OMG! Is it ever hard to get pain meds these days

jade2112
jade2112 Posts: 272 Member
Hurt my back last week, don't know how.

Tylenol and ibuprofen didn't help and after four days I said uncle and went to my doctor.

I asked for pain meds and he basically blew me off giving me a sheet of exercises to do. I can hardly move.

Yesterday I could take no more and called him reading the nurse the riot act. She called back saying he'd give me something, but I had to go to physical therapy and I'd need to watch for their call to set up an appointment. She was snippy about the whole matter.

I'm still angry. I've never in my life asked for pain meds before. Only ever taken them when I had major surgery.

I told her to look at my chart and see how many times I'd done so. That it was outrageous for him to send me home to suffer more when I'd been there asking for help, which by the way is his job.

I felt like I was being treated like a prescription seeking junkie, which I'm not.

I'm seriously thinking of changing doctors.
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Replies

  • TheBeerRunner
    TheBeerRunner Posts: 2,777 Member
    The reality is that so many people go in claiming to have back pain or this and that just to get pain pills to either abuse on their own or to sell to make a quick buck. Does it suck? Sure, but what can you do? It's almost as ridiculous as having to go to a pharmacy to get any cold medicine with pseudoephedrine in it. Need some cold medicine in the middle of the night? Good luck if you want psuedoephedrine.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    jade2112 wrote: »
    Hurt my back last week, don't know how.

    Tylenol and ibuprofen didn't help and after four days I said uncle and went to my doctor.

    I asked for pain meds and he basically blew me off giving me a sheet of exercises to do. I can hardly move.

    Yesterday I could take no more and called him reading the nurse the riot act. She called back saying he'd give me something, but I had to go to physical therapy and I'd need to watch for their call to set up an appointment. She was snippy about the whole matter.

    I'm still angry. I've never in my life asked for pain meds before. Only ever taken them when I had major surgery.

    I told her to look at my chart and see how many times I'd done so. That it was outrageous for him to send me home to suffer more when I'd been there asking for help, which by the way is his job.

    I felt like I was being treated like a prescription seeking junkie, which I'm not.

    I'm seriously thinking of changing doctors.

    His job is to give you an rx for pain meds, just called you asked?
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
    So many people abuse prescription pain medicine that doctor's have to be very careful about writing scrips for them. Maybe some muscle relaxers would have helped you more than pain meds?
  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    Are you not at all aware that there is a near epidemic of prescription drug abuse in this country?
  • JenAndSome
    JenAndSome Posts: 1,893 Member
    It is like that because there is such a high instance of addiction and abuse. Did you actually try to do the exercises the doctor gave you to see if it helps? A few years ago my back was so bad that I didn't want to move at all and I thought pain meds would make it all okay. I am so glad my doctor was strict about not giving me pills that just mask the pain.
  • Owlie45
    Owlie45 Posts: 806 Member
    Mystery pain is common for those seeking pills, also sign they may have hurt themselves. So they are going to be on the watch. It doesn't matter how many times you been in there for pain. It also depends on the doctor. My dad got hurt at work, herniated disk, so he went to his l & I doctor and got rx. That night in so much pain went to the er. Dr there was shocked to see no pain meds. Gave him some. After that every new doctor pushed pain pills.

    From my experience ibprophen is more effective with pain. Which is why I went through 2 bottles of it and still have 13 out 15 pain pills when I got my Jones fracture.
  • Valrotha
    Valrotha Posts: 294 Member
    I'm hearing from a lot of health professionals that they're affraid of the DEA. Prescriptions drugs are more of an abuse issue than illicit drugs are, or so I hear, so the DEA is going after doctors and such.

    You are right to seek out another doctor, but I would also chronicle your experience for your elected representatives (especially at the Federal level). The DEA isn't nice, to put it mildly.
  • SuperSexyDork
    SuperSexyDork Posts: 1,669 Member
    Going to a doctor and demanding pain pills instead of asking the doctor to figure out what you did to hurt it and fix it makes you seem like an addict. Calling your doctor and bitching out his nurse because you didn't get any pain pills absolutely screams addict.

    Stop acting like an addict and people won't treat you like one.
  • Lisa1971
    Lisa1971 Posts: 3,069 Member
    We must go to the same doctor because my doc won't give me anything for my painful migraines! Yet, my best friend gets tons of pain meds for a hangnail. I don't understand!
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
    I know. It seems like those of us that don't abuse anything and really need something when an injury happens have to jump through hoops but the drug seekers just get hand meds.
  • MyOwnSunshine
    MyOwnSunshine Posts: 1,312 Member
    Wow. Way to abuse a nurse, who doesn't have prescriptive privileges, instead of discussing your issues with the actual prescriber. I can't imagine why she would be snippy, or why anyone in the office wouldn't want to help you.

    Showing up at a provider's office demanding narcotics is never going to go over well.
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  • ew_david
    ew_david Posts: 3,473 Member
    jade2112 wrote: »
    Hurt my back last week, don't know how.

    Tylenol and ibuprofen didn't help and after four days I said uncle and went to my doctor.

    I asked for pain meds and he basically blew me off giving me a sheet of exercises to do. I can hardly move.

    Yesterday I could take no more and called him reading the nurse the riot act. She called back saying he'd give me something, but I had to go to physical therapy and I'd need to watch for their call to set up an appointment. She was snippy about the whole matter.

    I'm still angry. I've never in my life asked for pain meds before. Only ever taken them when I had major surgery.

    I told her to look at my chart and see how many times I'd done so. That it was outrageous for him to send me home to suffer more when I'd been there asking for help, which by the way is his job.

    I felt like I was being treated like a prescription seeking junkie, which I'm not.

    I'm seriously thinking of changing doctors.

    Doctor shopping will make you look like an addict. Try the exercises first.
  • PRMinx
    PRMinx Posts: 4,585 Member
    Going to a doctor and demanding pain pills instead of asking the doctor to figure out what you did to hurt it and fix it makes you seem like an addict. Calling your doctor and bitching out his nurse because you didn't get any pain pills absolutely screams addict.

    Stop acting like an addict and people won't treat you like one.

    So much this.
  • a_stronger_me13
    a_stronger_me13 Posts: 812 Member
    Do PT and possibly alleviate pain permanently or take pain meds long term...

    Real tough decision.
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    jade2112 wrote: »
    Hurt my back last week, don't know how.

    Tylenol and ibuprofen didn't help and after four days I said uncle and went to my doctor.

    I asked for pain meds and he basically blew me off giving me a sheet of exercises to do. I can hardly move.

    Yesterday I could take no more and called him reading the nurse the riot act. She called back saying he'd give me something, but I had to go to physical therapy and I'd need to watch for their call to set up an appointment. She was snippy about the whole matter.

    I'm still angry. I've never in my life asked for pain meds before. Only ever taken them when I had major surgery.

    I told her to look at my chart and see how many times I'd done so. That it was outrageous for him to send me home to suffer more when I'd been there asking for help, which by the way is his job.

    I felt like I was being treated like a prescription seeking junkie, which I'm not.

    I'm seriously thinking of changing doctors.

    His job isn't to just give you pills whenever you want. It just so happened that Dr's got in the habit of doing that and guess what... now people left and right are getting addicted to em. Nontheless, his job is to diagnose your pain and verify the source. How is covering all it up with pain meds doing this? Sure, if it's bad, meds can help, but have you ever thought that he's trying to isolate the issue?

  • Dawmelvan
    Dawmelvan Posts: 133 Member
    I know it's frustrating, but the fact that you have a doctor that doesn't just hand out pain meds shows that he's actually a good doctor.
  • mojohowitz
    mojohowitz Posts: 900 Member
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  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    mojohowitz wrote: »
    6RPVOkl.gif

    MATING CALL!!!!!

    Gawd I loved that documentary!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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    laughsssssss
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I actually appreciate a doctor who doesn't just prescribe narcotic pain killers right out of the gate.

    Back in March I sprained both of my rotator cuffs in a bicycle crash...I was in a lot of pain and couldn't even lift my arms over my head...my doctor prescribed me some 800 Mg Ibuprofen and sent me to PT...it was the right thing to do. I just wrapped up my rehab at the end of Sept...so about 6 months of rehab work. I'm far better for it in the end.
  • kjm3579
    kjm3579 Posts: 3,974 Member
    Most of my back issues are from poor core strength -- losing weight and working out helped - try the exercises!
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Had to go through the same thing recently but knowing how Rx abuse is rampant, while frustrating, it was understandable. It's unfortunate that the rest of us have to be more assertive about advocating for reasonable pain management because of these idiots...but that's just the reality of the situation.
  • OfficiallySexyVal
    OfficiallySexyVal Posts: 492 Member
    Most of these people on here are right. Pain pill addiction has become an epidemic. I have witnessed this first hand with my son's father! He had a major surgery when he was 25 on his back to correct his "hunch back" also known as Kyphosis. After the surgery he was on pain pills "Percocet" for 6 months while he recovered. Once the 6 month healing process was over the doctor stopped giving my ex his prescription and he started going through withdraws. Needless to say, unfortunately once this was all said and done he ended up going from pills to harder drugs and is now an addict. So you have to understand why some doctors these days are very cautious about who they give medication to and what they prescribe them for. My advice to you is to go see a chiropractor, they do work wonders.
  • JeriAnne84
    JeriAnne84 Posts: 543 Member
    edited November 2014
    The laws have also recently changed about prescribing pain medication. You can't get refills on hydrocodone at all anymore. The DEA has cracked down on doctors to try to stop the abuse of pain medication. It's probably not him being a jerk, he's probably just following the laws. Honestly those pain meds are bad news. It doesn't take long to get hooked. You take say a hydrocodone for 3 - 5 days in a row and your body starts to become accustom to the narcotic in them so you don't feel the high anymore with just one, so you have to up it to two, keep taking one a day and by two months you could be taking 7 a day just to feel the same effect as one.

    Someone I love very much had a problem with them and ended up getting addicted. It was possibly the hardest thing in my life to watch as they got deeper and deeper into abusing them and watching them go from one of the sweetest people I know, to a full blow @$$hole. Their personality completely changed. Finally we haul their @$$ to treatment and after some really difficult withdraws and a very hard year, they are clean and off of pain meds. Its best to avoid them as much as you can. Seriously do exercises and whatever you need to do before you turn to medication.
  • wolverine66
    wolverine66 Posts: 3,779 Member
    i hope you're just cranky because of the nagging pain in your back and you're not usually like this
  • AskTracyAnnK28
    AskTracyAnnK28 Posts: 2,817 Member
    Every time a doctor presribes a narcotic it goes on file. Because of this, doctor's aren't so quick to write a script any more. So it can really suck for someone who's in serious pain.

    I think it'll be just a matter of time before they become completely illegal. Just think: Heroine and Cocaine were both legal drugs at one time.

    I herniated 2 disks a few years ago and was in agony. I started seeing a chiropractor and it got better pretty fast. I also find that 2 Aleve and a Tylenol works pretty well as a pain reliever. Just take them with a bit of food.
  • jenyerhot
    jenyerhot Posts: 4 Member
    The laws have changed but that's not the point here...Pain is tough. I hurt my back last year and just so happens I'm in recovery due to the fact that I had an issue with opioid pain meds 2 years ago. It is a slippery slope. The exercises help for real. I know it doesn't seem like it because you are in pain but...they do. It just takes time. The quick fix isn't always the answer as we are all learning as we lose weight. The quick fix can lead to a long road of agony. Trust me. I feel you but, its the truth.
  • headofphat
    headofphat Posts: 1,597 Member
    They don't want to give up the pain meds but quick as hell to medicate your kids and tell you that they need it. This is why I grow my own meds. FTW.