Can you tell me how one is supposed to LIVE with Chronic Pain?
I would really like to know, as would 55 million other Chronic Pain Sufferer's in this country. Because as it stands now, most of our physicians fall way short of The Standard for Treating Intractable Chronic Pain patients effectively.
We also have a government agency (DEA), who agreed to the 1998 Model Guidelines for the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain, but has shown total disregard of the contents agreed upon since then. Also during this time, this agency has been conducting itself as though it has the medical knowledge needed to govern our lives and the lives of our doctors. Certainly they do not...(have the medical expertise to do this) but continue to 'set the rules' by which our doctors and we must abide.
Even more alarming...is the continuing rise of state and federal criminal prosecutions of doctors who specialize in the field of 'Pain'. This is very, very frightening to us, as we depend on these professionals for proper pain management. It has left us wondering what lies ahead for us in our future.
So can you tell me how one is supposed to LIVE if they have chronic pain?
Is it really so hard to understand?
Could 55 million people continue to seek out help...if there weren’t a REAL NEED?
There is a real need out here...and it's only getting harder and harder to find.
Most everyone I know who has chronic pain, are either UNDER medicated or NOT medicated at all.
And very few of those who ARE treated...can say they're comfortable, let alone pain-free.
Those of us who are prescribed pain medications...it’s 'the fight of our lives’ to even get the few we are prescribed.
Those whose lives are filled with pain but by outside appearance appear normal?
(fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraine and more)
The fight is even harder, to find help.
What can you tell these people?
What can you tell any of us who experience daily Intractable Chronic Pain, how to go about living the rest of our lives in total agony? Because that's exactly what we have to look forward to.
I'm curious....Do those of you in the Federal Government really believe we’d be at a physician’s door if we weren’t in pain?
The majority of us used to be your "average" citizen. Your average working-class public before our chronic pain.
When did we go from being 'normal American citizens'...to people no longer normal and drug seekers?
Because that's how you treat us.
That's how we're looked at by our families, our friends, our pharmacists and others.
Now more than ever before, the very Doctors who treat us are being sought after as 'pill pushers'...or whatever else the authorities can assert and use against them. All because they treat pain properly.
These doctors end up criminally charged, their practice's closed down, they are financially drained, their futures uncertain...and sadly, sometimes life is lost. (See: Dr. Fisher, Dr. Hurwitz and Dr. Moore)
Do you really think by eliminating the few pain physicians who treat intractable pain in this country - will eliminate the PAIN? It won't. It will only cause more 'cries of pain'. Whether you hear those 'cries' or not, remains to be seen. We will hear the pain.
Why is it when our medical records prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that our body DOES experience daily pain, do we have to fight 'tooth and nail' to get relief?
Don't you think that we have better ways to spend our time than getting our doctors to write prescriptions for us?
Surely you know that if we didn’t need medication to relieve our pain, we wouldn't even be in our doctors offices.
You know this, don't you?
If you believe pain patients are just looking for a 'fix' like a drug addict...then please, go ahead and tell that to the 55 million pain patients in this country today.
I'm sure they will agree with me when I say...'WE NEVER ASKED FOR THIS PAIN.' 'WE NEVER WANTED THE PAIN.'
The truth of the matter is...our government and those of you that continue to agree with and back our government on this failing War on Drugs, (which is in our world now) are only pushing those of us who are in pain...closer to the 'breaking point'.
A 'breaking point', many of us never recover from.
I'd like you to meet my dear, good friend...
JUDY HALL
Rather than my telling you about Judy, go read what she attempted to do last August, when she wrote and sent a incredable
LETTER TO CONGRESS , in which she tried to help our elected officials understand what it means to be a Pain Patient. It has been described as the most 'comprehensible description of the Intractable Patients' life' to date. The sad thing is, Judy wound up at that 'breaking point'...and committed suicide last November. (2001)
Why, you ask?
I'll tell you why.
A total lack of UNDERSTANDING.
All Judy ever wanted was to live a relatively normal life without pain...but no one helped her.
All she ever asked for, was not so much a pain-free life...but a pain-less life.
Now she's gone....because she was denied a simple request for help.
She's gone because YOU and others like you did not...and still do not understand.
There is a 'PAIN PATIENT CRISIS' happening today and it's taking the LIVES of people in PAIN.
So...let me ask you again...
How is one supposed to live when they have Intractable Chronic Pain? Because that’s all we pain patients have ever asked for...TO LIVE.
To have a life again.
A relatively pain free life, to live out until we die with our families.
To take part in living.
Take part in the joys of life, instead of living in torment.
Take part in living like YOU DO.
Living a relatively NORMAL LIFE.
Living with the peace of RELIEF...not trapped in this hell.
How are we supposed to live? You would have to 'live it', to answer that. I can tell you this much about it. It's HELL, living it, knowing it.
I used to like to believe we 'pain patients' were specially chosen by our Creator to have chronic pain. We were chosen because no one else was strong enough to endure the PAIN. By keeping this thought, it made it easier to accept my life of pain.
But I don’t entertain this thought anymore. I know now it's a simple case of ‘Who Can Play The Dirtiest and Endure The Longest’
in this war against pain patients and their doctors.
And it looks like we are losing....
cyn
A Pain Patient
