Pain, and why you not have to suffer in California

[Guest guest]

Pain, and why you not have to suffer in California

By: Mark Norwood. Head Nurse & CEO:

MED-HELP.COM & MED-HELP.NET

In my own experiences as a patient and a nurse, I have found that too many

States do not allow the use of narcotic analgesics as treatment for patients

with chronic intractable pain.

Patients all over the US are suffering needlessly from doctors who are too

scared to prescribe narcotic pain medication for fear of having their license

revoked. Other doctors are just not properly trained in how to treat patients

with the use of narcotic analgesics. Their are also those doctors from poor or

third world countries who do not believe in treating patients adequately for

pain. They usually come from a back grown where (in their own culture) pain is

something that you just have to get used too and learn to live with. This is a

Travesty!

Treatment of patients in severe or chronic pain with the use of narcotic

analgesics is not only safer today with the new " hi tech " long acting narcotics,

it is also more practical. Patients are far less likely to overdose with these

new classes of long acting narcotics than 10 years ago when repeated dosing of

short acting narcotics was the routine of the time.

I myself am tired of hearing patients tell me that their doctor has told them

that they are just going to have to learn to live with the pain, (or) go in to

some type of pain program. Pain Programs/Clinics Do Not use narcotic therapy as

a part of their treatment plan and the worst thing is that referring doctors

know this!! The use of narcotics as a part of there therapy is forbidden and

other ways of controlling pain such as mind over matter as an example are the

routine of choice. You can not take a patient in severe chronic intractable pain

and try and tell them that they can out think it! To those doctors that use this

approach I say, cut off your right finger, or better yet go out and get hit by a

truck and then come back and try one of these therapies! Only then will they

understand.

And to those doctors that say you are a drug seeking patient, Or he has a drug

seeking personality, I say to you YES I am seeking drugs for my pain! What am I

supposed to do, act like I do not really need them?

What doctors have to understand is that patients who are labeled drug seeking

are just that! They are seeking to get out of pain. Studies have shown that

patients suffer from chronic intractable pain, are not the typical drug addict

looking for a fix! Rather they are looking for relief and to just live a normal

life with some type of control over their pain.

And those doctors who do give out lets say 25 (or) 50 pills a month and have a

patient sign a drug contract I say ( " it just does not work that way " )

If a patient is in more pain on a certain day he/she is going to need more

pain medication to make it through that day. Before the patient knows it he has

used up his supply, And all he gets for his/her trouble is a lecture from the

doctor. PAIN CONTRACTS DO NOT WORK!!

Better yet put your patient on a longer lasting pain medication like Oxycontin

or a narcotic patch like Fentanyl, and give your patient a supply of short

acting pain medication for break through pain. This will not only make the

patient more comfortable but less likely to ride the roller coaster of ups and

downs that short acting pain medications can cause.

California NOW is one of the most recent states for adopting a law to treat

patients with chronic intractable pain. The law states that doctors will not be

prosecuted for treating their patients with opiate pain medications. Patients

also have the right to Not under go corrective surgery (if available) to treat

the patients pain, and remain on narcotic pain management if it is their wish to

do so.

Doctors here in California NO longer have to fear of loosing their license to

treat such patients, And No longer have an excuse for Not treating their pain

patients accordingly and humanely with opiate agonists.

Please read the SB 402 The California Pain Patient's Bill of Rights below and

show it to your doctor or congressman to get the relief that is constitutionally

yours.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As of January 1/ 1998 SB 402 takes effect.

WHAT THIS MEANS IS DOCTORS SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE- STATE,

IN BEING ABLE TO WRITE PRESCRIPTIONS FOR NARCOTIC PAIN DRUGS- OR TRIPLICATE

NARCOTIC PAIN MEDICINE. NO MORE EXCUSES!! CHRONIC PAIN SUFFERERS SHOULD NOT

HAVE TO SUFFER ANYMORE!!!!

Excerpt from Health: opiate drugs text...

Existing law, the Intractable Pain Treatment Act, authorizes a physician and

surgeon to prescribe or administer controlled substances to a person in the

course of treating that person for a diagnosed condition called intractable

pain, and prohibits the Medical Board of California from disciplining a

physician and surgeon for this action. This bill would establish the Pain

Patient's Bill of Rights and would state legislative findings and declarations

regarding the value of opiate drugs to persons suffering from severe chronic

intractable pain.

I hope this finds you and yours well

Mark E. Armstrong

casca@...

www.top5plus5.com

PAI NW Rep

ICQ #59196115