It happened slowly. The pain caused by a 1980 back fracture, the result of a tractor-trailer crash, crippled more and more of Jay Lawrence’s body and spirit.
By 2006, the Tennessee native and Navy veteran’s arms and legs were going numb. The excruciating pain reduced him to tears. Multiple surgeries, chiropractic adjustments, and physical therapy didn’t work.
He finally found solace in prescription painkillers – 120 milligrams a day of morphine. A high dose, but it dulled the pain enough for him to take walks with his wife, shop for groceries, even take in a few movies.
But last February, the pain clinic doctor delivered jarring news: He was cutting Lawrence’s daily dosage, first to 90 milligrams then, in short stages, down to 30 milligrams. The doctor said the reduced dosage was in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prescribing guidelines released in 2016 as part of a national anti-opioid push, according to Lawrence’s wife, Meredith.
“The doctor said: ‘You know these guidelines are going to become a law eventually. So we've decided as a group that we're going to take all of our patients down,’” she told Fox News in an interview.
Lawrence’s pain returned with a vengeance. He could barely move or sleep. He soiled his pants, unable to make the bathroom in time, Meredith said.
“It feels like every nerve in my body is on fire,” he told his wife.
Meredith said she and her husband went to their primary care physician and asked for a referral to another pain clinic. They were told it would take a minimum of six weeks.
That was too much for Lawrence. In March, on the day of his next medical appointment, when his painkiller dosage was to be reduced again, he instead went to a nearby park with his wife. And on the very spot where they renewed their wedding vows just two years earlier, they held hands.
He raised a gun to his chest and killed himself.
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https://www.foxnews.com/health/as-opioids-become-taboo-doctors-taper-down-or-abandon-pain-patients-driving-many-to-suicide
6 comments:
Cleaning house.
At some point common sense had to prevail. When a person is doing it by all the legal parameters and is in true need of the medication, leave them the hell alone. Go after the illegal opiate trade, the true culprit in the epidemic overdoses
Opioids are the only meds that will relieve back pain and control it in order to allow someone to function.
Some cop in D.C. and some politicians have decided that THEY know how doctors should practice medicine.
Lay the body on their doorstep.
I guarantee that when THEIR wife is in pain, they'll gladly take a percoset prescription.
I know a man who can barely walk from a motorcycle accident --- they cut him off his percoset, just as a matter of "federal guidelines".
So, your REAL doctor is actually a cop in D.C..
Keep cheering.
Doctors, pharmacies, and basically the medical profession could care less about a patient's pain. I have had chronic pain for about 40 years. Headaches, where I feel like the top of my head will blow off. Pain level off the chart on the one to ten scale. Vomiting to go along with the headache. Every time you throw up or dry heave the pain level shoots even further off the charts. I have never been given pain medicine. Neurologist says, "Well, you already have nausea and vomiting, pain medicine will only make that worse. No need to give that to you." So I have spent 40 years in excruciating pain.
A family member has rheumatoid arthritis so bad they are barely mobile. Have had almost every joint replaced. Toes cut off just to be able to wear shoes. They want 4,000.00 per month for her medicine. She is on social security. Do you think she'll be able to take it? NO. Does anyone care? NO.
3:01 I care but I'm in no capacity to change anything about your situation. I live in a similar one. They do not care. Even legitimate prescription holders are treated like junkies. I gave up and its a miserable thing to bear daily. I knew when they squeezed tight on opiods people would die. The government has NO place telling you what you can and cannot put in your body but they control drugs to control the money moving. Police forces loose most power if drugs were legal so they will never support your freedom. It will get worse for everyone who has legitimate chronic pain.
This is happening on a daily basis. I just pray that the person in so much pain does not decide to take the doctor with him. I don't mean I care that much for doctors but there has to be hatred for people who got him hooked and the doctor has a family as well.....his children will miss him.
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