New Va Pain Medication Policy

[ourdoc]

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".  

 

Edited May 22, 2016 by ourdoc

[RUREADY]

if you been on narcotic for 15 years you are hook. I been on patches, methadone,

morphine and I never thought I was hook but you try to quit taking your pills and let me

know how you feel. I'm in a state marijuana is not legal. I smoke and tell my doctors I smoke

for depression  and pain and I ask them to write it in my notes just like that in my records. I take

no more pills for pain and my doctor ask me do I want to get help with marijuana?  I ask her for what to get

hook on pills again never will. Pills is not my thing

Edited May 23, 2016 by RUREADY

[ourdoc]

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.

[RUREADY]

if you is a medic you should know what pain pills do or is

doing to a lot of people look at the news at how many are dying from pills

just now Prince he wasn't hook either right but now he gone from using pills

hydrocodone for hip  pain. I was in pain 15 years taking meds even fentanyl patches 10 years

of the strong stuff. I had three surgery on my back and years of pain pills still the pain was

and will always be there so what was the pills doing making me high and if you were on all them

pills how do you drive. VA has all type of treatments for pain now a days. If you ever get off pills that is a

great feeling and before long it gets better and better. Their are more choices to reduce pain other than pills.

I use acupuncture treatment and been doing real good since about two years, I also attend classes

to help people cope with pain 8 week classes. You also don't have good sex life no more after years of pills

that's why ED is so popular from meds you take. I m 58 and doing much better than I was 15 years ago.

Its a crack down going on right now about these pills, you do what you have to if that's taking pills what ever

you please. To me pills help pain short term

Edited May 23, 2016 by RUREADY

[rootbeer22]

Ourdoc:

 

I agree that most vets who legitimately need the narcotic meds are not hooked? Also, Vets should always be willing to do a drug test as it's required. Unfortunately, only Vets that have chronic pain day in and day out, truly knows the effects upon their lies and the lives of their families. That said, their is a lot of misinformation out in the media concerning pain that hurts the cases of many vets requiring the pain meds. Like you, many vets have been on a consistent dosage for many years and that's mainly about good pain management and following the rules. However, I've heard of cases like yours also, where someone like your doctor may retire from the VA and the new VA doctor's pain management philosophy is 180 degrees out from the previous doctor? Suddenly, then you are told, it's time for you now to scale back and get off of narcotics altogether after being on them for many years--because now they have decided it's better for your health--and by the way it meets the new policy? That's suddenly where a new untested VA policy intersects with the practical application of pain management? It's been proven through research that if a patient is truly injured, verified by medical evidence like MRI & CT scans, that a patient cannot be hooked on something that their body needs?  But there's a lot of bias now that says, "hey, that  many VA patient's have been on narcotics for 20 -plus years, and it's time to get them off because there is just too much political pressure" from members of congress on the VA? The argument goes that the overdose rates around the country are skyrocketing now and the VA has a lot of vets on pain medications, therefore the VA needs to do something about it right now? So, the media will make that argument while at the same time citing overdose statistics from areas like poor high unemployment West Virginia counties that are not even relevant  to the VA's situation? That's without contrasting the unique nature of  actual military injured veteran populations that are hurt in combat or major training exercises versus civilian patients that have not been managing their conditions properly-then overdoses?  As a result, the pressure to curtail pain meds is growing daily which is going to hurt the quality of life for many Vets and their families in the near future. It just seems that someone now nationally needs to Advocate for the side of the 10's of thousands of Veterans whom have been taking these pain meds for many years  and that were in fact prescribed by the VA in the first place and how they are being impacted by these new "get off narcotics" policies by this right now.

Goodspeed.. Rootbeer22

Edited May 23, 2016 by rootbeer22
typos

[Chuck75]

This shows that the VA is more concerned with things other than what is best for an individual veteran patient.

Public appearance/perception is just one of the many "things". Rigid compliance with policy is another, except when it's to the VA's benefit to not do so.

Having said that, in the past, I've had VA PCP's offer drugs that had serious risks associated with them.

A couple were "mind altering", and others "sleeping pills" that posed a serious risk to someone like myself with heart conditions.