By Suzanne Stewart.

I’ve had a few interviews recently, with people who want to know about “my story” mostly. But I’m finding out more and more that so many in mainstreamed society do not understand chronic illnesses or pain whatsoever. There are 100 million people living in the USA, who live with daily chronic pain. We truly need to “talk about” this. I’ve even been speaking with legislators to try and get some of these House Bills to NOT be permanent law. The people who are sitting on these committees do not understand anything about chronic pain, yet these are the persons making the medical decisions for us instead of our physicians. Most or many chronic pain patients visit their pain management physicians, now monthly. The pain doctors are the ones who went to school for many many years to learn about how to treat people who live with real pain on a daily basis. Why are these Bills being turned into laws without the consent of a pain Dr.? Why were there no pain management physicians sitting in on the meetings when the CDC guidelines were being discussed?

The CDC guidelines that were put into place in 2016, were done behind “closed doors” and in “secret”; without any pain management physicians there to guide them at all. No, there was only PROP (physicians for responsible opioid prescribing), including their guy, Andrew Kolodny; who is a Psychiatrist. He is an addiction specialist, not a Physician trained in the treatment of chronic pain. Why would the CDC set guidelines like these and allow them to be done like this in secret, by a person who is not even trained in the management of pain? Next, these guidelines are supposed to be just that, “guidelines”. Somehow they have become the “law” without actually going through the right chain of events to become a “law”. Physicians, pharmacies and others are now adhering to these “guidelines” that were meant for general physicians, not even for Pain physicians. But some pain management Dr.’s have seen their colleagues have their livelihoods taken away by the DEA now, and they are fearful. They fear losing their practice and everything that they went to school all of those years to do.

These CDC guidelines are not the law but Dr.’s are being “bullied” into making them the law in their own practices. They have families and a life outside of pain management. They don’t want to lose everything and I understand that. But someone has to stand up for what is good, lawful and right! We need to remind our physicians that these are just guidelines and not anything that legally must be done right now. The guidelines, after all, were also supposed to be about stopping the overprescribing of opioids right after an injury or a surgery. They weren’t meant to take the very lives away from the chronic pain patients; yet that is what’s happening. People are dying and suicides are rising even though in the last several years, the prescribing for opioids has actually gone down. Did you know that legacy chronic pain patients, those who were already on an opioid pain medication plan that was working for them, before the 2016 guidelines came into effect; are supposed to be exempt from them? But that’s not what is happening in many cities and states.

Today, in 2017, in our United States of America; people are being tortured. Yes, it is true. Our service men, the Vets who came back from combat, after fighting for their country, return home to live with terrible and painful wounds. They were the first to be denied pain medications and now everyone else is following. How can a country let those who lost a limb or more, fighting for them; just live with pain and not try to ease that pain? If you read the CDC guidelines in the link that I’ve provided above (in the second paragraph), you will be able to read that the guidelines spell out these words “reduce opioids UNLESS THERE IS HARM BY DOING SO”. So many in our country are now being harmed by these guidelines that are being abused and played out as “law”. Do you know that the elderly in nursing homes are now being denied opioids and left to live out their days in agony and chronic pain at various advanced ages? This is called “torture” and “abuse” and it’s just wrong! Just as it is wrong to make everyone be at the same dosage of opioid pain medication. We are not “one size fits all” human beings. Just as 90MME or less, will not work the same for everyone. We all metabolizes differently. Some physicians & legislators are listening again, to the non-pain management Dr.’s, who think that 90 MME is the highest amount that every single person should be allowed to take, no matter the circumstances. This is truly torture for patients who are in need of more than that amount. There are patients who must take more than that in order to have some semblance of a life outside of their bed. They are not groggy or high. They are just trying to get by and live their lives the best way that they possible. To the surprise of the journalists and legislators that I’ve spoken with, the chronic pain community that I know and love, doesn’t want more opioids for pain relief. They want only what is needed to get by; to live some kind of life with lessened pain. I was asked “If I could have more opioid pain medication, would I want more?” I responded vehemently, “Absolutely not!” If I did not need to take the medications that give me some pain relief, then I would not take them. I don’t want more and more pain medications. I only want the amount that is necessary for me to have some kind of life outside of my bed. Lastly, I was also asked “if I am Pro-opioid”? I replied, “No, I am Pro-patient”!

Suzanne has lived with a Systemic CRPS & several other chronic pain illnesses since a MVA in 2002. Prior to being disabled from chronic pain, she was an Interpreter for the Deaf at a hospital & worked with Deaf children. Since 2005, Suzanne’s been a patient Health advocate, support group leader & Mentor. She continues doing these things today, but also does public speaking, awareness events and she’s a Writer/blogger & an Ambassador for the U.S. Pain Foundation. For entertainment she creates advocacy videos & uplifting ASL cover song videos on You tube and she writes in her own blog Tears Of Truth. You can follow her here: TearsofTruth.com

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