I'm sorry that this is off topic,but when things come up I think it's best to talk about them at the moment.

As I spoke to Tam earlier about this 'nurse' Of course I mean no disrespect to Tam in this thread.
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"Nurse now cleans and tears lettuce in large bags for me to have to make salads, as well as calorie free Jello with rough fruit inside. Next is a colonoscopy. Nurse said I must take the Colace as my meds have resulted in a state of constant irritation.)"

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As a 'nurse' if I was doing home health I would not be preparing someone's food or for that matter telling you what stool softener you need and what condition your bowels are in. Prescribing and diagnosing are for your doctor to do and not for someone who is not a nurse in the first place.

Just because a person wears scrubs that does not make them licensed personell.
This is one topic that really bothers me. When the receptionist at the doctor's office or the back office person who has no training as a nurse is called "nurse", even by the doctor! The elderly patients really grow to trust this "nurse" which is scary.

The home health business has exploded in growth in the past few years and is not highly regulated. The elderly and disabled have at times been physically abused and even robbed of their life savings by the supposed "nurse." We have to be diligant about being the watch dog for our family that must use home health services. There are some really bad people out there.

The nursing home that my grandmother was in had a "dentist" that would come in and do dental work on the residents who were too weak to make it to the dentists office.
When my mother told me that this dentist was going to do work on my Grandmother I became very suspicious. What dentist would do that kind of work full time? It can't be a big money maker.

Well, the person coming in to work on the poor elderly was not a licensed dentist at all. It was just a woman friend of the dentist.She was doing extractions and many other procedures. I found out this when I called the Dental Board of CA.

The dentist barely had his license he had so many judgements against him and had given out narcotics to his family and friends.He was still doing the bad things that the Board had disciplined him for
No way was this "dentist" going to work on my Grandma!
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This was extracted from the Business & Professions Code of California


2732. Licensure requirement; Use of “R.N.” (return to table of contents)

No person shall engage in the practice of nursing, as defined in Section 2725, without holding a license which is in an active status issued under this chapter except as otherwise provided in this act. Every licensee may be known as a registered nurse and may place the letters “R.N.” after his name. (Added Stats 1939 ch 807 § 2. Amended Stats 1976 ch 1053 § 1, effective September 28, 1976.)

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OK, end of vent. Every person has a pet peeve and this topic is one of mine.

Hi dawn,

Hi Dawn,
You dont kow me but I saw your problem when I was up at 5:00 am and I wanted to write you then I was up in pain again.
But I guess I started reading it in the morning and I finally fell back to sleep after the pain started to be more workable your message caught my eye. I have full boby RSD and Im in a wheelchair June 14th will be 4 yrs and Im still in my cast because I dont have any bone left and Im raising a teen by myself and went through a divoce in the middle of all this. This is only my opption so please only take it like that I had tried Norco and it didnt do anything for me I have a nother medical problem for the last 13 yrs from a surgegry that a dr caused that went bad he could of fixed it then but he didnt and he knew he did it .It said it black and white in my papers but in away I have done through your feelings for all these yeasr because before I broke my foot in 5 places and got RSD I was going back and forth to the hosptial because of the first pain they gave me that name because nothing was helping finally I almost died and I ending up in the same ER that gave me that name and they finally saw what the problem was I ended up having sugery right away but its in my files and no one changed them or said sorry and Im a nurse that worked for hospic .so they finally 11 months later put me on Duragic patches I have been on them for 12 yrs now They are usually given to cancer people for 6 monthes because its very strong and its a habit forming but they ddnt think I was still going to live long I have been on feeding tubs for 5 almost 6 yrs I had to stop in dec 99 right before I got married because of infections I kept getting so they said I didnt have long but Im still here after all these yrs its very hard I weight less then 100 pounds now .When I got RSd they increased the patches because the RSD moved every fast and I had a stimaltor and morphine pummp but in had gotten a hole in my spinal corrdd from the pump so I had to have everthing reoved I am on so much meds and pain meds is on high dges of Durgastic pactes and morphine liquiced (bad speller sorry) for break through pain I have stoped the Morphine because it wasnt touching the pain Im still on the patches because of the first problem pplus the pain dr increases them .my pain level is in the 25s daily and has begin increasing monthly about and I having headaches and half my face is numb and my vision is bad I see color thats it I went in for a CT scan friday but the dr at the hosptial said they would end bt giving me an MRI so he was dont really wanted to do the Ct I said I agree and I would wait unless I couldnt make it through the weekend. So I understand what your feelings are about this I dont know if this will help you but seeing a pain dr is alot better than having to keep going to a hosptial for help for the pain thats the drs that give you that kind of name if a pain dr thinks that or says that to you my option and this is only mine but you are seeing the wrong dr. I live on the Central Coast in Calif. if you feel that the dr feels that way about you go try another dr intil you feel conforable with that dr .You need to be controlable with yourdr . My dr never said that about me because how much pain RSD is and he knows that I stop taking pain meds if they dont help I wouldnt even be on the other patches but that helps with my first medical problems .So just make your dr understand that if it doesnt help that you will tell the dr and that it doesnt help and you wouldnt want to take it and you would want to try something ealse Its hard and dr dont really know what really helps if anthing because its never pain and nothing seems to work that well with this kind of pain juust remember their is nothing yet that works a hunderd % on RSD just do our best with the pain and work together with your dr and you will feel good about yourself and the choices you make. I hope that helps because I still feel the same way you do sometimes and I talk to my dr and he says dont feel that way because we trust each other. Gentle hugs Good Luck

Karen/kitti

this list was published a little over 3 years ago, i think. i just wish i could remember by whom (i used to have a brain, people - believe it or don't!!!):

10 things necessary for healthy living

~ competent perception & expression of feelings
~ sense of being a free & responsible agent
~ stress management
~ self maintenance & physical fitness
~ commitment to family & "other relatives" (very broad definition here)
~ forgiveness (note reverse proportion to resentment)
~ self awareness & growth
~ orienting goals
~ spirituality/connectedness
~ regulated sexual fulfillment

for me, it's useful to look at these sometimes in terms of the severe chronic pain of TOS, as well as the mind-altering aspects of some of the meds used to treat the sx of same, which can be equally debilitating for some of us (OKOKOK, for me! i can only speak for myself here), and the losses involved with an illness such as this one.

because it's really all about balance, isn't it, in the end. and what you find to replace what you've lost, replace it with something else. in order to still have identity, self esteem and meaning in your life, even though it looks different than you might have pictured it pre-injury and maybe you can't work anymore. TOS won't ruin your life, but it can have a serious impact on the quality of that life if you let it.

what a thief in the night. the TOS hag is no better. she's a conspirator from hell! (i'm referring to RSD here.)

dawn, you know what the next right thing is. ask for a long-acting pain med. keep the short-acting one in your toolbox for the breakthrough pain. but i would maybe ask for one without tylenol in it. tylenol is very hard on your liver. (norco has tylenol in it and if you find that you now need to take that on a daily basis [which i'm not at all surprised to hear, don't misunderstand what i am saying here], then just be aware that there are b/t meds that do NOT have tylenol in them, such as opana IR and roxycodone [available in its generic form, oxycodone, as well], which do not contain tylenol and would take that out of the "worry" equation for you).

because, people! as beth pointed out in the other thread, we female TOS'ers tend to worry too much on the natch as it is! that is so right on the money. (beth, darling...so good to see you back on the forum with your pearls of wisdom just d r i p p i n g from you like they always do; i love it!)

alison

Thanks to all of you for sharing. I think being able to read of others feeling the exact same way is a sort of relief to all of us that we are not crazy.( or not crazy alone lol) I can't tell you how many ER docs have looked at me as a drug seeker. Even when i was suffering with a reoccurence of cancer and my hubby carried me in the ER, because I couldnt walk, a dr. I had never seen before looked at my list of meds and said to the nurse" do you see what shes on? She's just looking for more" !!!!!!!! UNREAL!!! He had the nerve to ask me if my pain was really that bad. When I told hm my cancer had reoccured he told me I would not have severe pain from that!! Well yes at this point i got mad! This was my 6th reoccurence and I know exactly how bad it is and I wasted no tim telling him. He walked away. The nurse went and asked him if she could give me something for pain and he actually replied" is there something wrong with your head?" to the nurse!!! Well thankfully it was a nurse who knew my medical history very well .This was the 1st time ever saw a nurse tell off a dr. She told him she was reporting him (and so did i) and tht she was callng my doctor at home for permission to give me somethng. I have had many times like these but ths one was the worst. I wont go into detail but when he examined me (i was having extreme abdominal,groin and back pain) he did an exam there was no need for and was as rough as he could possibly be, rough enough to make me scream! ( internals should not make you scream). Anyway I have never seen him at the ER again and hope I never do. No matter how bad get now I will not go to the er. My family dr. knows me, knows my history, she is the only 1 i allow to prescribe drugs for me. She knows I have never abused medication, in fact she gets mad because i wont take as much as is prescribed. She is a very well known and well respected doctor. Don't other doctors even stop to think about that? No they just look down their noses at people in pain because they have never experienced this kind of pain. I had a great pain specialist until he moved to another province. It took me 5 years to find another.She is different everytime I see her though. One time she is great with me, the next time she seems cold. 1 thing thats has always bothered me is when she says " but you look so good" grrrrrrrrrr. I imagine many of you have heard that from far too many people. Just because we are not wearing a cast anywhwere we look fine so we must be fine. Well i wont have to worry about it anymore because she doesnt want to see me anymore. I have no medical plan , she wanted me to try botox, so she managed to get me a trial 1st lot and she did the whole head, shoulder, neck injection protocol. It took 4 weeks before it had any affect and then it just cut some of my migraines down. It costs $500 to have done. We have 2 sons at home , are both unable to work, and our income is way below the poverty level. My last appointment she told me if i wasnt going to get the botox treatments I might as well not come back. She has been gving me stellate blocks, trigger point injections and injections in my spinal joints for 2 years and now because I cant pay for botox she doesnt want to see me any more. She likes to see a new patient, fix them and send them on their way. Because she can't fix me, im now without a pain doctor again. Sorry ths is so long, I havent had a good week so im kind of venting.
Anyway I too had to stop taking percocet and endocet because of the tylenol and the fact it wasnt long acting. My doctor has finally convinced me that the only way I am going to have any quality of life is with constant pain control. I finally agreed 2 years ago to change to slow release (12 hour) morphine with fast acting morphne for break through. It helped more than anything else did , but I dont think there is anything that can touch this pain.I did have some relief from toradol, but I am prone to ulcers so i couldnt stay on it anyway. I do believe the long acting pain medication is the way to go though. With the short acting ones there are too many highs and lows for it to help regulate your pain. No pain med in the world will even touch your pain if you let it get out of control. A constant level does give some relief.Thanks for letting me ramble (((hugs))) cindy

My heart goes out to all of you who are suffering and in terrible pain, unrelieved by any treatment or medication.

Cindy, Karen/Kitty and everyone who has verbalized about their pain: thank you so much for taking a risk and opening up to us about your suffering.
Those who don't have pain have no idea that there are people in the world suffering so badly. Gosh, I'm at a loss for words these posts have come from deep suffering.

I can't imagine how long it took for you to write your post, I'm sure that you will suffer more pain because you posted to the forum, but I appreciate your efforts.
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Another med used for break through pain is:

OxyIr= Oxycodone instant release( it has no tylenol and is released quickly)

This is what my neurologist advised me:
If you do take a break through med be sure to look it up to make sure it does not have tylenol in it.

If it does have tylenol in it I read somewhere (it was a good source but I just can't remember where it was)

Don't take over 4,000 mg of tylenol per 24 hours.

You may think that you could never take that much but after my rib resection I had to be really carefull not to take too much Percocet. I had that awful burning in the armpit, down the arm and all over my back which I was using desensitization methods to treat and it is gone now.

Percocet has a lot of other names, Endocet, Narvox, Roxicet, Roxilox, Tylox, Percocet 10/650, Percocet 2.5/325, and Percocet 5/325 are all another brand name of Percocet.

The generic name for Percocet is Oxycodone + tylenol (or acetaminophen)

If you take Percocet/Endocet 5/325 or any other tylenol based break through med
2 tabs every 4 hours (which is how it is commonly prescribed) then you take:

oxycodone 5 mg plus Tylenol 325 mg per tablet =325 mg of tylenol X 2 tablest=
650 mg tylenol in 2 tablets
650 mg tylenol every 4 hours=(24 hours in a day divided by every 4 hours)=
6 doses in 24 hours
650 mg tylenol times 6 doses in a 24 hour period=
***3,900 mg of tylenol that you get in that
Percocet/ Endocet 5/325 tabs 2 every 4 hours.

on the topic of Colace....(i take that, too, but not really prescirbed, i just picked it on my own. it comes non-prescription, i used it after each of my three kids and it works reasonably well now, too)

when my pain doc and i last talked about this subject, i told him my way of keeping moving was to eat a lot of salad...he told me that the mechanism of constipation from synthetic opiods was not the same as normal constipation and that salad doesn't really help that problem.

Now, I assume it helps with the general state of things, and keeping yourself in good "moving" condition with things like salad should lessen the effects of the drugs....but i am not sure, really.

I also have noticed that it is less of a problem on Opana than it was when i was taking higher doses of vicodin. Pain doc said that was because Opana was a superior drug...but we did not go into specifics.

well, got to get *going*

Johanna

Everyone has been "AWESOME" with all there responses... So much for the Wealth of information!!!!
I sure will be ready to ask my PM doc the proper way for a longer acting med.. I am really happy so far with this Guy and this University.. They have bent over backwards to do everything possible to help me up to this day and with the friendliest attitudes yet...
I would love to post more but I think I better head off for now...
I just wanted to say Thanks for all the Great Information.... It turned out to be a really helpful thread to everyone...
Many Hugs
Dawn

i already said about the oxycodone "matha," but you had to swoop in with the nursy knowledge and go me one better, didn't you. do the math, as it were. sheesh!

a girl can't win for trying with you people.

but i did want to second what oc female said about the very profound, straight from the heart posts which have come up on this thread from people living each and every second of each and every minute of each and every hour of each and every day in immense physical pain which pain medication doesn't even "begin to touch," as i think our lovely canuck TOS'er cindy stated.

i personally know what that is like, and have lived most of my adult life in that state. i am right there with you, kidz! i have trouble sharing about it, not sure what that's all about. so i thank you for doing that, i know it's a risk and it takes a great deal of courage. and, like my dear friend martha said, we sooooo appreciate the sad and ironic fact that the simple mechanical action of posting what you did, will most likely set off a flare for you - unless you have pretty sophisticated voice-activated software, speakers, orthopedic chairs, great lighting, etc. are ergonomically rockin', in other words. and what CP'er in that much distress can afford all that high-tech gear, pray tell? not this one, i'll tell ya that much! so i want to thank you and remind you to go pack yourselves in ice...posthaste!!! (again with the puns, alison - i know, it's a real problem with me...)

OK. i was given this book which i wanted to share with you guys, because in looking back, it was actually this work which started me, i have to say, on my way to a healing of sorts. well, my TOS f i n a l l y got dx'd, anyway, a short time later. and my personality seems to have been cured! i'm just not quite so angry anymore. i think this author helped me to connect "my" pain with the pain of the world, if that makes any sense whatsoever to anyone reading this. i am not talking about any particular religious perspective here, so please don't misunderstand what i am rather clumsily trying to say. well, just get the book if you're at all interested, i think he's written a couple, actually. i'll shut up now:

"Healing into Life and Death"
by Stephen Levine

(author of "Who Dies?")

just a thought (i have them occasionally...)

oh, yes! and i'm pretty sure there's no tylenol in books, either, but check with your doc. or with martha.

alison