Hi I was wondering if anyone else is having problems getting any kind of opiate medication since the country has went crazy about any drs. prescribing it? I have not been able to get any in over a year. I was dx'd in Aug of 2004 with atypical tn and I had a mvd surgery in Dec. of 2006. The surgery failed and it was recommended to me to start on an opiate. I am allergic to almost every opiate out there except Fentynal patches. I had the same primary dr. for several yrs and he knew I was in law enforcement and that I was neither an addict or a drug seeker. I had been on Neuronton, Bacoflen, Klonopin and the patch thru him until Sept. last yr. I was dropped as a patient by his office when he re-located which left me scrambling for a new dr. I seen two gp's and was told by both they didn't prescribe opiates or benzos and was referred to pain management whom I had seen in 2006. I never went thru opiate withdrawel (don't ask me why) but I went thru a terrible long withdrawel from the klonipin and even tho it worked like a miracle I vowed never to go back on a benzo and be put in that position where I had to go cold turkey because everyone refused to prescribe it. The pain management dr. said he didn't prescribe opiates which was strange to me but that he would send a referral to the gp to prescribe it who had already told me she wouldn't. Now I seen her in Feb. and she admitted she thought I was a drug seeker during my initial visit with her! Can you imagine how that made me feel? The lowest of low I can tell you. She of course never received the referral from the pain dr. and after numerous calls to her office and his she finally sent me a letter requesting my medical records from the previous dr. because the pain dr. had told her he thought I was dropped as a patient because of medication non-compliance! ie; a drug seeker!!! I had already filled out a medical record release for her last year but the staff conveniently lost it. Filled out another and have been trying desperately to get ahold of first dr. to call them and clear up this mess! Needless to say I have been housebound the majority of time because the Neurontin and Bacoflen isn't cutting the pain and have just been trying to stay as quiet as possible to get thru the pain but as you know that doesn't always work and these thunderstorms we have been having are killing me. Sooo does anyone have any ideas what I can do? Oh and almost all the doctors in my town are not accepting new patients at all and those that do have their receptionists screen the calls and when they find out I have a chronic condition they outright refuse. I've had 4 refuse me just for that. Our Er or urgent care will not prescribe pain meds hardly and when they do it's vicodin or percocet and they make me violently ill. I have never drug shopped in my life, I do not take any illegal drugs, I don't even smoke or drink but I am being vilified as a drug addict and my pain is being dismissed because of addicts here who have bought opiates on the street and over dosed. Why should I be punished for their illegal activity? Sorry so long but I needed to vent a little I guess.

What state are you in? (So that I never, ever go there!! Just kinda kidding!)

To answer your initial question, yes, I have had difficulty in getting pain meds.

Oddly, I am former law enforcement also with absolutely ZERO history of substance abuse. And yet, that seems to count for nothing! I get an attitude when I am forced to go to the ER; And then my neuro "doesn't believe in" opiates and insists that a combo of Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen has an equal effect to Vicodin without the high or risk of addiction - um yeah. Definitely not addicitive, but I wouldn't give it credit for having the same analgesic properties.

I have had Gamma Knife, glycerol injection, and balloon compression on the right side with marginal success. Now, the TN has flared on the left side....hello, Dilantin, haven't we met before?

That is crazy! Acetamenophen and ibuprofen? What does he think you have a headache lol? I swear I think some of them rec'd their degrees online from a college on the back of a matchstick cover! I live in Ohio btw and I swear every day there is a headline in our newspaper about cracking down on prescription drugs. I was going to post a link from todays "Big" headline but the page is acting up. A few articles has stated a few hundred ppl have overdosed on prescription drugs in Ohio in the last year. Ok even one is unacceptable but come on how many die from illegal drugs? Heart disease? Car accidents? O.M.V.I's? They make it so one-sided it sounds like a pandemic. Yes the pill mills are bad especially because of them the doctors who prescribe pain meds to legitimate patients are terrified to do so now and as a result it seems like we are going back to the dark ages where the health community feels like pain is just a side note and heaven forbid we prescribe opiates to terminal patients because hey they might become addicts! I keep telling myself this to shall pass but it still angers me the way the medical field is treating people with chronic pain conditions and acting like we are no better than bottom feeding junkies living on the streets because we want to be able to have some quality of life that unfortunately opiates has become the only release from unrelenting pain.

Oh here's a little sidenote too, My daughter called me at 3am last nite to let me know her neighbor who had had cancer had passed away. She had been at the house with his wife while all the appropiate calls had been made, she said the city police SWOOPED in with 2 police cruisers and 4 officers and had just barely been beat by funeral home to grab up his medications! She said it made it look like a crime scene instead of just a gentle soul passing away from cancer.
I guess you understand where I'm coming from since you were in law enforcement too. I did not ask to placed on disability I was PLACED on disability by their disability doctor and deemed unable to perform my duties and now the medical community is making me feel like I'm some kind of faker and that chronic pain does not exist. I'm sorry I just get soo tired of labeled something I am not nor will ever be....