What is your Doctor really writing in your health record?

I often wonder how many Chronic Pain Patients lives have been destroyed because of a doctor putting, not what you are telling him, but what he perceives that you are saying, in your medical records. As a person who has lived in Chronic pain for 25 years, the last 5 years being absolute torture and has been down this road many times, I can tell you, it happens every day. It has happened to me and if you are living in Chronic Pain, I can just about promise you that it has happened to you. Do you have a copy of your medical records now. If not and especially if you have been to several different doctors seeking treatment as most of us have, I would strongly advise you to obtain and keep as many of your records as possible. You might want to prepare yourself to be shocked!!, as to what you may find in them.

While a doctor's office should be a haven for the sick, that is no longer the case, especially for the person suffering from Chronic Pain. They still take your money, as they always have, and they will prescribe you anti-inflamatory, antidepressants, etc, but the minute you mention something stronger, for example, some type of opioid, you have just entered into an aggressive, non trusting relationship with your doctor. All of a sudden, you have become a drug addict, just looking for drugs. Never mind that you are in so much pain that you don't feel that you can go on any longer. Opioid phobia has just kicked in with your doctor and you have committed the unpardonable sin of asking for the only thing that will control your pain, especially if it is at the levels of mine.

Its not enough that people like you and me have to go through this demeaning process with the medical profession trying to find someone with the compassion and education to help us, we usually end up with junk and outright lies placed in our medical records that will haunt us the rest of our lives. Maybe that is one of the reasons that approximately 17,000 people suffering from Chronic Pain kill themselves every year.

Even though this happens everyday all over America, and even though it is a violation of Federal laws, State laws, its unconstitutional and certainly a violation of "human rights" it keeps happening. Why? Because in 1999 some accountant in the GAO reported that opioids especially

Oxycontin was being prescribed to much. Now what in the hell some accountant knows about what is to much to prescribe a person in Chronic Pain, I will never understand , but the committees and sub-committees in congress started holding hearings and hence President Bush and John Ashcroft started the "War on Drugs" with the help of the DEA.

Of course the doctors are now afraid to prescribe any type opioid for fear of the DEA. So what is going to happen to people like you and me? Nothing until we all get together and start demanding our rights. So do you want to be part of the solution or spend the rest of your life in pain. Personally, I hate doing this blog, because its talking about a subject that is my life, and I sit up late at night to write it and I am in pain. I spend a big portition of my life writing congress, working with advocacy groups and writing this blog. You may not be in pain now, but all it takes is an auto accident, a fall and you will find yourself in my world. So step up. We need you!!

What you, the Chronic Pain sufferer can do.

If you are suffering from Chronic Pain like I am PLEASE don't just sit there doing nothing. As for as I am concerned a medical doctor that lets a patient walk out of their office, knowing that individual is suffering at a level of pain they can not endure is violating the very oath they took to become a Doctor in the first place. The statistics are out there. You are paying that person to help you, not just to take your money. As for as I am concerned, the millions of people in this country alone that have to suffer from Chronic Pain are having their "Human Rights" violated every day, by the medical profession that refuses to treat them, by the news media that stigmatizes us and by the politicans who are more interested in catering to the lobbyists than protecting us and making laws to make sure we get the proper treatment.

Even Veterans from Viet Nam all the way through the Veterans of Iraq and other recent conflicts are having the same problems finding treatment and that is a damn shame. That is why it is so important for everyone to get involved in some type of
advocacy group. Look on the left side of my blog at my "favorite sites", pick one and join. Do like I am doing. Take advantage of all of the tools the internet has to offer to have your voice heard. That is the only we will ever get our voice heard.
Call your Congressman and Senators, engage in letter writing to them. I can promise you that the politicans are afraid of the "Blogs", because that is one of the best tools we have to get our voices heard.

Who is supposed to look out for us?

All over this country people are suffering. Old people are laying in "Old age homes and hospitals being undertreated for their pain". People from all walks of life are having to endure levels of pain that is an absolute violation of "human rights". The very profession that we are supposed to look to to help us when we are in pain has stigmatized us. Just walk into a doctors office and mention "chronic pain" and you have immediately entered into a "hostile relationship" with the very person that is supposed to help you. They will however, take your money. What is the first thing they ask you for if you are a new patient? Where are you hurting? NO! What is your problem? NO! Do you have insurance coverage? YES, that is the first thing you hear. The healthcare system in this country is an absolute disaster. I know there are many people in this that do not have health insurance, but I have the best insurance money can buy and it has not helped me. Something has to be done to hold the medical profession accountable for not doing what they are supposed to do.

I have suffered 23 years from unimaginable Chronic Pain, not as a result of the original injury I sustained, but because of the medical procedures done to me. But if I try to get a doctor to help with controlling my pain I am looked at with suspicion. Their excuse is I am afraid you will become addicted. This is ridiculous, yet it happens every day in this country and I will fight it as long as I live.