shh
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2013
I think a big part of the problem is that because of the opiod addiction crisis, doctors are pressured to NOT give pain medicine very often. Which sucks because there are many people in legitimate pain that are really screwed because of that.
This angers me so much from a personal perspective. I'm not an addict, but I have to suffer because others are? Disgusting. I HATE this attitude and it's way too prevalent right now. Every provider or pharmacist treats you like a potential addict if you have a legit pain issue and script for pain meds.
A family member suffered horribly because it was a constant fight to get pain relief in or out of the hospital - and he was the opposite of an addict. He avoided all meds unless absolutely necessary and even then, would split a pain pill into 2 or more doses and stretch out the timeframe between them, so he could minimize the dosage he was taking. Does that sound like an addict to anyone?
And yet providers still treated him like he was a criminal and an addict just because he wanted some relief from a horrible, painful joint disease at the end stages of his life! Had we known this would be the callous attitude, we would have pushed for hospice far earlier, as they don't have an issue with justifiable pain relief.
Curious: can you pursue legal action for something like that? Providers who refuse or ignore pleas for pain relief?