http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/WSG/WsgComplaintFinal08.pdf
If this case is successful… it could be the first domino to FALL… even before it goes to trial or is settled… it may give other law firms a idea of some other “deep pockets” to go after.
THINK… many insurance companies who are limiting opiate dosing
Many other various state level legislatures that have created opiate dosing limits
Many Corporations that have imposed limitations on what their employee prescribers can do
Many chain pharmacies that have imposed opiate limits or discourages the filling of controlled Rxs
Any entity that has decided to practice medicine without a license or interfere with the
proper treatment of chronic pain
Filed under: General Problems
I wish this had been recent because I would have voluntarily wrecked my body getting to this trial. Myself and family would have been willing to speak as witnesses. My mom also has CRPS and is on a pretty high dose of pain medication. Her doctor recently moved to the same office my doctor is in, from over in Idaho. So now she is also looking at having her medication cut down to the point where she can no longer move. She was on a stable dose, that was adequate for her pain and her doctor recently told her that she “doesn’t want to cut it down to the point that she can’t move” but any cut, any at all, is going to put her in that position. She had a genetics screen that revealed that she is a rapid metabolizer and that she may require dosage adjustments. Even with that, she never went to her doctor for an increase and now she is going to lose the relief that she gets as well. She is currently looking into palliative care for herself because she also has heart problems, amongst other diagnoses and we are hopeful that will pan out for her. I don’t want to lose my mom because of the hype and hysteria surrounding pain medications. If she doesn’t get palliative care, I am afraid that is what is going to happen. Heart issues+increased pain+no exercise= Death Sentence. First, Do No Harm……yeah, right.
Hi, we have a WA state advocacy group that recently formed, as WA DOH has been tasked with writing even more restrictive laws. Any WA state citizen, or those who obtain treatment here please come find us on Facebook – Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain – Washington State
Unfortunately, this was in 2008. I am assuming that the lawsuit was not ruled upon favorably seeing as how Washington State is set to go with its new laws as of January 1st 2018. I see a doctor in Washington State because I can’t get a doctor in Idaho, where I live, to even see me because I have chronic pain. We made 40+ phone calls to different offices in my area before I called a doctor in Washington State and they agreed to take me. Now, I am going to be forced off of the dosages I am on for my pain medcations even though my doctor has admitted that I should be on HIGHER dosages that what I already am. My doctor’s office has already implemented the law changes as of November 1st. I have nowhere else to go and pain management, which is in Idaho, told me not to come back until I have a diagnosis because I can’t take the methadone they wanted to put me on. I have several diagnoses already. The one that escapes me, though, is I have an unofficial diagnosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. I can’t get the doctor that told me that to officially diagnose it. He tells me that it’s because he doesn’t treat it. I know it’s because CRPS is a notoriously painful condition with little for treatment, the most effective of which being adequate pain control. So I know what I have, on top of the myriad of other things, but no one wants to say it on paper. In other words, I get to live like this, until I die. Believe me, there are many days that I am disappointed that I woke up. I am not suicidal…..yet….but this is what this “syndrome” can do to a person’s mental state. If I am already disappointed that I have woken up on many a morning, what is going to happen to me when they cut down the already inadequate dosages that I am getting? I can see the future for myself and it does not look good. I am 38 years old. I never thought that I would be doing a POLST and Advanced Directive with a DNR at this age, but I am. Because of these changes. I used to have a life and I miss it. I am still mourning that life’s passing. So now I will be confined to bed or chair, 24/7. I might as well BE the bed or chair. A piece of furniture. That’s what I have to look forward to. Forgive me if I am not too darn excited about it. Something has got to change……
Now have no quality of life/ go from the sofa to the bed, from the bed to the sofa, ALL DAY. Afraid to do anything/CANNOT do anything or pain will accelerate. Truly this will end.
Somehow we have to get this lawsuit in the news. Other attorneys may jump in, wanting a piece of the pie, and then we’ll really have something. Maybe folks making up these “rules” will start jumping ship as easily as they jumped on. Pass info on to everyone.
AWESOME!!!!!!maryw
It’s about time. Hopefully other attorneys in all other states will do the same. As a result of the “War on Opiods”, new CDC/AMA guidelines, and the current political assault on opioid prescribing, my doctor began reducing my hydrocodone about four years ago. I went from 4 daily to now just 30 monthly (to use “only when needed”). On my 09/01/2017 office visit he cut my morphine from 100 mg to just 60 mg. He stated that due to resent changes in opioid prescribing laws here in MS, he could no longer prescribe pain medications unless I y cancer, or was an end of life patient. As if somehow my chronic pain for the past decade had magically disappeared. He stated that he is being forced to wean me off completely, despite that all prior office visit notes clearly indicate that I was stable, that my current medications where controlling my pain levels, and allowing me to function in my daily life. I suffer from HIV related chronic pain as well as fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, osteopoikilosis, and my viral medications also cause pain.
On 10/13/2017 I returned to my doctor complaining my pain levels had increased significantly since the reduction in my morphine along with my lack of mobility. I also expressed concern about my overall reduction in regards to my quality of life. He seemed to take on an attitude that my chronic pain issues no longer warranted strong long term opioid therapy based on new scientific proof. In fact he told me my pain medications where causing me even more harm and he reduced my morphine to 30 mg. A total reduction of 70 mg in less then two months. Why the sudden change in my therapy when for the past six and a half years he had no problem prescribing me 100 milligrams of morphine? If he believed it was doing me more harm than good as he stated, then he knowingly prescribed me a medication he believed was harming me? That makes no since. Also, why is that cancer patients pain considered to be any different than chronic non-cancer patients? That rational also seems to be ludicrous to me.
I have struggled with daily chronic pain for over a decade and have responsibly relied on pain medications as a means to help me manage my systems. Yet due to the current anti opioid prescribing limitations to curb opioid abuse, the new CDC guidelines, and my physician’s reluctance to prescribe those medications, I have found myself in a position of being denied access to the very thing that can help relieve my suffering. These new prescribing “dosage” limitations are causing me harm and undo suffering and are now interfering with my patient-provider relationship. There has to be a balance between both prescription drug abuse and the treatment of chronic pain, one that doesn’t only fixate on one problem at the expense of the other.
I am a completely healthy person living in the state of Mississippi with undetectable HIV, but also live with chronic pain that is now being under treated. What started out as tolerable pain developed into debilitating pain that has impacted every aspect of my life. From my mood, appetite, emotional stress, and my overall outlook on life. I’ve spent many nights with little-to-no sleep where the only thing I could focus on was how awful I felt. In 2009 I was no longer able to work as an educational loan analyst for J.P. Morgan Chase and had to go on social security disability.
My pain has since returned to a level that is truly unbearable at times. I’ve reached out to my ID physician, several organization, and even legislators with no eval. I can’t believe that I may be faced to just except this new reality. A reality that if current legislation and physicians perceptions of treating people with a chronic pain do not change, I (along with many others) will be forced to simply suffer.
I pray the plantifis in this case will when, that the guidelines will no longer be inforced in most all states, and the pendulum will begin to sway back to treating chronic pain patients humanly and with dignity.
U R lucky.. I cannot get any opiates after being on 400 to 500 MED/daily 4 14 yrs. Yanked off & put on buprenorphine/causes me INCREDIBLY insomnia & now, of course, have NO tolerance 4 opiates. Born with congenital spondylolisthesis, now have DDD, stenosis, SEVERE OA in all joints/8-9 surgeries. BUPREN. clinic swapped out my tiny benzo & tizanidine dose 4 HUGE phenobarvitol dose/double vision & so impaired I wrecked my bike & car. THIS IS AN IMPROVEMENT??? Now w/o pain meds, cannot sleep so tripled my previous tiny diazepam dose SIX DR’S. SAY THEY CAN’T HELP ME. Suicide last option.
I’m so sorry! I don’t understand how once caring doctors are cutting pain patients off. It’s inhumane. It’s happening everywhere. Death fr1om Rx are down 70% but the CDC restrictions keep coming. People are dying. It has to stop! My hubands doctor of 8 years is cutting him off, blaming fear of DEA. Other doctors have stopped prescribing pain meds, or just retired. It’s a witch hunt. If one complains, they are cut back even more. Before CDC he could walk, then started using a cane, now a walker.
Hey Brian, I read through the document over the past few days since I last spoke with you, under another article here on Steve’s website (at least I think it was you!) Yes, indeed we’re all in the same crummy sinking boat. The court case above, has it not settled yet? Good grief! The stupid state of Washington has ran most pain management doctors out of business by threats and red tape bureaucracy! What a crap sandwich we’re being forced to swallow.
Hang in there, Brian. We’re all in this together.
This will be interesting. Finally we see something go to court. Sandrag
Amen ,,about freaken time we get some justice for all our dead!!!!!maryw