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

  • hohomepage-banner-2024-2.png

  • 27-year-anniversary-leaderboard.png

    advice-disclaimer.jpg

  • donate-be-a-hero.png

Chronic Pain

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

Some of these contracts although approved by regional counsel may in fact be illegal. This is why I'm seeking comparative information and accounts of negative consequences.

Hell of a QUESTION FOR YOUR FIRST POST............Why are you asking?

If you do a search on va pain management you will find that most VAMC's require this b4 they will do something, what that something is I dont know. I have been to the pain clinic in my VAMC, my PCP sent me there. Only been there twice in three years. I take oxycodone three times a day and also have a duragesic patch on.

My PCP and I have discussed this and he thinks I have signed one or he states that I have maybe he knows I really have not. You see I smoke a little grass now and then for pain, it works better than oxycontin for me, we have discussed that. I popped positive on two drug test so far, one I knew about, when I was admitted to the psych ward I told the admitting doc, I was suicidal at the time and admitted to him when he asked, then they did a screen once I was admitted and it was positive.

Another time I went to the ER and they did a drug screen with out me knowing it and I popped positive again. I started asking questions what gives them the right to do a drug screen on me, the answer I heard was my narc contract. But I never signed one, I have let that snake lay in the grass and have not bothered it , but I will never pee for them again and I will never go to a VA ER again. I get my drugs every month from the VA. I talked to a guy once in the smoke shak, he told me they found out he smoked grass for pain, took his vicodin (kids crap) away and put him on the stuff they give heroin addicts, I will think of the name in a minute. I have had other vets tell me the same thing that if they find out you smoke weed they will take away your pain meds and put you on ????????????????????? Methadone thats it. So they take away less potent stuff and put you on methadone figure that one out?

The ironic thing is that in the city of ann arbor grass is legal for medicinal purposes and thats were the VAMC is, and I have told that to my doctors. I have told em you let me run out of my pain meds so I went down town and got some grass.

Its a good question you asked, so what if you have been getting opiates for two years they just cant up and discontinue them, that is cruel and unusual punishment. I have been diagnosed at a c&p AS HAVING CHRONIC PAIN and at my depression C&P the doctor diagnosed me as having serious depression secondary to serious pain syndrome.

So like I said you asked a good question which I have often wondered about because of my situation. Right now I am appealing/fighting for a rating for chronic pain under Somatoform Disorders specifically 9422 Pain disorder. I listed it on my claim, I was diagnosed with it at two C&P's and the VA has ignored it like I wrote it with invisible ink, even in my NOD's they have ignored it.

Edited by BETRAYED
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 32
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

This is the first time that I've heard of a narc contract.

However, I have to travel most of the day to get to a VA doctor that 'could' prescribe that stuff, if he wanted to, which he declines to do.

Hydrocodone and morphine make my PTSD much worse and I'm not very anxious to get hooked on methadone.

Oxycodone seems to be my best bet and the VA staff doctors refuse to even consider prescribing that one.

My private doctor switched me to trazadone and stopped the ambian 2 days ago that I've been taking for a year.

Today, my pharmacist told me that ambian is now coming out in a less expensive generic form. Just my damned luck.

And I just started taking vytorin, does anyone have any feedback on that stuff.

My blood test showed that my bad blood fat is 200 to high.

sledge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hell of a QUESTION FOR YOUR FIRST POST............Why are you asking?

If you do a search on va pain management you will find that most VAMC's require this b4 they will do something, what that something is I dont know. I have been to the pain clinic in my VAMC, my PCP sent me there. Only been there twice in three years. I take oxycodone three times a day and also have a duragesic patch on.

My PCP and I have discussed this and he thinks I have signed one or he states that I have maybe he knows I really have not. You see I smoke a little grass now and then for pain, it works better than oxycontin for me, we have discussed that. I popped positive on two drug test so far, one I knew about, when I was admitted to the psych ward I told the admitting doc, I was suicidal at the time and admitted to him when he asked, then they did a screen once I was admitted and it was positive.

Another time I went to the ER and they did a drug screen with out me knowing it and I popped positive again. I started asking questions what gives them the right to do a drug screen on me, the answer I heard was my narc contract. But I never signed one, I have let that snake lay in the grass and have not bothered it , but I will never pee for them again and I will never go to a VA ER again. I get my drugs every month from the VA. I talked to a guy once in the smoke shak, he told me they found out he smoked grass for pain, took his vicodin (kids crap) away and put him on the stuff they give heroin addicts, I will think of the name in a minute. I have had other vets tell me the same thing that if they find out you smoke weed they will take away your pain meds and put you on ????????????????????? Methadone thats it. So they take away less potent stuff and put you on methadone figure that one out?

The ironic thing is that in the city of ann arbor grass is legal for medicinal purposes and thats were the VAMC is, and I have told that to my doctors. I have told em you let me run out of my pain meds so I went down town and got some grass.

Its a good question you asked, so what if you have been getting opiates for two years they just cant up and discontinue them, that is cruel and unusual punishment. I have been diagnosed at a c&p AS HAVING CHRONIC PAIN and at my depression C&P the doctor diagnosed me as having serious depression secondary to serious pain syndrome.

So like I said you asked a good question which I have often wondered about because of my situation. Right now I am appealing/fighting for a rating for chronic pain under Somatoform Disorders specifically 9422 Pain disorder. I listed it on my claim, I was diagnosed with it at two C&P's and the VA has ignored it like I wrote it with invisible ink, even in my NOD's they have ignored it.

Pulled from your answer: "Another time I went to the ER and they did a drug screen with out me knowing it and I popped positive again. I started asking questions what gives them the right to do a drug screen on me, the answer I heard was my narc contract."

Here's why I ask without saying more than what I've been warned not to say. There seems to be no consistant policy. This so called contract is not in effect in all VAMCs. No one seems to know who gave the order to put into place a policy that is not approved offically by the VA on a federal level. At the VA that I go to there are over 500 complaints to the patient advocate; more complaints than any other issue. The contract at the VA that I go to ( and I'm hoping that there are a few Vets here from VAWPB ) is the strictest one that my attornies have found so far. It is so draconian that I at first refused to sign it. I was told if I didn't sign it they did not have to treat me. That in and of itself is against the law.

I tried talking to anyone and everyone involved in the contract but funny thing the had me running from the basement to the 9th floor on several occasions and I could not get a straight answer. The one thing they loved to tell me was: " If you don't like it suit us. It's been challenged before and has stood up to the challenge. "

Right now I'm trying to gather as much information as I can from Vets who have been cut off or refused treatment as a consequence of this contract.

If you haven't signed one count yourself lucky. If you had signed one and tested positive for ANYTHING other than what they Rx in an amount that falls with-in the levels expected for that dose you would be cut off, no excuses, no hearing, no second chance. If there was a good reason; it doesn't matter. Your done!

So here we are, 1% of the whole population who serves their country whether you joined or were drafted and the promises made when we served are now being broken.

Without sounding like an anarchist or something worse, it makes me wonder why the system has turned on US; the defenders who served?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is the first time that I've heard of a narc contract.

However, I have to travel most of the day to get to a VA doctor that 'could' prescribe that stuff, if he wanted to, which he declines to do.

Hydrocodone and morphine make my PTSD much worse and I'm not very anxious to get hooked on methadone.

Oxycodone seems to be my best bet and the VA staff doctors refuse to even consider prescribing that one.

My private doctor switched me to trazadone and stopped the ambian 2 days ago that I've been taking for a year.

Today, my pharmacist told me that ambian is now coming out in a less expensive generic form. Just my damned luck.

And I just started taking vytorin, does anyone have any feedback on that stuff.

My blood test showed that my bad blood fat is 200 to high.

sledge

You see that's the part that I am just finding out. This is not system wide. It is unheard of in some medical centers. Count yourself lucky to be in a VA that is not asking you to sign one of these. May I ask which VA and state were you reside?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As "betrayed" said:

"Hell of a QUESTION FOR YOUR FIRST POST............Why are you asking?"

I realized that this was coming out of the box strong but I have an agenda and the ones who can help me and I'm sure help themself is to assist me in getting answers to these questions.

I'd like to ask the moderators here if there is another place I can post this question even if it's in the form of a poll.

It would also help me if anyone can recomemend other forums or blogs for Vets?

This question is also posted on Craigslist but only for the West Plam Beach area. If you live in another area and would like to help me gather information and facts please consider posting on Craiglsist or other forums and direct them to me. I'm in the process of putting together a website mostly for this issue for now. Overtime I'm looking to start a non-profit Veterans Advocacy group with a resource page for anything and everything we need.

Unless something exists between a service organization and a patient advocate I've been finding that there is a strong need for something inbetween. Does anyone agree with that or have thoughts about what is needed?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in extreme southwest Missouri and have to use Fayetteville, Ark. as my primary VA. They send me all over the country on wild goose chases.

Kansas City, MO and KS, Little Rock, ARK, St. Louis, MO, Columbia, MO, and Mount Vernon, MO.

Doctors that work at the VA as their primary income are normally so brow beaten by the system that you can't get them to do anything except pass the buck. Administrative folks are pretty much the same way.

When you can't find out where something originated, they have been instructed to not give out that information.

sledge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use