How many more?
Since my experience with the so called super virus and my following medical problems, I have received a number of e mails from people who find themselves in similar circumstances.I refer to the trouble people find themselves in when they attempt to find a physician in B.C. that will prescribe pain medication,often for problems they found themselves in in other provinces or states.It seems that the purge we had in the early 80's not only removed every doctor with any empathy for such patients but introduced some kind of regimen that has doctors terrified to even broach the subject of pain management.Most of these people are not former addicts,like myself,but are straight people that have no experience with being labeled, rejected,accused and ignored before being tossed from the office.The common thread in their complaints is that they are being treated like drug addicts and criminals which,of course,they're not.Funny how circumstances can put people in the same boat and yet they still don't feel any connection with the others around them.People use hard drugs for a very simple reason.They are in pain.It's not always the kind that shows to the eye but it's pain none the less.When I hear from these people they often were receiving pain medication at doses that doctors in this province consider drug abuse.Never mind it's often barely working as it is.The B.C. medical system has one answer for these people.They send them to a methadone clinic for treatment.Never mind that methadone sucks as a painkiller.It's "legal".I won't go into the whole rant again,I was interested in finding out how many people have found themselves in similar circumstances?I have no idea what to do with the information.That will depend on how many people are involved.There are so few doctors that will prescribe pain killers at a level that actually manages the pain that I cannot recommend a doctor to anyone else.I will,however,try to put something together if there are enough people in similar circumstances.People put on methadone will have one hell of a time getting off and for opiate drugs to work it's essential to get off of the methadone.I know pain is often too much to manage for the lengths of time required to work your way onto a pain doctors list.Remember, if you feel you must go on methadone that it will be a long road coming off.That this is even happening is disgusting and wrong.It's what happens when a drug war mentality is behind the body responsible for the treatment of pain in a province.What these people do and say is not just misguided,it's bold faced lies.That they have resorted to using methadone as a painkiller is malpractice.My information is in my profile.If anyone knows if methadone is being used as a painkiller anywhere but B.C.,I would be interested in hearing the details.If you have experienced similar treatment from doctors in the province of British Columbia I would like to hear from as many of you as possible.
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methadone
Methadone was originally developed, by Adolph Hitler's scientists, during WWII, to treat pain, because of morphine shortages. It is not as safe as the other opiod drugs but it can be very effective relief for some people's pain, with only twice a day dosing. It is cheap and not $500+ a month, like Oxycontin, Kadian and other long acting opiods. It can be prescribed legally for pain in the US. But, it has fallen out of favor. Any side effects can result in law suits and doctors want to avoid those (side effects and law suits). You see, no doctor can be perfect, especially when trying to use a dangerous drug like methadone.
Rarely, people can die from a strange heart arrythmia, from the methadone. Too bad doctors can't just use what they have been trained to. Opiods have been some of the safest drugs known to man. And, they have been used for thousands of years!
thanks-but
[email protected],Vancouver,B.C.Canada I'm glad to hear that the drug being used for pain relief is out of favor elsewhere.I realise it can be effective for short term pain relief in non opiate using patients but what if someone has complications and requires long term care?Methadone builds a tolerance faster than most opiates and quickly loses any pain mediation.It also blocks opiates from doing their job at fairly low doses.The Nazis actually invented methadone before the second world war as a opiate withdrawal
medication.They invented Demerol for pain during ww2.It's made from coal.Opiate drugs are safe and do no harm to the body with the exception of addiction and constipation but methadone does the same.I will never understand the philosophy that allows methadone maintenance but considers opiates too dangerous?The use of methadone for pain started here after the college of physicians and surgeons took over the methadone industry as a monopoly.They started using it as a pain killer at the same time that they began taking out of Province pain patients and putting them on methadone as drug addicts.Pardon me for being cynical.These people lie and misinform and deny deny deny.
methadone as a pain reliever
I think it depends on the patient's physiology wether one opiod works and the other one doesn't. I just started methadone on a trial basis for chronic pain, and after taking everything else that was available I must say that methadone works miracles for me.
My problem is that I don't have the 'plumbing' to absorb any of the long acting analgesics. The only medication that comes close are fentanyl patches that offer 2 to 3 days of constant pain relief.
I have found that many physicians dont have a problem prescribing strong opiates. Its the amount they have to prescribe for chronic pain that they get skitterish about. For instance its easier (and better perception wise,) for a doctor to prescribe a months supply of 10 * 100 mcg patches of fentanyl than the equvalent 20 * 5mg statex pills/day or 600 pills a month
Anyways I think methadone is a great painkiller (at least in my case) its no more dangerous than the rest of the available opiates. And certainly nowhere as dangerous as fentanyl which is widely prescribed in BC. The problem in BC is that doctors need a special exemption to prescribe methadone as an analgesic. Its very difficult to find a doctor who has such an exemption, even though its simple to get (according to the doctor who prescribed it to me).
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