darwin award

[audie]

It's an opiate agonist that is very additive. My daughter is on it for chronic back pain from an injury when she was on the MIT varsity basketball team. I worry about her getting addicted, but when she's in a lot of pain, it's the only thing that relieves the pain. I used to worry about her abusing it when she was depressed about a lot of things that were going on in our lives at the time. However, in looking at the RX printouts from CVS (she's on our health insurance, so we get to see that), she doesn't refill it as often as she could.

it is an excellent med for pain, unfortunately a few are probably going to ruin for many, as stores around here will probably quit stocking it if this goes on. it is getting dangerous for health care workers to deal with it which is sad for the people who really need it. when druggies go thru the emergency room to get prescriptions, they will say they are allergic to everything but oxycontin for pain. they really know how to work the system

 

[Smiling JOe]

it is a very potent narcotic, originally designed for cancer patients in whom it works very well in controlling their pain. unfortunately the junkies of the world discovered this also, so it is a hot item on the black market. pharmacies around here get robbed quite frequently for it - thank god i am behind bullet-proof glass. my hubby got held up one night at gunpoint several yrs ago for it.

...and even more unfortunate are the people, and I know two of them personally, who were upstanding and successful gentlemen who had surgery, and for their pain during recovery, the docs prescribed Oxicontin. These guys couldn't get off the drugs, and the doctors quit prescribing it. They could no longer function in life, were fired their jobs, one's wife divorced him, the other's family went from having an income of $250K per year to the children's income of about $30K per year. They are still living and still hooked on Oxicontin from many years ago. They remain unfunctionable in society and rarely leave their home. It is very sad to see, first hand, the damage that drugs, even prescription drugs, can do to a person, their family, and their friends.

 

[DD]

No truer words were ever spoken. There's a local radio personality here that had this very issue. He had to spend some time at a rehab. Seems ok now. Was this what Rush was on?

 

[Smiling JOe]

No truer words were ever spoken. There's a local radio personality here that had this very issue. He had to spend some time at a rehab. Seems ok now. Was this what Rush was on?

I think so. I think I would rather take the pain than the pill.

 

[TooFarTampa]

I think so. I think I would rather take the pain than the pill.

I think that's relative. As Audie mentioned, it is very effective in helping cancer patients. My brother in law was on everything, oxycontin, a couple of other pain meds, plus morphine for "breakthrough" pain. I'm sure he was addicted -- he became so tolerant -- but he could not have survived as long as he did without it.

The frustrating thing is my sister-in-law, who is in her late 30s, very young looking and thin and occasionally a bit disheveled (as all moms can be; she has small children) had to sometimes go to an unfamiliar pharmacy to pick up her husband's prescriptions, and she would get the third degree every time she had to get the oxycontin. At least once they called the doctor's office right in front of her. I understand why they have to grill people, but it only added to her frustrations. Fortunately most of the time she was able to go to her regular pharmacy, where they knew her.

I hope that pharmacies don't stop carrying it, considering there are so many people who need it to be able to have at least some quality of life.

 

[Beach Runner]

it is an excellent med for pain, unfortunately a few are probably going to ruin for many, as stores around here will probably quit stocking it if this goes on. it is getting dangerous for health care workers to deal with it which is sad for the people who really need it. when druggies go thru the emergency room to get prescriptions, they will say they are allergic to everything but oxycontin for pain. they really know how to work the system

There have been many times when we've had to go to the ER in our small town for my daughter's basketball injuries, high fevers from a URI, etc. One can overhear what is going on in the nearby examination rooms. We are always stunned at how many patients say they're in pain, and so the ER doc writes out an Rx for oxycontin. It's not like the M.D. is going to write orders for a full-body scan to pinpoint the source of the pain. I think that these people fake pain just because they know that the ER dispenses oxycontin like candy. They even prescribed oxycontin for my daughter when she had a URI - I mean, that's not a painful condition.

It's simply shocking.

 

[Beach Runner]

I think so. I think I would rather take the pain than the pill.

That's exactly what my husband decided during recovery from his open-heart surgery. He said it made him hallucinate, and there were times when he didn't know what was the ceiling and what was the floor. So he switched to Extra-Strength Tylenol and just dealt with the pain.

 

[ktschris]

The doctor gave me a script for that after my gall bladder surgery. I filled it, but was afraid to take it. I already have one monkey on my back, didn't need two, besides beer is cheaper.