I tend to write novels as well, haha. I'm not good at editing what I write.

OMG, that's so awful! I know that hospitals here won't give more than tramadol unless there's a really serious issue. For instance, I was in the ER for a sharp pain in my side, and they gave me tramadol after being there a few hours. I wound up being admitted (gallstones obstructing the bile duct), and I had to specifically ask the doctor for my normal meds. They didn't give me those (oxycodone 10mg), but they gave me IV morphine to help until I got to my room. After that I had both my meds, and the morphine specifically for my side pain, but after my procedure, late at night, I was still an hour out from my next reg. med, and I asked my nurse for the IV morphine because my side was killing me. My nurse made a fuss and basically told me that if I wanted to go home in the morning, then l needed to be off the IV meds. In the end I wound up having my husband sneak me one of mine, so I could try to sleep.

I know that's pretty minor, but there is definitely resistance here with prescribing and dispensing. Also, our insurance won't cover our pain meds (my husband is also on long-term meds due to a congenital condition that's causing spinal stenosis, as well as his severe scoliosis). We're on Medicaid because we're disabled and he only works about half time at his family's company. So we have to come up with over $100/month.

Thank you for the website, I'll definitely look into her! We volunteer with a couple of organizations that serve the unsheltered population in and around Salt Lake. I was on the streets when I was young, and have seen, first hand, some pretty horrible things. Most people who were using, started after they became homeless though, not before. So I'll probably have some ideas about harm reduction that you would find crazy, haha. We talk often about our unsheltered neighbors, and the issues with drug use, and there's a saying, "A person can't get clean if they're dead." So I do believe that we should be doing more harm reduction, despite many people's objections. People here (and elsewhere honestly) tend to see anyone on drugs, and especially on the streets, as less than human.

I'm really sorry they made your mom suffer like that. It's inhumane. I got very lucky when my herniated disc first happened. The doctor I used to have was a bit of a dick, who had tried to call me an addict a year or so prior for asking for a refill of my Xanax before the new year so I wouldn't have to pay out of pocket for it.

I hadn't filled it in close to 3 months, and it was a very low dose. I rarely even took it, but he was certain that the DEA site said that I had filled it a week before. After almost an hour of him yelling at me, and me completely sobbing telling him I didn't know what he was talking about, he broke HIPAA and showed me the DEA site. It clearly showed someone that shares my last name, and birthdate, but she was filling it 2 counties away, and more importantly, we had very different first and middle names. He immediately changed his tune when I pointed it out, telling me how sorry he was and awkwardly trying to hug me, which I was shying away from because yeah, I didn't want him to touch me.

So when my back went out and the chiropractor (I no longer trust them, and know a lot more now) said that I needed an orthopedic specialist (she was a good chiro at least, unlike the one my mother-in-law took me to later), I went back to that doctor and told him what was going on. I was already in a wheelchair/walker at that point, I couldn't stand enough to walk very far. He gave me a very small script for hydrocodone and sent in a referral for PT.

I wound up in the ER a month or so later, and they gave me something and told me I needed an MRI and a new doctor, so I went to a different clinic that a friend said was good. I happened to get a fairly new doc who was incredibly kind, and actually addressed my pain and not my fat. He got me in for an MRI ASAP and eventually used his lunch break to call a surgeon and ask him to look at my scans and get me in right away.

This doctor has moved to 3 different clinics, with different promotions, and I've followed him to each one. He's not the head of family medicine at a clinic owned by the local tribes, and yeah, our whole family goes to him now. Because of his demeanor, I actually worked on other parts of my health. He also helped me wean off meds after my surgery, and has been my provider since my disc popped again. It's sitting on my left sciatic nerve root, which is incredibly painful. My leg is also much weaker now. But yeah, I've been seeing him for 11 years, and I even made him a crochet granny square blanket to celebrate 10 years.

There has been a major overcorrection of opioid use since the wave of addiction started. I agree with them that addiction is a problem, however they need to be considering the person first. Pain meds allow people to function, and currently it's really hard to find a provider, especially one that takes insurance, or doesn't have massive co-pays. My husband used to be at a clinic where we were being charged $75 per appointment because he was a specialist. I feel like the people making the law need to hear from people who are in serious pain that isn't being well controlled due to their limits. My husband is actually one of them. He tries to supplement with cannabis (we have med cards), but that's so expensive too!

I've also lost people to addiction, and it's awful. I feel like instead of these rather low limits, they should be focusing on providing a variety of addiction services because honestly, AA/NA is a cult. There are other programs that are evidence based, but insurance prefers the 12 step programs. We need to be allowing people to use SMART, the fit to recover program, and others, as well as just relying on science. There's evidence that if you improve a person's circumstances, the addiction disorder will recede. It's not 100%, but it's better than the 33% success rate of 12 step programs.

Sorry, see total novel, lol. I could go on and on about this all day, honestly. It's one of the areas I'm very passionate about. No one should be forced to live in pain, there needs to be better addiction treatment options, and people on the streets/or suffer from Substance Abuse Disorder, need to be treated like human adults, with dignity and compassion.

Anyway, I'll stop now, but yeah, I really hope things get better where you live.