OldGoat wrote:
> Dear Deb,
>
> They may have been thinking Fentora. You know I'd like to get my hands on
> the moron who designates these drugs as "for cancer" and kick them square in
> the nuts, first with the left foot, than with the right.
Me too. No matter what the source of the pain, ppl should have access
to the full spectrum of pain meds.
Then tell me which
> pain is worse. I would like to continue this experiment until I get a
> definite answer.
Actually, I lost a good friend in '06 and he was a long time chronic
painer. And he told me when he was dying that the pain he was in from
the cancer made his chronic pain from before look like childsplay. I
can respect what he felt. He wasnt a big guy, maybe 5'6 or 7, and
just before he got the cancer diagnosis, he weighed about 135, and he
had about the worst back problems I'd ever seen a person endure before.
At that time, he was hospitalized cuz his cancer pain had become so bad
that he couldnt get it under control. He had been the patient of a
great pain doc before the cancer, so he wasnt undermedicated at all for
his chronic non-cancer pain. It took them weeks of trying various meds
and doses to get his pain controlled, and they had to open a central
line for most of his pain meds to go in to get some successful pain
control.
When he was released from the hospital, I imagine he was on a ton of
meds, but we never did discuss what he was taking. I was only
interested in being supportive and saying goodbye.
I remember hearing one of the hospice workers outside on the deck of his
house talking about how they had NEVER heard of anyone getting that much
opiate medicine for pain, especially on someone who was already not at
all a big person to start with, and was getting so emaciated, and they
were scared they were going to cause him to die immediately from what
they were ordered to give him. They had to make sure he got the same
hospice worker from day to day, and even arrange the same person to
cover when the regular worker had days off, so that there wouldnt be
delays by workers too afraid to administer those high doses.
When he really started getting close to dying (he had refused chemo
because the cancer had spread all thru the body and he didnt want to
suffer that way before he died), he lost allot of weight very fast. I
doubt he weighed more then 70 or 75 lbs when he died, and one of the
hospice workers told his wife that his dosage, having come from a
chronic pain/high tolerance situation would be written up by the
hospital doctor, cuz he couldnt find any record of someone with that
body weight taking the megadoses of meds he was giving to my friend.
I read Practical Pain Management journal every month, but after over 2
yrs, its still not shown up there. I guess he either didnt publish, or
he published elsewhere.
> That would be a study worth spending a few million on.
groan!
>
> Pain discrimination covers more ground every time you look at it--og
No kidding. I have indicated here that I believe my friend believed
that his cancer pain was far worse then the chronic pain he'd sufferred
for so many years, and I believed him too...but ultimately, that kinda
call is very subjective, and the chronic pain he had for so many years
didn't carry a death sentence. Long before his cancer diagnosis, my
friend really did some major suffering. Some times, he couldnt even
stand or walk. There were times I had to help his wife get him from his
home to his car or vise versa. I believe that allot of it is just
perception, what pain is worse, etc.. I almost think he was wishing he
just had the chronic pain and no cancer and it wouldn't hurt as much.
No matter what the actual facts are, I think the amount of
discrimination towards cp'ers and the meds they get is ridiculous! Who
is to say that Drug A is only for cancer patients? And worse yet, why
do they jack up the prices of the drugs for cancer patients so high?
When they are that high, even insurance companies arent gonna want to
pay for them, at least for very long. In most cases, they wont allow
them till the person is near death.
As we all know, our system is very broken, and unfortunately, most
cp'ers pay the price for how broken it really is.
