Saturday, August 25, 2007

Why do I even bother writing a blog about pain?

Photo of me 8 months before my injury. The real damage was done by the surgical procedure that followed.
I have asked myself that question a lot lately. After all, no one wants to read about pain. Most people have the perception that bad things only happen to other people. Actually I guess I felt that way myself at one time. Its just human nature to not want to talk about painful or unpleasant things. Like so many other people who live in Chronic Pain, I ask myself more and more every day, Why even GO ON. Why not just put a stop to all of the pain, the sleepless nights.

Even taking pain medication gets very old and I will never be able to understand why anyone would want to take strong opiates that don't need them, because they all have side effects. Personally I think that people who take opioids just for the feeling are unhappy with themselves, with life. The news media makes it harder for people like me to get help because of their biased reporting. I'm not that way, I get high off life, and this beautiful country that GOD has blessed me with. That is one of the reasons that I cannot bring myself to take my own life. I am a man of God and I don't believe that is my call to make.

Someone once ask Rev. Billy Graham if there was a God, why did he allow little children to suffer and die young? Actually it was on the "Larry King Live Show". Rev. Graham looked at Larry King and replied I DON'T KNOW. He went on to say, "If we knew all of the mysteries of God then there would be no reason to worship him. He is absolutely right.

Do I believe there is a God? With every fiber in my body. Why hasn't he healed me? I don't know because I have prayed for him to do that. The best thing I have going for me is when I walk outside about 4:00 A.M. in the morning, which is about the time I go to sleep and look up at the beautiful universe I know his "Holy Spirit" is with me. That and my family is what has kept me going, along with the hope that if I write long enough, the medical profession and the politicians will do something to help me and the 60 million people in this country of all age groups who suffer as I do. It is time for both of them to put an end to the unfair stigmatization of Chronic Pain sufferers being drug addicts. It is a lie and I challenge any of them to show proof of it. They want do that for one reason. THEY CAN'T.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

But it is FDA approved!!


SO WHAT!! Who do you think sits on the advisory boards that approve drugs, artificial discs, or any of the other new appliances and gadgets that are approved. A five person panel of Physicians usually associated with the field that the new product will be used in. The politics and lobbying there is just as great as it is anywhere else in Washington, D.C. Am I saying that everything that the FDA passes is bad. Certainly Not! I am saying that more and more The FDA is influenced by politics and lobbying of big drug and device companies.

The Charite disc is one very recent example. This disc was designed at Charite, hospital in Berlin, Germany almost 20 years ago and the results have been dismal at best. I have personally followed it for 15 years myself. It was purchased by a company owned by Johnson and Johnson and over the objections of several high profile "Ethical Spine Surgeons", it made it through the FDA pretty fast and is now being implanted in to the Lumbar Discs of people like me.

Dr. Charles Rosen and several other great Spine surgeons have started a new Association, Association For Ethics in Spine Surgery. Dr Rosen is one of The Surgeons who has called for the FDA to remove The Charite disc from the market. You can read about his remarks at Whats Wrong with The Charite Disc

There are many great professional surgeons in this country who practice by the oath they took, on the other hand "THERE ARE MANY SURGEONS WHO ARE GREEDY AND DO NOT HAVE THE PATIENTS HEALTH FIRST, WHICH IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE". When I had this new FDA approved procedure that I have talked so much about the Chemopapain injection, the Doctor that performed the procedure on me never mentioned the down side or the possible things that could happen. All he talked about was what a great medical break through it was and how much better I was going to feel. I WISH!!

For a look at one of the Nations Top Surgeons who has been there and done that, read what Dr. Charles V. Burtons views are on this Subject and I will take you to his site so you can read his article complete.

----------------------------------- Dr. Charles V. Burton ------------------------

"During the 1970's the Editor was a representative of organized neurosurgery in the drug and device areas. This involved the writing of standards and it wasn't unusual for standards groups to create rules which "were smarter than they were". Being in Washington at the genesis of medical device legislation the editor experienced firsthand the sport of "character assassination" so well described by Vincent Foster prior to his suicide. In providing testimony to the Congress of the United States government the editor observed a prominent consumer advocate providing false testimony. When this was later brought to his attention in private he acknowledged that he had lied but retorted: "but I made the point didn't I?". This also was quite an eye opener regarding the true nature of the "playing field".

Other "eye openers" have been the government's political agendas. The editor, as a Food and Drug Administration medical device panel chairman observed the process by which knowledgeable consultants were removed from serving on FDA panels because of potential or real conflicts of interest. Rather than protect the public interest by the application of "sunshine" principles, these experts were replaced by politically "correct" minorities for the purpose of "balance". Unfortunately, these choices reflected an expediency dictated by the wrong motives and thus deprived the public of important guidance in the areas under consideration. Effective means of keeping experts as consultants while at the same time negating their potential conflicts of interest were not utilized.

As a member and chairman of local and national ethics committees the Editor became aware that it was not a popular deed to bring up discussions as to what was in the patient's best interest rather than those of the physician or hospital. Minnesota physicians are well-known for placing their patients best interests at the forefront in the physician-patient relationship. The Burton Experience has been that this ethic deteriorates rapidly as the issues go beyond those of immediate patient needs.

Few medical professionals have evidenced to the Editor an awareness of what ethics are or the reasons as to why they are important in health care. Those who have appeared to understand ethics frequently suffer from memory lapses when confronted by self-interest. Medical ethics has been, and continues to be, an afterthought in the medical community. It needs to be reinvented."
The Burton Experience
This is copyrighted material and reprinted with the permission of Dr Charles V. Burton.