Carolyn Reed

Fellow vets. I too have fallen victim to the VA's extreme policy regarding prescription narcotics. I have a bad knee. Two years ago I was seen in the ortho clinic in Little Rock. At that time I was told by the doctor that the knee would need to be replaced but that I did not currently meet the VA's criteria for knee replacement. I was told that I needed to be a lot closer to 70 than I am. At that time I was 58. The doctor said that they could do an intermediate surgery to help relieve the pain but that he was not willing to do that because it would put me at surgical risk twice, since the knee is definitely going to need to be replaced. For pain relief he started me on injections of steroids alternating with injections of something call Synvisk, probably spelled wrong. Every single time I have gone to the injection clinic the ANPs who administer the injections have to stick me twice. These are painful injections in a already painful knee. I am essential incapacitated by this knee and unable to maintain my home in a sanitary and safe manner. I asked to be prescribed two or three 7.5 mg of hydrocodone to take two days a week. Just enough to enable me to stand long enough to wash dishes and do some basic housework. I was denied. I volunteered to be on a pain contract. Denied. I offered to pick the pills up at the VA pharmacy on the days I planned to do housework. Denied. I have sought for the ortho doctors to re-evaluate the knee for possible surgery and even though I do have an appointment with ortho, the nurse assures me that there is absolutely no plan for surgery. So they won't fix the knee and they won't give me a small number of a mild narcotic to allow me to have a quality life. All I have is pain and that is all I have to look forward to. I am now 60 and I know the game well enough to know that if I live to be 70 at that time they will tell me that I am not a candidate for knee replacement because my general health is not good enough to allow the surgery. In the meantime, I am expected to live in constant pain that even interferes with my ability to sleep. I am not suicidal and I sure don't want to give the impression that I am, but the thought of living for years and years with this level of pain is almost unbearable. And I now have a better understanding of why so many vets choose to end their lives. It is very hard to be mentally healthy when you are in constant pain. I was told that the real issue is that the FDA has revised their rules and that narcotics can now be prescribed for no more than 30 days. The doctor must see you to refill the script. The primary care doctors at the VA simply do not have the time to see that many vets each month. So, to comply with FDA regulations the VA here in Arkansas has decided to completely stop writing scripts for narcotics. This is not what the FDA intended when the revised their guidelines. They intended doctors to responsibly monitor the drugs they prescribed. Within the VA system that simply is not an option. The doctors here really need to see you no more than twice a year or they are overloaded. Having been in the VA system for a long time, I know that the VA was the greatest offender in overprescribing narcotics. Years ago I asked to be taken off the 180 Davacet they were prescribing me each month. At that time my primary care doc handed me a book of all they pain meds and asked me to choose what I wanted to take. Because I think Tylenol is dangerous, I choose tramadol, which I have taken sparingly over the last few years. But now that I need something stronger or I need surgery on my knee, I am totally out of luck. The VA has become an environment totally void of compassion and I feel that they have infantized me by not allowing me any say in my healthcare decisions. The one question that just keeps puzzling me is this...Why do they always ask you to rate your level of pain on a scale of 1 to 10 if they know ahead of time that they are not going to treat the pain no matter what you tell them? Any ideas?