Welcome, welcome, welcome!

I hope you all stick around to become permanent and active members. Every one of you are welcome to become part of our family. A second cousin, maybe. Or a long lost aunt.

Just kidding. Everyone here are brothers and sisters. I guess our mother wanted a big family...

Hey, welcome. I'm pretty new myself. I just wanted to share something I discovered about posting.

When I am composing a long post, I sometimes time out of my log in as a member. So, if I hit the "submit reply" button I get a message that I am unauthorized to post (since I am no longer logged in) and I have to log in again. But, if I always preview my post before actually posting it, I get a chance to log in again without losing what I have done.

Hello Everyone;

I was looking for info on my original neurosurgeon when I stumbled upon this site. I am hydrocephallic and have been shunted for over 47 years. Is there anyone out there now?

welcome skauzlick

if you havent yet visited our hydrocephalus board here is the quick link to it
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forumdisplay.php?f=14

I joined 10 minutes ago, don't know a "thread" from an "avatar", but am dazzled by that welcome sign! Thanks for the wild welcome and the feeling it gave me - humor, which saves my life on a regular basis, is not prohibited here.

glad you found us skp722

here is the full index to our forums here at NeuroTalk so look around and get to know our other members
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com

My Google alert on the phrase "Richard Paey" found this site, so I thought I'd join, listen a while, and comment occasionally. Richard Paey is a serious chronic pain patient whose home was raided in early 1997 by his local sheriff because Richard was using "too much" opioid (mainly Percocet). When Richard's doctor was threatened by DEA and told that Richard was selling his pills, his MD abandoned him and Richard committed prescription fraud to get relief. The local prosecutor then hounded him for 7 years through 3 trials and finally got him convicted under Chapter 893 of the FL Statutes. Richard in now 3 yrs "down" on a 25 year mandatory minimum (i.e. no parole allowed) sentence. He is reasonably comfortable, his destroyed spine fed by a sewed-in morphine pump, but also suffers advanced MS. He lives in a wheelchair in the FL Prison near Daytona Beach.

He has exhausted all his appeals in FL except asking Governor Charlie Crist for clemency, as the FL Appeals Court suggested he do when they turned him down 2-1 back in December. The FL Supreme Court has declined to hear the case. The American Pain Foundation has gone to bat for Richard, urging Americans to write Gov Crist. you can do this at http://painfoundation.org/ where Richard is currently featured at the top of that page. You do not need to be a Florida resident; in fact I think non-residents have more clout owing to FL's tourist-rich economy.

If anyone wants to read the decision of the FL Appeals Court, just let me know.

By way of full disclosure, I've been an advisor for about nine years to www.november.org, the organization of the families/friends of drug prisoners. I came off the sidelines when I realized that the drug war had escalated so far beyond the point of diminishing returns that each uptick now causes far more societal damage than it prevents. Most of the damage is done to people too weak to fight. Richard happens to have both the will and the resources to fight. His case is an example of the imbalance the drug war has brought to the criminal justice system.

Richard is serving his country in that FL Prison by helping educate Americans on the need to carve out a space in anti-drug law for legitimate pain patients. This holy war against docs and patients must end.

Now I'll shut up for a while......................

p.s. I first saw the Paey family in a Pinellas-Pasco Florida courtroom in August 2002. I walked away from that hearing almost sick to my stomach after watching several local police talking and laughing among themselves during the hearing, at which a sick man in a wheelchair was to be sentenced to 25 years, no parole. As it turned out, Paey's lawyer gently persuaded the judge that he had no choice but to overturn the jury verdict at the trial at which he - the judge - had presided. It was on a technicality. The judge was so miffed he set Paey's bail at $1 million, an amount later reduced and a different judge assigned to the case.

Hi John and Welcome to NeuroTalk.

I am a chronic pain patient, so I have followed Richard Paey's case and the whole thing just makes me sick to my stomach. What happened to him could have happened to anyone with chronic pain.

The one thing that has bothered me the most is when I read that he tried to get approved for the internal morphine pump years before his arrest - but was denied insurance approval for the surgery of the implant.... and now he has one. He had to go to prison to get the medical treatment he most needed for his chronic pain - yet he ended up in prison because he was trying to treat his chronic pain. This "war on drugs" sure isn't helping anyone, especially chronic pain patients like Richard Paey and the pain management doctors who try to help their patients.

Welcome to NeuroTalk

Hi John, thanks for the info on the Richard Paey case, I hadn't heard about it yet, welcome to NeuroTalk! Hope you find what you're looking for here.

Wow what a nice thread for a newbie like myself to pop into...thanks ya'll sweeties......