net_vet

It sure sounds like the VA is at fault. I have turned opiates back into the pharmacy because of adverse reactions, and they acted like they did not know what to do with them. Who is to say you did not phone the pharmacy to try finding out the procedure to turn them in? The VA is always sending out double prescriptions, they know it happens all the time. As far as that goes, it is all in the VA system, and it was not doctor shopping. When you sign for prescriptions you do not actually know what it is until you open it. You could tell them you flushed them. It is not uncommon for medications to overlap when changing doctors. You prob have a lot of othe scripts with your old doctors name still on them, they are not gonna hassle you about it, only the opiates, because most va pain clinic doctors are rejects, so it makes them feel big when they are in control of your pain.

When I see my shrink, he is always telling me take half a pill, meaning any opiate, or Lorazepam. Took me awhile to catch on, and start reading between the lines. So now the night prior to my Urine, and blood test. I only take a half of these pills. It shows up as I am taking the right amount of my medication. Locally they say do not take pain meds the morning of your urine/blood test as it will show to much in your system.

I have read a lot of post. I can say I have had my share of the pain pill games the VA can dish out. My PCP was in Waco, Texas. He is also My Sons (Jr) PCP. The PCP screwed up my sons medication, and my son wrote ccongress. Needless to say, I was then retaliated against. My pain meds was coming late, time waiting between refills, hard time getting refills, You name it.. I did not push the issue(Much). I knew I was in the process of moving to Temple,TX. so I changed pcp to Temple. I am the type that keeps my cool, and seen my new pcp, not even mentioning a word about the past bad experience. I even got my medication increased due to building up a tolorance went from 5/500 hydrocodone to the 10/500 90 each month. Prior to comeing to temple, the waco PCP refered me to the pain clinic doctor, he was a jerk. I had a fractured disk, plus crushed cervical, compressed nerves in my neck from va surgery. Anyway this "pain Clinic" tried to put me on morphine. I had neve taken the pill type, maybe had a few shots while in the hospital after surgerys. I found out morphine did not agree with me, and was having adverse reations. I took the Morphine to the va pharmacy, and turned them in, I requested they do a pill count, and note it in my records. Also reported the adverse reaction to the pharmacy(important). Then I contacted the Pain Clinic doctor, told him about the adverse reaction with the Morphine, he phones back screaming on the phone like I was trying to seek drugs. Then he shut up when he found out I had turned the morphine into the pharmacy. So then he prescribes oxycodone IR. It only help reduce the pain for about 1 hour(it looked like a little sugar pill, would go straight through me). I phoned him again, he does more screaming on the phone, he is mad because this time the patient rep is on his back. I could see the trouble he was going to be, so I used the contract he had me sign, and fired him for breech of his own contract. Now my new doctor, prescribed 10/500 hydrocodones, this went well....Until I went to get a refill........No refill my doctor was not around. I did go through withdrawls, ended up at the va emergency room to get my blood pressure reduced. Felt like my heart was going to explode. It took 4 hrs to get my blood pressure reduced. The emergency room doc, gave me a partial refill prior to leaving..Come to find out my doctor was absent due to a family medical emergency. I now use secure messaging, and requested an alternative way to have a prescription refilled when my pcp is not available. I would not put it past the VA as to trying to setup veterans just to see if they have other pills on hand. In my case I did not, they sure tested for all the drugs in the emergency room, I was clean, and in full blown withdrawls. It is just aggravating, even the last increase of my pain meds did not reduce the pain, my tolorance is very high. I even think going through withdrawls, and back on the pills again even raised my tolorance more, shocked my whole system. Recently the doc switched me to the 5/500 oxycodone 60 a month, to me is no more stronger than the 10/500 hydrocodones 90 a month. I told the pcp I would try the oxys, but if it did not work I would let them know. I am in the middle of working it out.