Along with the Deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, too, will be missed by many.

That's not what I'm writing for.
I'm writing because the dirt is really gonna hit the fan (possibly), when his autopsy results come in.

It's going to cast a pale over all of us, who take strong medication for pain control.
The sad thing is, that "Perception, becomes truth".

Our friends and families will give us the "eye", and worse, pressure will be put on congress, to pass more restrictive laws!

I was never a big MJ fan. Didn't dislike him, but, didn't buy his music.
But, this kind of tragedy, along with Elvis, is Just what we don't need.
His doctor(s) should have been taking blood tests.

(This is NOT a rant against the Man, M.J., it is only situational, and his doctors should have to answer, Not Us! Who use our meds responsibly!)
The Media in this country is Crazed, anything for a story. They should let this rest, with Michael!

Pete
asb

I really don't think we can be compared to him due to the money he had to get a personal Dr. that lived with him and gave him these meds. It was moraphine and diludid along with many othere.

I was thinking about him last night. They say he was in a lot of pain due to injuries he had. I was wondering if he had RSD and just wasn't diagnosed with it.

He had been burned in the Coke commercial in 84, then he hurt his back and then fell off of the stage. They said he was still in pain from all of these things.

I looked at his hand when he held it up and it was mottled, red and white. He went into seclusion, which is how a lot of us live with RSD. IF not seclusion we at least keep to ourselves a lot.

This was just something that crossed my mind.

I liked some of his music and it's sad that he died this way.

Ada

Hi Pete,

I was thinking the same thing earlier also however like Ada, I don't think people will really be able to compare us due to who he is and the ammount of money he recieved. We are 'normal' people and aren't in the spotlight like Michael Jackson was so I think it would be pretty hard for people to judge us because of that (I hope it will be anyhow).

It's a real shame to hear of Michael Jacksons death and really brings it home to you that some of the medications we are on for pain could cause serious harm if not closely monitored. I know my doctor is also really careful about prescribing me any strong pain meds, especially because of my age.

I didn't really like Michael Jackson however liked some of his music - especially his later ones. My mum and dad used to listen to him quite a lot. I think you really have to seperate his music and him hiself though - his music is really good though I don't agree with the lot of the choices he made.

I hope they find out what was wrong with him and why he passed away. It's so sad he died at such a young age.

While it seems voyeuristic to dwell on this medication issue, I do think it is important to many people in the country, who may profit from this tragedy.

The lists of drugs that can cause sudden death, grows by the hour.

This website grew from post marketing reports by doctors and hospitals about drugs that are problematic when used together or when people become low in electrolytes or dehydrated:

http://www.azcert.org/

All doctors should know this information. But still as I type, many do not.

People using opiates for pain, NEED to understand exactly what can happen to them if they add in other drugs for other things.

Obviously those who think using opiates is a "moral" issue will be jumping on this situation first. But really the information that comes out of this sudden death, can probably generalize to the rest of the patients in this country using any drugs long term. This is the only way we learn, and perhaps save some lives for the future!

Misapplication of drugs of any kind, is the 4 th leading cause of death in America. The general public would be horrified to learn how much we DON'T know about common drugs your doctor may prescribe for you at any time!

I for one am waiting for the autopsy results. We will all have much to learn if they tell us what the results are. This is not to point fingers, but to save others in the future!

pain meds are hard on the heart and are addicts dream,,,,,,our bodies are always wanting thst eurphoric feeling,,then youll up the dose to get there,,i cant because i have a allergic reaction to pain meds,,,,,,10mg percocet gives me shallow breathing,,,Gods way of keeping me straight i guess,,,he knows me,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bobber

I was thinking the same thing. But until someone comes up with a better way to deal with my chronic pain, I'm going to have stick with medication.

If you have to have medication....there are ways to do so safely.

The tragedy with MJ is that his doctors gave him whatever he wanted!

I am reading he was on two different SSRIs! Paxil AND Zoloft?
That makes no sense.
He was supposedly taking Soma with those Demerol shots!
Not safe either. In fact long term use of Demerol ALONE can kill you. One of the metabolites of it causes seizures.

Mixing drugs has recently been in the media besides MJ.
Heath Ledger --one of his drugs was OTC Unisom!
Anna Nicole Smith's son-- mixed methadone with Lexapro in her hospital room no less and died there.

This is a huge problem in this country. Kids are raiding their parents medicine cabinets for fun. One parent brought me a cigar box with hundreds of pills mixed in it, she found in her child's room. He got it at school and was keeping it for another who was in trouble! The kids have parties and take what they want sort of like a Russian Roulette of drugs--- not even knowing doses or what they are swallowing!

People with chronic pain may go to another doctor for another problem, and be given a drug that may react to what they are using for pain. Check those lists at the site I gave you. Many drugs are added there as reports come in!

It does seem a shame with all our technological advances that we cannot help people with the most common complaint--pain, without messy unwanted effects.

I thank all of you for your thoughts on meds for pain. For me, I can't imagine enduring this disorder without appropriate pain meds and others meds that work on nerve pain. Because of the combinations most of us take, I believe it's important to have a pain management Dr. or one Dr.. knowledgeable about interactions of meds. And we need to be responsible to following directions regarding amounts and timing of these meds.
My Dr., these last 5 years, happens to be involved in studies and writing up reports for a couple pharmaceutical companies. I know, for myself, that taking the appropriate meds allows me to sleep, which keeps me sane and in less pain, able to swim and stretch and exercise, which keeps me mobile so far. I have full body RSD 13 years. Besides having RSD, I have fibromyalgia, and trigeminal nerve disorder. I am grateful to have a caring Dr.
I am never really 'comfortable' until after my 2nd set of meds. I take them 3 times a day.
I never feel a 'high', just tolerable comfort level. I'm on vicodin-6 pills a day. I take 2 at a time 3 times a day. We need to be reponsible and honest with our Dr. I can't see how laws could forbid chronic pain patients from being treated in a responsible way. Drs. that don't act responsibly and over medicate their patients don't need a license. We'll see how everything plays out. Take care, loretta

Why, when someone is "suspected" of abusing pain killers are some people always so fast to try and compare those people to people taking pain medication for RSD? What does it have to do with RSD patients, anyway?

Does this kind of comparison happen to cancer patients, MS patients, Fibro patients, ...?

You are correct CRPSbe, it doesn't, however, AintSoBad is correct in his concern because it may effect my wife's treatment in our particular area of the US. One reason it took 4 years for my wife to receive pain control for her RSD was because the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) targeted several pain management doctors in my area, Mclean, Virginia. One very popular doctor found himself in jail for 3 years over a single teenage patient, one out of 300) who sold her prescriptions on the street. He won his appeal while in prison but it put the fear big time into pain doctors. An American TV news program, 60 Minutes, produced a story on him several years ago. The DEA put 2 other doctors through the ringer locking another one up for sometime. As my wife suffered, and expressed this to one of her sisters, who is in the medical field, that her sister really needs her pain under control now because she is losing the battle her sister expressed concern that she would become an addict and that would be worse than the pain and maybe she should move about more, hypnosis, accupunture etc. That, I said, would be fine but first she needs her pain under control. I then asked her if she looked into the disease RSD and she said she did. What is it, I said, that you don't understand then? At this time I thought it would be better if my wife had cancer instead and mentioned it to her in which she agreed.