Community Chat

[momtochloe]

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

((((((mtc))))))

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@QueenDanceALot thank you my friend . . . ever since the details of Prince's passing have been made public it infuriates me even more.

I'll cut my dad's doctor some slack as he was old and was probably overwhelmed by the pharmaceutical SWAT team they sent out to sell this new wonder drug but after all these years it just disgusts me that clearly so many people are still losing their lives so early for no reason and so many doctor's are participating in this downfall.

I was beyond bummed when I heard Prince had passed but now that I know why he passed I am so, so angry as it was for no reason.  No reason at all except profit for big pharma and those they bribe to prescribe this stuff.

[qualitygal]

Thanks for the reminder. It's good to know these things. My DVR is set.

[momtochloe]

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

I am afraid that a friend of mine is addicted to opioids after being prescribed them after a surgery.  He's been taking them WAY too long now.  And combines them with alcohol.  I think his wife is in total denial that this is happening.

It is SO common.  I work very close (physical proximity) to a very sketchy clinic, where addicts are given legal class 3 narcotics to get off illegal opioids.  There was a big expose in our local news about it.  The clinics are all over the place and they are always on the move.

This has been a HUGE contributor to the rise in heroin addiction.  When the addicts can't get their opioids any longer, they go for the cheap and easily available heroin.

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@QueenDanceALot my heart breaks for your friend if he is in the grips of these drugs.  It is mind blowing how addictive they are and what is worse doctor's prescribe them I feel far, far too frequently and now we are wringing our hands over the heroin epidemic.  Gee, I wonder how that happened when you can no longer get your hands on drugs that have completely taken over your entire life and now the doctor's say no more for you and yet offer no other legal alternative.  After watching what my dad went through, there is no way these doctors don't have some semblance of complicity in this but I still put the majority of the blame on pharma.

It makes me sick that more people aren't linking this back to the pharmaceutical companies who started this mess in the first place.

[LilacTree]

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@chrystaltree wrote:

If it's about the over prescribing of narcotics and pain meds; I'll watch.  There's a national crisis revolving around that.  As for prescription drugs in general; I'm on 5 rx meds myself and I thank God and science every single day for those medications.  At best, I would be a pain wracked disabled woman without them;  at worst, I would be dead from a stroke or heart attack.  Either way, I would not have the life I have now.   I won't be hopping on that "I stay away from prescription drugs" bandwagon......I don't want to go where that would take me.

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@chrystaltree I am more and I repeat more than happy with the people that have been able to live a more normal life with these new medications but my personal family experience reflects a much different and painful experience.

My dad was an honored and  decorated WWII veteran who would have lost his left arm if some (thank God!) smarty pants young doctor hadn't stepped in and adapted a new technique of grafting my dad's arm to the blood vessels in his chest to give his injured arm a chance to grow and heal.  If that young doctor hadn't stepped in my dad would have returned home without an arm and let me tell you my dad made the most of what he had.

He also sufferered from other ailments primarily horrible and crippling RA.  It was a constant challenge but was kept under control with Tylenol 3 with codeine but after many years it just wasn't working.

Unfortuntately the combination of my dad being in so much pain and his very elderly doctor who no longer knew what to do (he should have retired years before but my parents wouldn't go anywhere else) prescribed Percodan which was the frontrunner to Percocet and that is when our nightmare began.

At first it was great.  My dad was pain free, he was able to resume normal activities and everyone was happy but as the drug took hold he became what I know now to be an addict (please know we didn't even have alcohol in the house so we were totally clueless as to what was happening).  I remember going with my mom to the pharmacy with our forms and being told it was too soon and then going home and trying to reason with what I  know now know to be my Percodan addicted father.  The last seven days of that prescription were the longest of our lives.

It was an never ending spiral of trying to keep my dad away from his pills and waiting until it was a reasonable time to try and get the prescription refilled.  It was a horrifying and debilitating experience.

My dad eventually passed from many issues that were probably masked by the Percodan but the guilt that we both felt impacted our relationship for a very long time.  I to this day feel like my dad was an experiment for big pharma and ergo I refuse to take any drugs unless I absolultely have to as between big pharma and the FDA, there (to me) is such collusion that I would rather pass a few years early than suffer what my dad went through.  I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

Shame on the entire industry that follows profits over actual health benefits.

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@momtochloe

I am so sorry to hear this story about your dad.  I have RA myself and know the pain which worsens as time passes.  However, I do not take painkillers because they cause side effects that, to me, are worse than the pain.  I detest the feeling that I'm in La La Land and/or sleeping all day.  That's not a life to me. 

Meds prescribed to me that I won't take are bisphosphonates, statins, any pain killers (especially opiates), and the newer meds for RA called biologics.  All are extremely toxic and dangerous.

Also over-prescribing dosages is a huge problem and I hope that comes up tonight.  I am a small-boned woman who has lost two inches in height due to osteoporosis, and I weigh less than I weighed in high school.  Yet the script dosage is geared toward a 6 foot man weighing 200 lbs. 

I don't know the answers and am hopeful we will learn something tonight.

[Still Raining]

After my last surgery I realized that I was way, way too happy to take the next pill.  The thought made me smile.  At least I had the presence of mind to empty the bottle down the disposal and out of temptation.  For the first time I understood how someone can get addicted. 

My daughter still laughs about how she came over and saw me looking at the TV and when she asked if I wanted her to turn it on I just thought for a while and said no I was fine watching it when it was off.  Scary stuff.

[winamac1]

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@sassenach1 wrote:

Thanks, Lilac Tree, for the heads-up.  This is a topic near to my heart as my mother loved her pills.  At one point, she was on 27 different meds that I was aware of. Long, ugly story.

From a big picture perspective, this country has long been dependent on pharmaceuticals as the basis for health care.  Some good, some bad. I stay away from meds as much as possible.  We need to change/modify our approach.

Don't even get me started on commercials for Rx drugs!

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Hi Sass.  ITA--I'm a rep, and I, too, think drugs are overprescribed.  The product I sell now is promoted on TV, but I don't believe it's overprescribed.  

Some of the drugs I've promoted in the past are handed out too readily--antidepressants and mood stabilizers.  For some...they do more harm than good. I don't like the TV commercials.  Heck, they scare many patients away.  Sometimes this isn't a good thing actually.  

[momtochloe]

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@LilacTree wrote:

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@chrystaltree wrote:

If it's about the over prescribing of narcotics and pain meds; I'll watch.  There's a national crisis revolving around that.  As for prescription drugs in general; I'm on 5 rx meds myself and I thank God and science every single day for those medications.  At best, I would be a pain wracked disabled woman without them;  at worst, I would be dead from a stroke or heart attack.  Either way, I would not have the life I have now.   I won't be hopping on that "I stay away from prescription drugs" bandwagon......I don't want to go where that would take me.

---

@chrystaltree I am more and I repeat more than happy with the people that have been able to live a more normal life with these new medications but my personal family experience reflects a much different and painful experience.

My dad was an honored and  decorated WWII veteran who would have lost his left arm if some (thank God!) smarty pants young doctor hadn't stepped in and adapted a new technique of grafting my dad's arm to the blood vessels in his chest to give his injured arm a chance to grow and heal.  If that young doctor hadn't stepped in my dad would have returned home without an arm and let me tell you my dad made the most of what he had.

He also sufferered from other ailments primarily horrible and crippling RA.  It was a constant challenge but was kept under control with Tylenol 3 with codeine but after many years it just wasn't working.

Unfortuntately the combination of my dad being in so much pain and his very elderly doctor who no longer knew what to do (he should have retired years before but my parents wouldn't go anywhere else) prescribed Percodan which was the frontrunner to Percocet and that is when our nightmare began.

At first it was great.  My dad was pain free, he was able to resume normal activities and everyone was happy but as the drug took hold he became what I know now to be an addict (please know we didn't even have alcohol in the house so we were totally clueless as to what was happening).  I remember going with my mom to the pharmacy with our forms and being told it was too soon and then going home and trying to reason with what I  know now know to be my Percodan addicted father.  The last seven days of that prescription were the longest of our lives.

It was an never ending spiral of trying to keep my dad away from his pills and waiting until it was a reasonable time to try and get the prescription refilled.  It was a horrifying and debilitating experience.

My dad eventually passed from many issues that were probably masked by the Percodan but the guilt that we both felt impacted our relationship for a very long time.  I to this day feel like my dad was an experiment for big pharma and ergo I refuse to take any drugs unless I absolultely have to as between big pharma and the FDA, there (to me) is such collusion that I would rather pass a few years early than suffer what my dad went through.  I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

Shame on the entire industry that follows profits over actual health benefits.

---

@momtochloe

I am so sorry to hear this story about your dad.  I have RA myself and know the pain which worsens as time passes.  However, I do not take painkillers because they cause side effects that, to me, are worse than the pain.  I detest the feeling that I'm in La La Land and/or sleeping all day.  That's not a life to me. 

Meds prescribed to me that I won't take are bisphosphonates, statins, any pain killers (especially opiates), and the newer meds for RA called biologics.  All are extremely toxic and dangerous.

Also over-prescribing dosages is a huge problem and I hope that comes up tonight.  I am a small-boned woman who has lost two inches in height due to osteoporosis, and I weigh less than I weighed in high school.  Yet the script dosage is geared toward a 6 foot man weighing 200 lbs. 

I don't know the answers and am hopeful we will learn something tonight.

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I know that you suffer from RA @LilacTree and I am beyond glad that there have been so many advances in the actual treatment of RA instead of just the pain of RA since my dad passed (his last day of work was my last day of high school which was June of 1975).  I have read with much interests the various threads that have discussed RA as I so wish these advances may have been available to my dad during his time although I realize they are not perfect by any means.

There really was nothing available at the time to combat not only the pain but also the inflamation from RA so when Tylenol 3 rolled around it was a Godsend and worked well for both for over a decade but as my dad's tolerance increased it unfortunately led us to Percodan.

I have made my peace with what happened to my dad as my mom and I  did the very best we could.  I am sad that there were so many painful and unfortunate moments because of that drug but what really makes me angry is to realize this has gotten so much worse instead of trying to help people, not addict them.

[QueenDanceALot]

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

((((((mtc))))))

---

@QueenDanceALot thank you my friend . . . ever since the details of Prince's passing have been made public it infuriates me even more.

I'll cut my dad's doctor some slack as he was old and was probably overwhelmed by the pharmaceutical SWAT team they sent out to sell this new wonder drug but after all these years it just disgusts me that clearly so many people are still losing their lives so early for no reason and so many doctor's are participating in this downfall.

I was beyond bummed when I heard Prince had passed but now that I know why he passed I am so, so angry as it was for no reason.  No reason at all except profit for big pharma and those they bribe to prescribe this stuff.

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I have heard and read that doctors are not giving these painkillers out willy-nilly as they have in the past but it is still a HUGE problem.  And then, after people are dependent on them, they are cutting them off and sending them in desperation to heroin. 

Regarding Prince, I hear you.  I had to walk away from someone in my office yesterday who was making fun of Prince and his struggles with pain and opioid addiction.  It made me SO angry I was THIS CLOSE to throttling her.  I had to walk away.

[QueenDanceALot]

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

I am afraid that a friend of mine is addicted to opioids after being prescribed them after a surgery.  He's been taking them WAY too long now.  And combines them with alcohol.  I think his wife is in total denial that this is happening.

It is SO common.  I work very close (physical proximity) to a very sketchy clinic, where addicts are given legal class 3 narcotics to get off illegal opioids.  There was a big expose in our local news about it.  The clinics are all over the place and they are always on the move.

This has been a HUGE contributor to the rise in heroin addiction.  When the addicts can't get their opioids any longer, they go for the cheap and easily available heroin.

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@QueenDanceALot my heart breaks for your friend if he is in the grips of these drugs.  It is mind blowing how addictive they are and what is worse doctor's prescribe them I feel far, far too frequently and now we are wringing our hands over the heroin epidemic.  Gee, I wonder how that happened when you can no longer get your hands on drugs that have completely taken over your entire life and now the doctor's say no more for you and yet offer no other legal alternative.  After watching what my dad went through, there is no way these doctors don't have some semblance of complicity in this but I still put the majority of the blame on pharma.

It makes me sick that more people aren't linking this back to the pharmaceutical companies who started this mess in the first place.

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There was a very sad (and all too common) story on Drugs, Inc. about 3 young people who had gotten addicted to painkillers (prescribed) and then, after they were hooked and no more prescriptions were given, found the easy and cheap alternative of heroin.  It was heartbreaking to listen to them.

[LilacTree]

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@LilacTree wrote:

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@momtochloe wrote:

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@chrystaltree wrote:

If it's about the over prescribing of narcotics and pain meds; I'll watch.  There's a national crisis revolving around that.  As for prescription drugs in general; I'm on 5 rx meds myself and I thank God and science every single day for those medications.  At best, I would be a pain wracked disabled woman without them;  at worst, I would be dead from a stroke or heart attack.  Either way, I would not have the life I have now.   I won't be hopping on that "I stay away from prescription drugs" bandwagon......I don't want to go where that would take me.

---

@chrystaltree I am more and I repeat more than happy with the people that have been able to live a more normal life with these new medications but my personal family experience reflects a much different and painful experience.

My dad was an honored and  decorated WWII veteran who would have lost his left arm if some (thank God!) smarty pants young doctor hadn't stepped in and adapted a new technique of grafting my dad's arm to the blood vessels in his chest to give his injured arm a chance to grow and heal.  If that young doctor hadn't stepped in my dad would have returned home without an arm and let me tell you my dad made the most of what he had.

He also sufferered from other ailments primarily horrible and crippling RA.  It was a constant challenge but was kept under control with Tylenol 3 with codeine but after many years it just wasn't working.

Unfortuntately the combination of my dad being in so much pain and his very elderly doctor who no longer knew what to do (he should have retired years before but my parents wouldn't go anywhere else) prescribed Percodan which was the frontrunner to Percocet and that is when our nightmare began.

At first it was great.  My dad was pain free, he was able to resume normal activities and everyone was happy but as the drug took hold he became what I know now to be an addict (please know we didn't even have alcohol in the house so we were totally clueless as to what was happening).  I remember going with my mom to the pharmacy with our forms and being told it was too soon and then going home and trying to reason with what I  know now know to be my Percodan addicted father.  The last seven days of that prescription were the longest of our lives.

It was an never ending spiral of trying to keep my dad away from his pills and waiting until it was a reasonable time to try and get the prescription refilled.  It was a horrifying and debilitating experience.

My dad eventually passed from many issues that were probably masked by the Percodan but the guilt that we both felt impacted our relationship for a very long time.  I to this day feel like my dad was an experiment for big pharma and ergo I refuse to take any drugs unless I absolultely have to as between big pharma and the FDA, there (to me) is such collusion that I would rather pass a few years early than suffer what my dad went through.  I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

Shame on the entire industry that follows profits over actual health benefits.

---

@momtochloe

I am so sorry to hear this story about your dad.  I have RA myself and know the pain which worsens as time passes.  However, I do not take painkillers because they cause side effects that, to me, are worse than the pain.  I detest the feeling that I'm in La La Land and/or sleeping all day.  That's not a life to me. 

Meds prescribed to me that I won't take are bisphosphonates, statins, any pain killers (especially opiates), and the newer meds for RA called biologics.  All are extremely toxic and dangerous.

Also over-prescribing dosages is a huge problem and I hope that comes up tonight.  I am a small-boned woman who has lost two inches in height due to osteoporosis, and I weigh less than I weighed in high school.  Yet the script dosage is geared toward a 6 foot man weighing 200 lbs. 

I don't know the answers and am hopeful we will learn something tonight.

---

I know that you suffer from RA @LilacTree and I am beyond glad that there have been so many advances in the actual treatment of RA instead of just the pain of RA since my dad passed (his last day of work was my last day of high school which was June of 1975).  I have read with much interests the various threads that have discussed RA as I so wish these advances may have been available to my dad during his time although I realize they are not perfect by any means.

There really was nothing available at the time to combat not only the pain but also the inflamation from RA so when Tylenol 3 rolled around it was a Godsend and worked well for both for over a decade but as my dad's tolerance increased it unfortunately led us to Percodan.

I have made my peace with what happened to my dad as my mom and I  did the very best we could.  I am sad that there were so many painful and unfortunate moments because of that drug but what really makes me angry is to realize this has gotten so much worse instead of trying to help people, not addict them.

---

It seems they spend too much time on researching new drugs for control instead of looking for a cure.  My guess is they are making a fortune on these RA control drugs (they are all over $1,000 per dose) and it's just too lucrative to give that up and spend the money on finding a cure.

I know that sounds bitter of me and I'm sorry if I have offended anyone.