Dealing with the limitations placed on pain pills by the government
@BearArtistLady (5382)
United States
August 3, 2018 11:00pm CST
I just finished a letter to my Congressman about the problems I had trying to get my pain medication prescription filled. I went to Wal Mart yesterday and was informed that they had two tablets, which would last me less than a day and the balance I needed wouldn't be listed as a refill because of the legalities put in place by the government in a futile attempt to control the drug problem. I had to go to several different pharmacies to finally get my prescription filled. It's totally stupid for those of us who are conscientious about the consumption of our pain medications and don't abuse the prescriptions and never have abused the prescriptions. We don't give away our medications or over consume them. We don't go in early for the prescriptions to be filled unless we are going out of town during the time that the prescription is due to be filled. I came unglued at the twit at the prescription drop off window at Wal Mart. He stated the obvious to me, especially since he could see by the records on the computer that I had been dealing with that particular pharmacy for over 20+ years. I explained to him that it was an hour trip one way to pick up my prescription and I needed to know for sure that the prescription would be filled when they got the medication in. I might as well had asked him how you make banana bread! He stupidly looked at me and asked me if I wanted the prescription back after he told me that he wasn't sure when the medication would come in. DUH!!!! I reached over and grabbed the prescription and told him what to do with himself and stalked off. I couldn't believe how much the federal government has messed up prescriptions for people who legitimately receive pain medication and have for many years and haven't ever abused the prescriptions. I have seen people in tears in line when they find out that they can't get their prescriptions because the pharmacy doesn't have enough of the medication to fill the prescription. These people are informed that the pharmacy only have 20 or 30 pills for a 120 pill prescription and if the person accept the small amount of pills they can't save the rest for a refill. They have to go to the doctor and explain the mess and pay for a doctor's visit on top of everything else. There is really something wrong with the situation and the people who came up with the idea of controlling the pain medications so that they seemingly are controlling the illegal use of pain meds and other drugs. We need to let the Feds know that it isn't working and it is making life miserable for the people who NEED the medication to help control their pain day to day and they don't sell the medications or abuse them. Let your Congressmen and Senators know that the laws aren't working, PLEASE!
5 people like this
6 responses
@celticeagle (159058)
• Boise, Idaho
5 Aug 18
It is sad that because of misuse by others that those who really need pain pills has this problem.
@celticeagle (159058)
• Boise, Idaho
5 Aug 18
@BearArtistLady ......I watched a doc on this very subject last night. 115 people die every day of opiode overdoses across the country. It was about doctors getting kick backs from the pharmaceutical companies. The bad ones that are addicted make it hard for the ones who really need the meds.
@celticeagle (159058)
• Boise, Idaho
7 Aug 18
@BearArtistLady .....They have a program in place but they need to have other people running it.
@BearArtistLady (5382)
• United States
7 Aug 18
@celticeagle Definitely!!! I am realizing that the pharmacy that I have been using is probably taking kick backs from the pharmaceutical companies and it wouldn't surprise me that they are selling the medications on the black market. There must be a reason for their not having the medications in stock so much of the time!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458233)
• Switzerland
6 Aug 18
@BearArtistLady Of course people who would profit of the system will always exist. Anyway, if someone is in pain, I believe that they will keep the pills for themselves and not sell to others. For a few not honest, all the other should not pay the price. It is a shame.
@BearArtistLady (5382)
• United States
4 Aug 18
I can't figure out the legalized "pot" either. I tried some and had a very mild high and hated the feeling from it. I use the pain medication to help ease the pain I feel so I can function each day. I was so badly injured on the job that I haven't been able to work for the past 39 years...I've had surgery on both hands and had both knees replaced. My hands don't hurt as much but my knees are killers on the pain levels. When I was injured my neck, ankles and lower back were involved. As the specialist told me when he checked me out, I would never work for anyone again because there was too much of a chance of my being injured to the point of being a quadriplegic. I much prefer having the use of my arms and legs so I ended up being placed on disability. To keep myself busy I took up making teddy bears as a hobby/business. (I'm looking across the room at a box full of them that need to be finished to go into the shop next week...) I keep busy so that I don't suck down the pain pills, but there are days that I hurt so bad that I do need to take an extra one once in a while.
I have spoken to other pain sufferers and they are in the same boat. We could live with the new law that treats us like children IF we could at least get our full prescriptions when we have the prescription paper in our hot little hands. It isn't fair to the people who suffer constant pain each and every day of their lives! I have seen people in tears from the pain because of the extreme pain and they can't take a pain pill to ease the pain...OH, I'll retract that statement. The doctors will prescribe OTC pain killers like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and aspirin to deal with the pain. It's like using a teaspoon to drain the ocean! Plus if you're like me I can only take the Tylenol because the other two create awful problems with my system. (I can't pass the throne
) Many of the people in this awful state are Veterans that have fought in many of our wars...it sure isn't fair to them. One of the Vets that I see in the horrible pain is my boyfriend. No only did he serve our country but he also was a police officer. He has horrible arthritis in both knees and can barely walk. He will take a half a pill so that he is sure that his medication will last...he had to change where he gets his prescriptions because the pharmacies wouldn't accept the prescriptions from another county. He was seeing a pain doctor up where his daughter lives, he had to change to my pain clinic so he could get his prescriptions filled. I've seen him is such misery that there are tears in his eyes....he'll slip away to the bathroom and hide there to cry from the misery from the pain. It just isn't right!!! As you so succinctly put it, this is ridiculous!
) Many of the people in this awful state are Veterans that have fought in many of our wars...it sure isn't fair to them. One of the Vets that I see in the horrible pain is my boyfriend. No only did he serve our country but he also was a police officer. He has horrible arthritis in both knees and can barely walk. He will take a half a pill so that he is sure that his medication will last...he had to change where he gets his prescriptions because the pharmacies wouldn't accept the prescriptions from another county. He was seeing a pain doctor up where his daughter lives, he had to change to my pain clinic so he could get his prescriptions filled. I've seen him is such misery that there are tears in his eyes....he'll slip away to the bathroom and hide there to cry from the misery from the pain. It just isn't right!!! As you so succinctly put it, this is ridiculous!1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
11 Aug 18
I'm sorry you are in this position. Unfortunately the government treats people like children because so many of them act like children and ruin it for the rest of us. It's not even just pain medications.Sometimes the insurance companies put on the controls. Guess they are afraid I'll sell my heart medications or die before I use them up. And God help me if I try to pick up a prescription two days before I would actually run out. They make me come back in two days. Walmart says that's due to the insurance company regulations. We live in a nanny state, but it's criminals that make life harder for everyone else. I think they regulate how many pain meds a pharmacy can keep in stock because they don't want thieves to be able to steal large quantities for the black marketers.
Unfortunately one has to go on hospice to get enough medication to completely erase the pain. They figure if you're going to die soon anyway it won't matter if you get addicted. Yet my mom did get addicted to pain meds when she had compression fractures and was out of her mind with pain. She was in the hospital for 21 days and then on a patch and Vicodin and something else. It killed the pain, but then she stopped them by herself cold turkey, not knowing she'd become addicted. I had to take her to the ER and they kept her three days so she could withdraw safely. That was back about 2000 before there were so many painkillers on the street.
Take product packaging for example. I've joking suggested that someone should assemble and market tool kits designed to help people open not only their medications, but also those stupid clamshell packages. I can't even count how many times I've injured myself trying to get those open to get out anything from flash drives to printer cartridges. It's almost impossible for people with severe arthritis in their hands to open their pill bottles these days without using tools of some sort. I cut myself last week using a knife to get the cap seal off a pill bottle. Then I had to use it again to pry the inner seal off. Why? Because decades ago criminals started putting poisons in pills bottles as they sat on the shelf. Same with the clamshells. They put all that hard-to-open packaging on to try to foil shoplifters. In addition to the inconvenience this creates for those buying the products, it also makes the prices go up.
@BearArtistLady (5382)
• United States
11 Aug 18
There have been times that I have been so frantic with pain that I have had to take a hammer to open the stupid bottle! The other reason for the hard for adults to open bottles was so that the children couldn't get into the bottles...but children can get them open in less than ten seconds! I used to have my daughter open the bottles for me. I taught her that she wasn't to get into any of the medication bottles without my being there or without my permission. There is another reason, and that is so that the pill bottle manufacturers had to spend more money refitting their plants at huge expense. The companies that made the machines that made the bottles had their hands in the pockets of the legislators and paid them off to pass the laws so that they could make billions. Now if we had the money....
Too bad I don't live closer, I could come over and open those bottles for you and neuter them so that you don't have to fight them to get them open. I'm good at fixing "adult proof" bottles so that we can open them without fighting them. I had a regular group of people who would stop by and have me "neuter" their medication bottles each month. They just couldn't face spending the month fighting for their medications. Just a few months ago Wal Mart said they "had" to go from using either form of bottle (child proof or easy open) to the child proof that you flip the lid so it's easy open. It's a royal pain in the....neck to spend the time trying to open the bottle. Thinking about Wal Mart, I now wonder how much of what they tell me is true...
? CVS, I assume, is simply child proof. I was so relieved at getting my prescription that I didn't ask about easy open bottles. I'll ask the next time I go there, which is the 17th.
? CVS, I assume, is simply child proof. I was so relieved at getting my prescription that I didn't ask about easy open bottles. I'll ask the next time I go there, which is the 17th.
@JudyEv (325818)
• Rockingham, Australia
4 Aug 18
This must be an awful state of affairs for people like yourself. I hope something is done about it soon.
@JudyEv (325818)
• Rockingham, Australia
4 Aug 18
@BearArtistLady Do you have a support group or just an association of people in the same sort of distress that you are in? Could one of you (or a 'pain-free' friend) draft the basics of a letter that others could use to send to the authorities - maybe with gaps or variations as the letters aren't all exactly the same?
@BearArtistLady (5382)
• United States
4 Aug 18
I'm hoping that the other Americans that are on pain medications and having this kind of problem getting their prescriptions filled will stand up to the government and tell them that their law isn't working!!! The one problem is when you're in the kind of pain that most of us are in, the kind of pain that requires prescription pain killers, you're not in the kind of shape to write a letter complaining to your congressmen. You're hurting too badly to do much of anything. I'm hoping to get my letter to my congressman written today so I can mail it when we go to town next week.
Like I said in the previous posting, I have seen people (including my boyfriend who served our country in the war and was also a police officer) in so much pain that they were in tears. They try to make their pills last by cutting them in half or quarters or by stretching the time between doses. It just doesn't work! I am hoping that other Americans will read this and will climb on board the complaint train and let their congressmen know what they think of the law about their pain killers. It may not affect them directly but it very likely may effect their loved ones.
Thank you so much for your reply and giving me the strength to rewrite the letter to my congressman.
1 person likes this
@thislittlepennyearns (58140)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
11 Aug 18
There should be government restrictions on pain pulls and all pills.
@thislittlepennyearns (58140)
• Defuniak Springs, Florida
11 Aug 18
@BearArtistLady your logic is astoundingly stupid. Who considers breath mints to be pills?
I also think all medicine should be taxed. You gonna throw a hissy fit about that too? You have no idea what pain I or my other half have been in or through yet you assume all this stuff .
@Jessabuma (31700)
• Baguio, Philippines
4 Aug 18
Ohhh what kind of law is that? Sounds like it's not helping
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
11 Aug 18
@BearArtistLady It's a complicated issue, and I think the federal government should stay out of it and leave such regulations to the states, since the situation is much different in a big city than in a rural area. As you say, it should be up to the doctors, but even some of them are crooked. Of course, California is the biggest nanny state of them all and probably would make regulations even worse than those of the federal government.
@BearArtistLady (5382)
• United States
11 Aug 18
@bagarad You're right about that! Of course as soon as the federal government gets involved with an issue it becomes more complicated. Shoot, you and I both know how bad California is and how much more complicated things would become if they decided to become involved. As it is I believe that the pharmacies and the pharmaceutical companies are busily selling off the opioids on the black market. (Wow, I'm impressed!!!! Before I started this discussion I couldn't even spell pharmaceutical!!!! I guess something improved) I did learn something yesterday that might help. Part of my problem might be from "low" blood sugar. I'm going to experiment and see if dealing with regulating the blood sugar will change the pain situation a lot. I was at Bill's doctor's office when I saw the information on the computer screen about being a low blood sugar sufferer. One of the problems was pain. Also there was listed depression, changes of mood, irritability, lack of energy, and several other problems. I tried looking it up on my computer last night and it kept leading me to more sites about diabetes....not! Anyhow I'm going to see it that will help with my pain. Here's hoping!
) I did learn something yesterday that might help. Part of my problem might be from "low" blood sugar. I'm going to experiment and see if dealing with regulating the blood sugar will change the pain situation a lot. I was at Bill's doctor's office when I saw the information on the computer screen about being a low blood sugar sufferer. One of the problems was pain. Also there was listed depression, changes of mood, irritability, lack of energy, and several other problems. I tried looking it up on my computer last night and it kept leading me to more sites about diabetes....not! Anyhow I'm going to see it that will help with my pain. Here's hoping!