Jump to content
VA Disability Community via Hadit.com

VA Disability Claims Articles

Ask Your VA Claims Question | Current Forum Posts Search | Rules | View All Forums
VA Disability Articles | Chats and Other Events | Donate | Blogs | New Users

ourdoc

Seaman
  • Posts

    11
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About ourdoc

Previous Fields

  • Service Connected Disability
    30%
  • Branch of Service
    Navy

Recent Profile Visitors

434 profile views

ourdoc's Achievements

  1. Good thing you took out the dr part as to say you are or were a doctor without being one is a crime, as is saying you are a medic without being one. If you WERE a medic the "Wheelchair" comment should have given you a clue. I have tried EVERYTHING POSSIBLE. You don't even understand the concept there is a difference between addicted and dependent. Have you ever known an addict to stay on the same dose and are medication for 15 years????? Every one is "hooked" on life, hooked has no place in medical terminology anywhere, so please stop trolling.
  2. Now your diving into giving medical advice without a license to practice. If I did what you have suggested, I would be in a wheelchair or dead. FIrst I cannot do acupuncture, I have to be on blood thinners and even with tiny needles I bleed like a stuck pig. I went to two acupuncturist and they said no way they would touch me I could try acupressure but would end up with massive bruises. You may have heart disease but unless you have 17 stents in your heart (the record number for my state) you don't know. If I stop the blood thinners, those clog up and I'm in a grave. My back injury is to the point that I cannot stand, walk or sit for more than about 5 minutes before having to change. I physically cannot walk 30 minutes or even 10 and have severe ridiculopathy in both legs constantly. Please don't tell me I'd be better off doing what you say instead of my doctors. Dangers of the medication I am very aware of, my brother died from accidental soma overdose. I've dealt with literally thousands of people on drugs including overdoses and deaths and have brought hundreds of them back from the dead with ACLS and Naloxone. I was a medic in Los Angeles and New York, so I know more about drugs and overdoses than many doctors do. Just because a bad doctor out there prescribing to make money, does not mean VA doctors are doing the same. I have zero side effects. Besides, none of what you are saying has anything to do with this thread, so please don't bother, I won't be replying to you any further. Do what is good for you, and stop telling others what they should do, everybody is different and every situation is different. I still do CME's for myself, and Am very educated in current medications Again, what you have been able to do is great for you, not all of us can even try that because of other medical situations. Every surgeon I have seen has said the same thing, they are absolutely stunned that I even have the ability to stand and am not in a wheelchair 24/7. So no, walking and acupuncture isn't going to help me, it would actually hurt my situation. I agree with another statement, that having a good relationship with your PCP has a lot to do with it. Without him and my team, I would have been dead 20 years ago. Yet I still have a good quality of life, can still get out and even drive. But I'm an NOT following your advice, it's contraindicated in my situation.
  3. The part that makes mine easier is I was originally prescribed what I am on by the one of the leading pain management specialist in the country outside the VA all those years ago. That and my cardiac team requires me to stay on the same meds as to be without them the pain would be enough to cause a heart attack. So they don't mess with mine very much. That and the VA PCP I have now actually had just come from Kaiser a few years ago and was my mothers PCP there before she passed away, so he is very familure with my families medical history. Makes it a nice relationship. Best doctor I've had in a while. And yes RUREADY I am very aware of what is going on but you cannot paint everyone with a wide brush,. If there was a posiibility for me to come off medication trust me I would, but with my specific injury and a lot of scar damage to my spine, I will never be able too. If they tried I'd be an inpatient probably having a heart attack. It's different when you've got a back injury with severe spine scaring and spinal stenosis, had a 4 way CABG and have 17 stents in your heart. Can't even stop meds to have surgery per the cardiologist, and that includes the pain meds. Glad you could wish I could, but it's not my lot in life. Having a sister that grew up as one and is still an addict, although clean at the time, I'm glad I didn't get the addictive gene, or was just scared enough of getting like her, I never allowed it to happen. And as I said, on the medication I do not get high at all. It causes no imparimetn to me at all. As the doctors tell me it is because of the level of pain I have, there is nothing left to be high from. As I said if you were getting high and unalble to drive on the meds you were on, you were getting the wrong meds or the wrong dose. Glad you no longer are.
  4. You evidently did not read my reply. I'm not "hooked" as that denotes addicted. There IS A DIFFERENCE between dependent and ADDICTED. I don't take pills to "get high". I don't take a strong enough dose to "get high". Getting high is what ADDICTS do. Before I was started on the medication I could not move nor go ANYWHERE, with them I can and do. Addicts take drugs to stop withdraw or get high, while for pain is just to relieve the pain, nothing else.. My doctors told me before putting me on them, that once I start I will never come off them. Funny the same thing for my heart medication, can NEVER STOP IT, so am I addicted to my heart medication or dependent? No withdraws if I stop them, just death. There is no stopping the medications for me, I cannot survive without them and have any quality of life. That is just fact. Glad you can, but many of us will never have that ability, it depends on your injury. I stop my pain meds and my back to my toes in both legs goes into spastic pulses and muscular convulsions, causing my heart to race and that will kill me. Pot is not going to stop that, it's not for severe nerve damage. The only way it would work on nerve damage is being stoned and zombied out 24/7, at least with medication I can drive and go places and do things, and not be stoned. Now some of my heart meds make me nauseated. CBD oil made from the hemp plant works the best on that as it's the cannabinoids that help that, not THC. It's also legal in all 50 states and does not get you high. The lower the THC the more affective the CBD is. But to say that someone that has to take medication is addicted (hooked) is wrong. Dependent as in needing it to survive not just avoid withdraw is an entire different thing. I cannot stop due to pain, not because of withdraws, of course I would go through that, I knew that before I started them, I was a medic. But I am not Hooked nor addicted to them. If I didn't have the pain, the withdraw would not be all that difficult for me to stop, after all I did quite smoking after 38 years (the hardest thing known to quit). It’s the returning pain that keeps me taking pain meds as needed, not withdraw. I often skip some prescription refills if I have meds left over because I was able to go without them for some time. Then there are the times the pain is so bad, I have to take more, it's using them responsibly for those of us that medically require them.
  5. Most who take their meds properly are not "hooked" on them. There is a difference in being addicted to medication and being dependent on medication. Dependent means you take it as needed, and it IS needed for pain, not getting high. If you get high from any narcotic pain medication, you are on the wrong medication or wrong dose. I never feel my pain meds, I only feel less pain. My patch for instance is to be changed every 3 days. Sometimes I do it every 3 days if I've been having severe pain, but if I'm having a not so bad week, I try to stretch it to 4-5 days. Yes if I feel any kind of withdraw at that point I change it, but continue to take it as little as possible. It also helps end the need to continually up the dose. I have been on the same dose and meds for 15 years now, and they still work. And all my doctors have told me I will NEVER be able to stop them period. There is no other corrective action that can be taken. As far as Marijuana, the VA policy is that it is up to your VA Doctor that is prescribing the narcotics if you are cut off for THC reading in drug test. Each individual doctor makes that decision, it's not any of Vet can use it for recreation, it's if your doctor feels it might be benefitting you. Don't let them tell you if you are in a state where medical marijuana is legal that their hands are tied, that is a lie period. A lot of that depends on if you are able to use your meds responsibly, like not running out or asking for constant increases in dose. Most of them will also require you to have a medical marijuana card realizing the VA does not provide them in States where it is. In states where it is legal for recreation, it is still up to the discretion of each doctor, for after all, they ARE the doctor and most will not have a problem as long as you again take your meds responsibly, it doesn't have adverse affects to your health or meds you take, and for Gods sake don't show up to your appointment stoned. If they do, request a different PC doctor from the VA. But it IS up to each doctor, none of their hands are "tied".
  6. The way I handle this is any doctor that I see that wants to prescribe me any medication, narcocotic or not, I ask them to directly contact my VA PCP with the request for them to write the script. Believe it or not most doctors love it when patients say this as it shows they are trying to safely use medication by them only being prescribed by one doctor. It also gives them the second opinion on the medication being prescribed and how it may react with your other meds.
  7. I had a new PCP do the same thing to me, passing the buck with pain meds, but using a method I learned as a medic was easily able to change their mind. Any time a doctor pulls this kind of crap, ask them what the "standard of medical care" is for this medical situation. Doctors know if they refuse to follow the standard of medical care, it can cost them their liscense to practice medicine in all 50 states. Sometimes they will ignore it, and that's when you do need to file a complaint with your state medical board. At the very least the doctor will get a warning that if it occurs again they will be in front of the medical board. The VA can make all the "policies" they want, but they do not get to decide the license requirements, those are set by the medical community. It goes right along with the other thing to remind them, didn't you take an oath to "first, do no harm" and don't you realize by doing this you ARE doing harm? If a doctor says no to either of these things, from that point on as is my legal right, I will refuse to see them as they are not a REAL physician and I flat out tell them so. I also remind them I have the right to read and dispute and hold them accountable for everything written in my health records. Many will try to put disparaging remarks like you are a drug addict instead of medication dependent, there is a HUGE difference. Not seeing them again is also followed by a legal complaint to the medical board. So far I've only had one VA doctor refuse. 3 months later she lost her liscense to practice and because of that was terminated. She had made those kind of remarks in my record, which were also part of her termination. They weren't happy at that point as they had to read every patients records she had written in, to remove these kinds of remarks. The VA doesn't really care about them either, they are also just a number and paycheck. Stand up for your rights, and don't be afraid to let the doctors know that you know just what your rights are, and that includes questioning their treatment. Don't let them bully you. Eventually you can find good doctors in the VA. I would not trade my VA PCP right now for any other doctor, in or out of the VA.
  8. Yes, they still have to follow the standard of medical care and cutting someone off of painkillers without lowering their does or changing them IS malpractice AND violates standard of medical care. Remember, VA doctors or not, they still can be reported to the medical board and lose their license to practice, and face civil suits for malpractice. Some of them think they are immune to that, and have found out lately they are not. Do not hesitate to report them, to your local medical board for violating the standard of medical care, which is NOT withdraw. Also, if you are totally disabled, you should also have Medicare, USE IT.
  9. Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations PART 1306 — PRESCRIPTIONS CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES LISTED IN SCHEDULE II §1306.12 Refilling prescriptions; issuance of multiple prescriptions. (a) The refilling of a prescription for a controlled substance listed in Schedule II is prohibited. (b)(1) An individual practitioner may issue multiple prescriptions authorizing the patient to receive a total of up to a 90-day supply of a Schedule II controlled substance provided the following conditions are met: (i) Each separate prescription is issued for a legitimate medical purpose by an individual practitioner acting in the usual course of professional practice; (ii) The individual practitioner provides written instructions on each prescription (other than the first prescription, if the prescribing practitioner intends for that prescription to be filled immediately) indicating the earliest date on which a pharmacy may fill each prescription; (iii) The individual practitioner concludes that providing the patient with multiple prescriptions in this manner does not create an undue risk of diversion or abuse; (iv) The issuance of multiple prescriptions as described in this section is permissible under the applicable state laws; and (v) The individual practitioner complies fully with all other applicable requirements under the Act and these regulations as well as any additional requirements under state law. (2) Nothing in this paragraph (b) shall be construed as mandating or encouraging individual practitioners to issue multiple prescriptions or to see their patients only once every 90 days when prescribing Schedule II controlled substances. Rather, individual practitioners must determine on their own, based on sound medical judgment, and in accordance with established medical standards, whether it is appropriate to issue multiple prescriptions and how often to see their patients when doing so. This is the current law, right from the DEA page at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/1306/1306_12.htm. The problem is the VA has their own policies that do not match the law.
  10. Instead of Morphine sulfate you might ask your PCP to try Fentanyl patches. You change them every 72 hours and don't feel them at all, you just start to feel when they run out if you forget to change them. Its also less destructive to your body than Morphine. 50mcg an hour is roughly equivalent to 120 mg a day of morphine. They come in 12, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mcg. Just make sure your doctor prescribes the correct dosage for you. I've been using them for 10 years now with no change in strength and they still work very well. The only problem I have found is them falling off long before they are due to come off, and this is caused by sweating. But I have found through Amazon of all places, a mere $30.00 a year will buy you a box of 100 Tegaderm film, (the same thing they put over IV's now) to hold the patch on. I go into the pool daily for therapy, and they never fall off with those over them. And a box of 100 is good for 300 days, so it is cheap.
  11. Two things I would do in this case. First make an appointment with your PC or PM doctor and tell them no medication changes UNTIL you physically meet with your them. Once you meet with your PC or PM doctor, if they say they don't like prescribing meds like this, ask them if they are "providing the standard of medical care". Regardless of what the VA's policies are, the "standard of medical care" is decided by medical boards and physicians, not in the VA. If they fail to provide the standard of medical care, they are open to a malpractice suit. And contrary to what some will try to tell you, yes you can sue a VA doctor for malpractice, and they can have their license to practice revoked by the local medical board.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use