February 22nd, 2012 -- Posted in pain / disability, painkillers |
I’ve noticed it more and more over the past couple of years. Even though supposedly awareness of chronic pain issues is increasng, we are still getting shunned and shut down at medical clinics and pharmacies!
There are some new rules at pharmacies (at least here in Ontario) that are specifically related to controlled narcotics. Yes, these can be the drugs that *some* people can become addicted to. But they are also the medications that many pain patients rely on to keep living their days with some attempt at quality of life that approaches what they were used to before! I know for me my pain meds don’t do all that much for the pain, but over the past few years I’ve found a combination that has brought me some relief and better sleep.
If you aren’t affected or aware of the new rules, here’s what some of them include. This is what I have noticed at Pharmacies ONLY (the Clinic ones are even more legnthy and complicated, perhaps I can list them another day):
* Showing Photo I.D. when picking up prescriptions for yourself.
* Your spouse or family member or friend showing Photo I.D. when picking up Rx.
* Even in the same chain of pharmacy, if they don’t have the medication you need when you need it, they can’t transfer it to another pharmacy. Instead, you need to go to your doctor or clinic (for some people this means going back to a walk-in!) to get a new Rx to bring to a new building.
* For ALL medications, if you are on insurance, they will not pay for a renewal unless you are within 1 week of being “due”.
* For Controlled medications (e.g. narcotics), you can’t fill a ’script unless it is the exact DAY your meds are due.
It is this last one that I have the biggest problem with…
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October 29th, 2011 -- Posted in pain / disability |
As a “multiple years” chronic pain sufferer, I can no longer count or keep track of the number of times I have been asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. I have done so at doctor’s appointments, hospital ER visits, etc.
And you know what I have discovered in this time?
One to 10 is not good enough!
I mean this in many different ways…
* It can be argued it doesn’t go high enough. If 10 is defined as being “the most pain you have ever felt in your life before now”, then your scale could go beyond 10. I really enjoy the comical pain scale depicted in the blog Hyperbole and a Half (it’s funny because it’s so true!!):
Emergency Room post with better pain scale
* Since different people have different pain histories and experiences, maybe not everyone should have the same starting (and maximum) end points. Kids who had experienced nothing but a bee-sting could rate from 1 to 10, but should this be the same scale for say, people who had been shot? Their 5 could be extremely excruciating whereas a child could be at an 8 and be fine.
* Not only that, but if one individual person changes what her or his “10″ is, any previously tracked pain becomes hard to compare to what is tracked from there on in. Someone could be experiencing the same actual pain, but it would have a different number now because something more painful has been experienced which bumps everything else down the line.
* Most importantly, the scale of 1 to 10 does not give us enough variation to notice sublte changes. When you are a chronic pain patient and your pain regularly sits at 7 to 9 out of 10 (I have not felt an average body pain level of less than 6 since March 2nd, 2008!), having just 3 numbers to rate your pain changes is totally inadequate. You start getting into halves and quarters and wanting to use decimal places, which people don’t expect.
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October 31st, 2010 -- Posted in massage/physio/chiro, pain / disability, painkillers |
So the Graceful Agony blog has started Round 3 of the Blog Carnival for the chronic pain community… I think at this rate I’ll probably end up doing every second round, or just the ones I can keep up with. :S
The theme for this round is “A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes”… and for me, thinking of the dream in my heart was instantaneous. I am constantly thinking about and dreaming about: just being comfortable again.
me on Valentine’s Day 2008, opening gifts while curled up on the couch (after having decorated cupcakes with the kids that I’d baked for them!)… who is this strange, comfortable woman?!?
I have vague memories of my life pre-chronic-pain, but it is very hard to really remember what it felt like. This new reality is all I know now; constantly being in pain and being uncomfortable has become as “normal” to me as anything else. It’s been 2 and a half years since I had a day without pain and it’s starting to feel foreign to me that people can experience a life without nagging aches and burning all over. I chase comfort all over the place, with a ridiculous determination, like it’s an inaccessible, evasive prey…
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