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Originally Posted by Equine Dentist
I am back in desperation as usual.. Having the worst flare up yet. My right side is catching up with my left. As I lay here with my wrist and elbow braces on and my lidocaine cream all over, I find an article about nerve blocks for nueropathy pain. I went down this road for years before back surgery and it got me through just fine until the damage was too great. Any thoughts?? Keep in mind that I work with racehorses and can get tested at any time. My nuerologist suggested marijuana, but I can't even have a percocet in me. I always soldier through like a rockstar, but times like this make me want to freak out. It hurts so bad. Pinched nerves in both elbows and wrists and someone is setting me on fire with this heat. Holy crap. Anyway, please let me know if you have any thoughts.
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I was a little surprised to hear that YOU would be randomly drug tested as an equine dentist. The race tracks in my area only test the horses of course, and the jockeys, but not other personnel that attend to the horses. It has been many years since I was on the backside of the track so maybe they do test others now. Do they test all the hot-walkers, grooms, vets, blacksmiths, etc. where you work?
I guess I am really out of touch on track matters since it has been so many years. When I was there, it was long before the days of cell phones, and I remember there was NO telephone service once racing time came.
We were always escorted to the spit box with the winning horse by someone from the racing commission.
Back to the subject at hand,.... couldn't you talk with the racing commission and advise them of your medications and the need for them to avoid any problems that could arise during a random drug test?
I also worked in a hospital, subject to random drug testing, and never had a problem as long as I had given them a list of all my medications and had paperwork to document it.
I would think the racing commission would care most about drug testing the HORSE, not the people that handle the horse. How could any drug use of yours affect the racing ability of the horse? Isn't that why they test the horses after a race, ....to be sure the race was fair and nothing was used to enhance the performance of "the horse"?
I was just really astounded that people working on the backside are now being drug tested. We were finger printed by the commission in order to get our license each year to work on the backside but that was the only thing we were subjected to by the racing commission back then. Oh, did I mention "back then" was a VERY long time ago? (Probably around 40 years ago.)
Sure hope any blocks you receive provide you with relief. Wishing you the best. And very sorry to hear the pain mgt. doc was so unkind.
PS I bought a 5 year old maiden cheap just before he turned 5. He turned out to be a great pleasure horse.
He and my American Saddlebred became great buddies. I got to stand in the winner's circle on several occasions but I was always holding someone else's horse. My thoroughbred was a sweetheart, just not too good at racing.