What A PAIN!!!

As someone who lives with Chronic Pain, it annoys the crap out of me when someone like the genuis below writes a book about "pain management patients abusing medication"

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/23/zeller.oxycodone.heroin/index.html?hpt=hp_c2&is_LR=1



The term Asshat comes to mind, but I will try to refrain from name calling (ASSHAT!). To start-for the record if you read the article, she starts by describing witnessing a drug deal for "30mg" Roxicodone-mentioning a pile of GREEN pills. Well she should get her eyes checked or fire her fact checker, because last *I* knew-Green Roxicodone are, in fact 15mg. Why is this such a glaring error to me? For one, it was one amongst the series of mistakes Ms. van Zeller also misquotes statistics, has been largely misinformed on street names of medications (which I suspected, did a quick google and discovered on my own), is more into dramatic recreations of her daring venture into discovering the "truth" behind her version of "addiction" that she ignores a lot of important stuff. For example, Oxycodone is a fast acting medication that enters your system and leaves quickly-Oxycontin is absorbed into your bloodstream and releases increments over a period of time-think little mini capsules floating around your blood releasing meds.

She for one neglects to mention that at the time she wrote the book, in response to the numerous issues surrounding Oxycontin (the long acting version of Oxycodone-lasts 12 hours in your system when taken properly) they reformulated the drug which rendered it still effective when taken properly, but made it virtually impossible to abuse short of taking more than prescribed.

She waxes on about the DEA and their "war" on precription drugs. If the DEA paid attention to the doctors prescribing the medication and made sure the doctors were following the rules, trust me, this war would be easier. The only thing she marginally got correct were the "Pill Mills" doctors in Florida-however even now that is being dealt with.

I have been in pain management for 8 years, I have been on Oxycontin for 3 of those years without issue. I haven't gone cruising the dark streets of Fairfield County hoping to score Heroin to relieve my withdrawl. I haven't sold my kids, my body or pawned all that was sacred to score something. This is due to the fact that I have a good, solid doctor who rather than rush me in and out, listens to me, does the appropriate tests and knows the causes of my pain and therefore the proper means to treat it.

The book vilifies pain management doctors as drug pushers, who have agendas and are in with the drug companies to help make money, money, money. Look, Purdue is not angelic by any means, I assume they love profits more than any other company-but they are also willing to have a program to cover their medication 100%-delivered to your door if it works for you and you can't afford it. But they are getting you addicted for a profit. Okay, whatever.

The truth is, unless you have lived with pain-you won't get it. This woman's book takes every negative stereotype and very little fact in it's writing-the article alone has at least 6 instances of misinformation. So where does that leave us-the people who truly have pain?

Ever see "The Shawshank Redemption"? A proverbial version of Andy versus The Sisters.

We get a stygma attached to us, people assume we're sneaking around finding more ways to "get high" which-by the way-when you use long acting medication for awhile, you DON'T get that euphoria anymore. But you DO get pain control. If you're seeking an increase for the high-you've got problems, if you're trying to chase the pain away instead of chasing the dragon-hopefully your doctor knows the difference.

If I was a Cardiac patient and had to take medication to make my heart work properly one wouldn't blink an eye. But having a cane (which I can tell some people seem to think is for no reason) and taking pain medication labels me. And people like the award winning Mariana van Zeller are pasting them on us, daily.