Why I take opioids for chronic pain
You can read my story here for some background context of my illness, but basically, I went a long time searching for a diagnosis all while my health was getting worse and worse. Ironically I can base my difficulty in getting a diagnosis and eventual descent into long-term chronic pain on the CDC Lyme Disease guidelines. Doctors ignored me or brushed me off and told me I was depressed and as a result by the time I was diagnosed I was almost bedridden and my life had come to a complete standstill. I spent the next year after my diagnosis undergoing treatment for Lyme Disease with no pain medication of any kind. I was in agony and could barely function, but I was determined that I would not take pain medication. I had two young kids and I thought pain medication would make it too difficult to take care of them.
Things eventually came to a head because I was not sleeping and not functioning in any mental or physical capacity. I went to my doctor who at this point I had been seeing for more than a year. I confessed that I couldn’t do it anymore and I just needed to be able to sleep. I’d already tried sleeping pills and they didn’t work because my pain levels were too high. I tried yoga, meditation, massage, vitamins, alternative medicine, you name it. My doctor looked at my chart and told me that I had been her patient for some time and I hadn’t asked for anything before so she felt completely comfortable prescribing me one Hydrocodone per day. At that time Hydrocodone was considered a schedule III drug, meaning I wasn’t treated like a criminal for taking it and I only had to go see my doctor every three months. As soon as I started taking it I saw a huge reduction in my pain level and was able to start getting more sleep. I gradually improved as I stayed on the medicine. I was able to play more with my children, I started going out more with friends, I spent quality time with my spouse, started exercising, I cleaned my house more, and started writing on my blog frequently. Hydrocodone didn’t take the pain away, but it lessened it enough for me to live somewhat of a life.
How the opioid epidemic hurts people with chronic pain
I started taking Hydrocodone in 2014. A few months later the DEA published its new rules placing a more restrictive classification on Hydrocodone products. They moved it to a schedule II drug alongside other pain medications like OxyContin, Morphine, and Percocet. This was when I started being treated like a criminal. I was taking the same medicine in the same dosage that I had been from the beginning, but all of a sudden I had to:
- Go to the doctor every single month, which tripled the money spent on doctor copays
- Have a written prescription (nothing called into the pharmacy)
- Face harassment by the pharmacist every time I filled the prescription
- Pay for regular, and ridiculous expensive drug tests. The drug test costs 3000 dollars, only half of which my insurance covers because it is considered out of network (I can’t pick the lab they send it to, that’s considered drug addict behavior).
Every day it gets harder and harder to be a chronic pain patient. The harassment from policymakers like the CDC is getting worse and worse and the support for people in pain has only gone down, not up. I now have a few choices. I could stop taking pain medication, of which by the way I am taking in the same dosage that I started with two years ago (so maybe I’m not an addict?) However, this would most likely mean I would go back to being bedridden. I am currently working part-time, I’m active in my children’s lives, I volunteer in my community, I can go out with my friends, I exercise, and I blog on a regular basis. If I stopped taking pain medication all of this would most likely be gone. So my other choice is to submit to harassment and pay a ridiculous amount of money just so I can be allowed to function. I have to live in fear knowing that the CDC or the DEA or my doctor could take away my ability to function at any time they feel like it and there’s nothing I could do about it.
These “guidelines” affect people in pain. They affect sick people who don’t have any idea how to sell their drugs on the black market. They affect sick people who are in pain in the first place because of multiple doctors’ negligence and are now being punished for that negligence by being told that it’s all their fault. They affect sick people who are now being told they just need to take Ibuprofen and do physical therapy (out of their own pocket, since insurance won’t pay for it) and get over it.
Opioid alternatives often aren’t an option for chronic pain
Unfortunately for people in pain insurance coverage for pain management is limited and sometimes nonexistent. While every person in pain would most likely benefit from a weekly massage or visit to the chiropractor, it’s not financially feasible for the majority of patients. Additionally, there really are few prescription drugs that work for pain that are not classed as opioids.
It would be nice if we could wish the pain away, but millions of Americans currently live with it. It would also be if we took addiction seriously and actually treated it instead of criminalizing it, but the way to do that is not to take away opioids for chronic pain.
*UPDATE: I lost access to opioids a few months after writing this article which makes my points even more important.
