic pain, do not abuse medication. So we suffer for those who are addicted. This is turning people out to the streets to get the drugs they need to help them be pain free. This is causing senseless deaths to occur. Do you think drug dealers feel bad that they have killed hundreds of thousands of people? Do they care how much money is being spent on Narcan? They would probably just walk over a body that has overdosed and go home and count their money laughing all the way to the bank. Not a real bank but their bank.

The opioid epidemic is growing disproportionately among women. From 1999 through 2016, mortality rates for opioid overdose increased 507% among women, compared to 321% among men, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Deaths related to prescription opioid as well as heroin use increased at nearly twice the rate for women as for men. (https://www.rti.org/insights/women-and-opioid-epidemic).

So let's get this straight. More women are dying because of Opioid addiction. More women seem to be more addictive to drugs then men. Women are dying at a high rate of overdosing on heroine sold to them by men (drug dealers). It's not over either.

This will just continue to get bigger and bigger. More deaths are occurring everyday. This is painting an ugly picture for America. The drug crisis is real but so is chronic pain. We must end suffering and we must end drug addiction.

Is there a magic pill for this? No. We just have to wait and see.