New Va Pain Medication Policy

[Buck52]

Ms Reed,

seek outside healthcare if you possibly can!

....................Buck!

[razinkane]

I asked for a pain consult for electric shooting pains down both legs. Pain levels constant 8 shooting pains 10.. Tramadol / flexeril not even touching these pains.

The following was the response that we got from the pain clinic consult that was placed for you:

ONLY MODALITY THAT I CAN SEE FOR HIM IS POSSIBLE ACCUPUNCTURE AND MASSAGE THERAY AND OTHER
ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT LIKE YOGA OR SWIMMING

Please let me know if you are interested in any of the above and we will order this for you.

They want me to go swimming (I will drown), get a massage (Pain is bad enough without rubbing it), or do Yoga (hello I can't walk let alone bend) with the following??? I have electric shooting pains down both legs. I have a constant toothache like pain in my back and hips. Both shoulders and shoulder blades are hurting, arms are numb. Pain levels constant 8 shooting pains 10.. Tramadol / flexeril not even touching these pains.

[iceturkee]

I heard that the DEA was on the VA case for prescribing too much pain med. Try patient advocate. If that doesn't work, try a letter to your congressman.

there may be truth to this. last week when i picked up my pain meds, the pharmacist said the va was cracking down because younger veterans were abusing the meds. the computer picked me up for a urine drug screen (which i had in early march and was negative) and an ekg (which i had done in december and was negative). took a supervisor to agree to release the meds to me.

[broncovet]

The VA has 4 different plans for us to deal with pain. We get to chose which one:

1. "No"

2. "Quit whining".

3. "Tough it out".

4. "Suck it up, soldier".

Edited April 13, 2015 by broncovet

[john999]

My VA pain doctor is recommending Oxycontin for me. I have been on morphine, methadone, fentanyl patch and large doses of oxycodone. VA shrink prescribed clonazepam for me for anxiety and then other VA doctors scream about me O.D.'ing. I have been on this stuff for ten years. I do want off the clonazepam but cannot sleep without it. My problem is PAIN. Chronic pain drives all my other SC disabilities. If I could effectively deal with the pain I think my other conditions might improve or at least not get worse. Chronic pain drove me out of my job 15 years ago.

John

[iceturkee]

Bottom line nothing is going to be done in the VA to get pain meds back like they use to be. I have been on Methadone and Hydrocodone for break through pain for the past 12 plus years now and I have been weaned down from Methadone and now Hydrocodone. I am 100% disabled from a serious back injury in a Helicopter crash in Vietnam and it is getting worse as time goes by. I cannot walk or stand, I am diabetic with a serious case of neuropathy, the pins and needles kill me, I need someone to help in the bathroom, fix my food, bathe me anything and everything. Now my PCP wants me to go 150 for treatment. I tell them I cannot drive (he knows this) I cannot travel unless I have help and I don't have help. They said I could go to Florida for an in-patient 21 day program, they know I cannot travel, who would take care of me there, no one is going to wipe my behind for me or feed me daily. I just cannot function like everyone else, so what is a Veteran to do. No help at the VA, I don't have medicare yet but will next year, still can't get to the Doctor's office. They have bought me two electric wheelchairs and I need wood flooring to use those in the house so I can't use them. Tried getting a HISA grant but I need 3 different contractors to submit these forms that are nothing but confusing as hell and just a roadblock. I even talked to the Hospital Medical Director at Fayetteville, Arkansas who tells me Methadone is not meant as a pain medication...I almost croaked, where does he think Methadone came from...remember WWII and the Germans and no morphine, they are the ones who came up with this drug and it works, for me anyway. I don't get high on this medication it just stops some of the pain to a level I can live with. Some Vet is going to get sick of this and do a Postal on his Doctor, when that happens maybe something will change, Like metal detectors and bullet proof glass where you see your doctor on your computer. My brother took me to see my doctor about 2 weeks ago and he was in the room with me, first time every my doctor kept asking me if I wanted this or that and I kept telling him no then he would defer to my brother and ask him, "did you hear me ask him if he wanted it and he said no"..kept covering his butt like I was setting him up. Talk about paranoid, obviously he feels guilty about taking me off my pain meds. No the VA will not change the way they have begun doing business, there is just not enough cohesion among Veterans as a group to thwart this effort. But, good luck to everyone I hope

you get what you need. Me, I am going to a methadone clinic and tell them I have a dependency on narcotics and I need methadone, don't tell them it is for pain b/c they don't treat pain at a methadone clinic and you can go as high as you need to go to relieve the pain and you can actually get a 28 day take home after you have been going for a while and no positive urine for anything..and they will not allow you to use any Diazepams, so that is out for a lot of people, me I don't take them, I know methadone and diazepam are a deadly combination.

i have been on methadone for a few years now for my bad back and rheumatoid arthritis. my entire spine is messed up, mainly my lumbar. i take 15 mg a day and it does a farily good job of keeping my pain in tact.