I dunno guys. This whole prescription drug thing is an epidemic. Its not just the VA, its all hospitals. I know a veteran that is prescribed massive amounts of Percocets, Lortabs and Zanex. He eats some but sells some as well. Its sad and disgraceful what people do for a high or addictions.
I've never understood why anybody would want to take them for recreation?
I've taken them for the right reasons after surgery, but they just make me sleep, and talk dopey. What is the fun in that?
I've taken them for the right reasons after surgery, but they just make me sleep, and talk dopey. What is the fun in that?
What a patient does with a prescription drug after it leaves the pharmacy, can't be controlled, the amounts and frequency of the refills can, even when prescribed by multiple doc's. What happens in the hospital can be monitored, employees get caught every year.......nurses, pharmacists, docs, anesthesiologists.
Yep. I had a relative that got hooked on them and died a couple of years ago in what should have been the best times of her life.
Don't know where she got them, but it was before the new computer system that should alert pharm where a person is going that might be an abuser.
Still don't know what the big deal is.
Don't know where she got them, but it was before the new computer system that should alert pharm where a person is going that might be an abuser.
Still don't know what the big deal is.
Prescription meds are such an epidemic now in our country, but it's nothing new. My older sister has had a thing going with prescription abuse & doctor shopping for nearly 50 years - she just turned 70. She lives in OKC from the mid-sixties until about ten years ago when she & BIL moved to a small town in SW Oklahoma to help with his widowed mother. BIL died nearly two years ago and last fall her doctor called me from their small town hospital and basically said "please come get her ass before we have to turn her to the police or someone". Prior to my BIL's illness and death I hadn't really talked with her for since our mother's funeral in 1997. She stayed with us out in the country for a few days a seemed to dry out a little, so I took her home and check on her fairly often. I know she is back in her routine because she is seeing doctors here and there for this & that and something else.
If any hospital, business, person, etc has dope someone will do whatever is neccesary to get it for their own use or to sell on the street. Just the way it is.
Cedar Creek
If any hospital, business, person, etc has dope someone will do whatever is neccesary to get it for their own use or to sell on the street. Just the way it is.
Cedar Creek
In my experience the VA is one of the worst offenders... I've know VA guys who get massive amounts, and it is just mailed to them every month routinely, with no real monitoring. Sometimes even after they pass away. And the overprescribing... that's a whole other story.
Unfortunately, the system mainly is there just for people who are active to check. The pharmacies are required to report it to the system within 5 minutes of filling a prescription, but they don't get any alerts unless it's through their own system. They have to physically log into the state's controlled drug monitoring system online, then input the patient's info and wait for the system (which is kinda dodgy sometimes) to spit out the list, then analyze it for appropriateness (the lists are extensive and convoluted and require close analysis in how they're printed) and decide whether it's all legit or not.
This is why it isn't helping a ton... most prescribers and distributors don't take the time. They can't, when they have 30 people waiting...
While I can't speak to the VA and it's problems I know I've seen pain management doctors who have prescribed me more pain meds in a month than I take in 90 days. Seriously. And all I did was look to the left, look to the right, look up, look down, look all around ... Then he said "My goodness, you don't have ANY range of motion, do you? Here ... take these ... Yes, all of them ..."
I'm telling you guys if I took what that guy gave me, in the amounts he prescribed them, I'd be a zombie ... and most likely a chemically dependent zombie. Several of you old guys will remember the withdrawal I went through when I wised up and stopped taking all that ... because I'd never experienced anything like that at all and the medical professionals here answered my questions and addressed my concerns better than any doctor I was actually seeing at the time ...
Between those guys and my own research, I finally figured out what worked best for me (and didn't leave me comatose) and I went back and TOLD my PC what I would and would not take. She seemed fine with that and now I'm not out the money to see a specialist every month ... who wasn't listening to me anyway ... She refills my scripts once a month and I see her every 90 days ... we are both happy and I am much, much, much healthier than I was during those days ...
Don't get me wrong ... I finally found my way to some really good doctors; pain management and primary care ... but it was a long, rough road. And it didn't happen, for me anyway, until I finally put my foot down and started telling the doctors I wasn't gonna take all that **** anymore. I had a couple of doctors "fire" me. Here's what I found in my records -- yes, I requested copies of my charts -- I was: "fired" for being "uncooperative", "non-compliant", "excessively hostile" ... and yes, those are quotes I found in my medical records -- just because I chose to ask questions about my care and what seemed to me to be excessive amounts of medication.
Bottom line is if you have a doctor who isn't serving your needs in a healthy way, you need to just not go back. Period. You gotta be your own advocate ... because nobody knows your body better than you do ... and unfortunately, there are doctors out there who only see you as an insurance check ... quicker they can get people in and out, more money they can make.
Your first clue is if your doctor is stacking patients in the same time slot. Double booking is okay ... triple and quadruple ... ehhhh, not so much. When GC and I got married we had a PCP who, honest to God, if you had an appointment at 2 in the afternoon, you MIGHT get into the back by 5 and probably saw her around 8 ... P.M. ... or so ... and their excuse was always "Well, we are busy." Well, yeah, you are busy because you schedule 4 and 5 patients in the same 15 minute time slot ... It's pretty sad when you gotta take a WHOLE day of sick leave just to see the doctor ...
Opps ... sorry ... seem to have gotten up on a soapbox this morning ... Let me climb back down off here and calm down a bit ...
(sorry tRidiot ... and all the other docs and medical professionals here who helped me out ... You guys are GREAT ... 
)
No apologies needed, Patti. I agree with you 1000%. 
We in the healthcare industry tend to overmedicate heavily.
I will add, that this is for multiple reasons:
1. Most patients don't want to work on a problem - they want a pill to fix it.
2. Overbooking is a necessity to stay in business - and it snowballs.
3. Defensive documentation.
4. Rather not deal with pain management - liability, resource management, etc.
I'm sure there are lots more... but it's no excuse. It's just how it is... only the exceptionally rare patients and exceptionally rare providers make the best combo and actually improve things for everyone involved. Most of the time it's rubber-stamping cookbook medicine from the provider side and apathy, entitlement and "quick-fix/gimme-a-pill" mentality from the patient side. This is the worst combo and is why our country and our healthcare system is so bloated.
We in the healthcare industry tend to overmedicate heavily.I will add, that this is for multiple reasons:
1. Most patients don't want to work on a problem - they want a pill to fix it.
2. Overbooking is a necessity to stay in business - and it snowballs.
3. Defensive documentation.
4. Rather not deal with pain management - liability, resource management, etc.
I'm sure there are lots more... but it's no excuse. It's just how it is... only the exceptionally rare patients and exceptionally rare providers make the best combo and actually improve things for everyone involved. Most of the time it's rubber-stamping cookbook medicine from the provider side and apathy, entitlement and "quick-fix/gimme-a-pill" mentality from the patient side. This is the worst combo and is why our country and our healthcare system is so bloated.
No apologies needed, Patti. I agree with you 1000%.
I will add, that this is for multiple reasons:
1. Most patients don't want to work on a problem - they want a pill to fix it.
2. Overbooking is a necessity to stay in business - and it snowballs.
3. Defensive documentation.
4. Rather not deal with pain management - liability, resource management, etc.
I'm sure there are lots more... but it's no excuse. It's just how it is... only the exceptionally rare patients and exceptionally rare providers make the best combo and actually improve things for everyone involved. Most of the time it's rubber-stamping cookbook medicine from the provider side and apathy, entitlement and "quick-fix/gimme-a-pill" mentality from the patient side. This is the worst combo and is why our country and our healthcare system is so bloated.
Oh so very correct. Good post man. Now if there was a pill for anti gunners, id invest more heavily.
No apologies needed, Patti. I agree with you 1000%.
I will add, that this is for multiple reasons:
1. Most patients don't want to work on a problem - they want a pill to fix it.
2. Overbooking is a necessity to stay in business - and it snowballs.
3. Defensive documentation.
4. Rather not deal with pain management - liability, resource management, etc.
I'm sure there are lots more... but it's no excuse. It's just how it is... only the exceptionally rare patients and exceptionally rare providers make the best combo and actually improve things for everyone involved. Most of the time it's rubber-stamping cookbook medicine from the provider side and apathy, entitlement and "quick-fix/gimme-a-pill" mentality from the patient side. This is the worst combo and is why our country and our healthcare system is so bloated.
No kidding ... And I blame the general public for the problems more than the doctors. Doctors are basically hog-tied by the government and insurance companies when it comes to what they can and cannot do. And people don't want to do their PT ... they want a pill that will fix every single solitary ache or pain they have ... even when a pill isn't what they need ...
Oh ... and I wasn't pissed when I saw my records ... in fact I kinda figured it was in there ...
CYA, ya know ... CYA ... Funny thing is I wasn't pissy with him ... All I said was "Hey, I don't want to take all these pills. They make me feel bad. What if we try PT again?" He looked at me like I had a second head growing outta my shoulder ... Figured that was my time to move on ... 
I did learn a valuable lesson, though. There ARE good doctors out there ... And good doctors tend to refer patients to each other ... so if you can get a good PCP, you are 99% of the way there to getting good, solid medical care ... sometimes you just gotta look around a little to find them.
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