We often hear about the opioid epidemic from the perspective of those who are addicted But what about the other side of the coin, people who use prescription opioids as a means of treating chronic pain?
Jennifer Bowersock lives her life day to day.
“I am never out of pain, I am in pain from the second I wake up to the second I fall asleep.” Bowersock explains.
Open heart surgery put her on a painful road to recovery.
“Some days I’m good, I can get out of bed, function normally. Then, other days it’s very depressing, you just can’t move, I can’t get out of bed.” Bowersock says.
She takes prescription opioids to take the edge off and help her sleep. Three years later, she can’t imagine life without them.
“I probably wouldn’t be able to function at all.”
For Shari Burdick it was a diagnosis with Degenerative Disc Disease 10 years ago. Debilitating pain put her out of her longtime job in the school cafeteria.
“I have a new normal, it’s not the normal I used to have.” Burdick says.
Physical therapy and injections didn’t help with the crippling pain. Prescription opioids help her do more of the things she loves, like cooking and spending time with her grandkids.
Shari has been on her medication for 5 years and in that time, has seen changes with every trip to the pharmacy.
“You don’t get as much in one prescription as you used to, they cut it back. You can’t get it early, I mean if you pick up your prescription on a certain day it’s exactly a month later that you can get it. Not a day sooner. They’re very strict with it.” Burdick explains.
If anyone understands why new guidelines are being put in place to limit the supply of opioids available, it’s Burdick.
“My younger brother died from an overdose of opioids so yes I can see both sides of it.” Burdick says.
“Most people don’t realize the other side of the coin, that legitimate pain patients are getting caught up in the hysteria over the opioids.” Pharmacist, Mike Minesinger, says.
Minesinger is owner and pharmacist at Alwan Pharmacy. He says if prescriptions are going to be cut back, it needs to be done gradually and humanely.
“I’m just seeing reports of people who are being suddenly taken off of them. You know, their suicide rate goes up or you know, alternatively, they switch to street drugs because they can’t get the prescription anymore.” Minesinger explains.
Dr. Dennis McManus is Director of the Central Illinois Pain Clinic. When it comes to prescribing to his patients at the clinic, he takes a tough stance, telling them it’s the medicine contributing to their pain.
“We’re having a lot of people dying, more people than died in the Vietnam War, more people dying than the height of the AIDS epidemic, people are dying and the question is what’s going on? My stand point is there’s just no good evidence for the use of chronic opioids in chronic pain.” Dr. McManus explains.
Dr. McManus says the evidence shows long-term opioid use actually increases our sensitivity to pain.
“The best way to avoid the problem is not to create the problem in the first place.”
The Centers for Disease Control published a guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain in 2017. In it, the CDC says clinicians should prescribe the lowest effective dosage and should prescribe no greater quantity than for the expected duration of pain severe enough to require it. The CDC goes on to say 3 days of less will often be sufficient, more than 7 days is rarely needed.
If the benefits don’t outweigh the harms, the CDC recommends physicians try other therapies and work with patients to taper opioids to lower dosages or discontinuation.
Still, for patients like Bowersock and Burdick, they wish they didn’t need the treatment they call life-changing.
“Try living a day in our life to take them and somebody that doesn’t need them, you’re making it that much harder for the people that actually do need them.” Bowersock says.
Filed under: General Problems
I would like to have this Dr. McManus site the source he is referencing when telling his patients their meds are causing them pain as there are no verifiable, reproducible clinical studies publicly available. You know he is lucky he hasn’t been reported to the medical boards in his state for real or perceived fraud, malpractice or whatever else an angry, hurting patient might resort to in order for him to realize some pain too (just a different kind of pain) what an arrogant, sadistic ahole.
Pain clinics are adding to the problem. They are becoming a place for human testing. If you disagree to whatever it is they are wanting to stick into your spine, then you will be denied your medication..sort of like a nazi camp in a way isn’t it? Things used to be much better when doctors were allowed to be doctors and treat their patients as they saw fit. Now with every script of opioids that they write they practically have a prison sentence hanging over their head..the big question is “Where did America go”…were we not always hailed as the land of the free and home of the brave? Freedom seems to be taking a back seat to almost everything doesn’t it? yep a lot of questions we all need to be asking.
McManus does not know what he is talking about. I have been on opioid therapy for 30 years with little increase in strength. I also go to physical therapy. I know for a fact that this medicine has helped. I tried many many things short of surgery before I ever went on opioid therapy. I am a senior citizen who is still able to work. Does the government realize the money WASTED forcing chronic pain patients to go to the doctor every 30 days for something that should be written for 6 months?? I suspect that doctors are pretty much forcing patients into having epidural steroid injections or spinal cord stimulators (more money for them) neither of which work very well. I also suspect more patients are having surgery which has no better than a 50% chance of working. Many people who could WORK on opioid therapy now are disabled. I hope they are applying for Social Security Disability as they now cannot work.
Plow, 100% agree. My dad’s severe pain was adequately controlled for over 20 years with no changes in dosage or amount (only exception is after each of his many major surgeries, dosage was upped for a few weeks). I’m very, very curious to compare the rates of disability within the past few years and the future years, as many people who was able to work because their medications allowed them to are now being forced into complete disability from increased pain because the medical community has simply abandoned them. It’s truly despicable with what is happening.
I could throttle this idiot Dr. McManus! And he’s in charge of a Pain Clinic? God help us! He’s has cherry-picked the lies of the CDC and is passing this BS on! He is a mini Kolodny and ought to own an addiction treatment center NOT be in charge of a Pain Clinic!
Where do they get these parrots?? He needs to talk to cancer patients and tell them there’s no good reason for them to take opioids for pain. He’s lying about the numbers of people dying because we all know how the CDC calculated those statistics! He’s lying about them making us more susceptible to pain!
This jerk is just passing things on that he “has read” somewhere!! I’m sorry if I sound cranky, but I have CRPS and right now I am in unbearable pain and want to slap this guy!!!!! And I’m really a nice person, but I don’t bear fools gladly!
Well these pain doctors make a lot more money doing procedures that cost thousands of dollars for temporary relief and that is if they get any at all. Most of these procedures put patient lives at more risk of complications with little or no long term pain relief at a huge cost. It is about millions and nothin else.
The other point is that individual medical care is not about what happens to 5% of the patient that have problems with sensitivity it is about what works best for you. Meanwhile I bet 50% of the patients who get epidurals find out they do not work for them but that never stopped another doctor insisting that the results will be different. If they listen to patients and not some tainted study then they would be saying for a small amount of patients on opiates can they develope sensitivity to pain. I have been without my medication and I tell you what. Without the opiate medication my pain increased greatly. I would love to take baseball bat and give this a nice wack on his lower pain and tell hin to tough it off.
Judging by some of the reviews on this “doctor” McManus, I wouldn’t take my pets to him. One previous patient stated that once this “doctor” found out he was on disability, he lectured him about how those on disability were ruining this country, then yanked him off his pain medication. He sounds like a judgemental jackass who needs to have his head surgically removed from his ass. Personally, I can’t wait for the day these zealots get a taste of the own medicine. Maybe that’s wrong of me to wish, but perhaps when it happens to them, they’ll fully understand the importance that opioid-based medication has in this world.