Opiods and work

[group911@aol.co]

Originally Posted by Tobra

There is a big difference between someone taking opioids for pain and someone addicted to opioids

Actually, I see your point but at what point do you say continued use is an addiction?
That's pretty much my friends contention. He's not addicted, he just can't survive without them.

[Clatter]

When I got myself fixed,
They saw some other things they wanted to do in there,
So they put me under for the operation.

They gave me some Vic-ies - a 50 bottle.
Knew better than to start in on those,
But woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I got kicked in the balls.

Took one Vico, fell right back to sleep..
Next morning I was fine.
Brushing my teeth, it seemed like a REALLY GOOD IDEA to take another one.
Even though I wasn’t hurting.

Then I noticed another couple of bottles of these from when my wife had a c-section.
Never noticed those before.
They were full, too.
Never noticed that before, either..

It was perfectly obvious what was going on here.
Plain as day.
Couldn’t believe the perfect cause-and-effect so clearly in front of me at the time..

[John Rogers]

In 1969 I had a very bad motorcycle wreck where my left knee was crushed and since metal knee joints weren't too good yet the good surgeon built me one from bone of my right hip. The Air Force hospital I was in gave me morphine every 3 to 4 hours and one shot just before my PT session. The meds just made me not care about the pain and I guess I really hollered when the PT lady would bend my knee but I never remembered it!

Back in 1995 or so arthritis set in badly and I took Naproxen but after a while it never worked. Started stronger stuff (Hydrocodone) and if I stopped it for one or two days before a vintage race I found I could barely walk and my legs world get numb! That is bad for turn 3 at the CA Speedway as I could not feel the brake pedal. So I sold the race car and do black powder bench rest target shooting instead...….much easier on the body.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Unfit for Work
The startling rise of disability in America.

That story was on This American Life a few years ago. It's very disturbing. Anyone who hasn't read through the whole thing ought to take the time.

"A person on welfare costs a state money. That same resident on disability doesn't cost the state a cent, because the federal government covers the entire bill for people on disability."

[piscator]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

This looks to me like the classic "chicken or the egg" question, and this researcher had already decided which before undertaking his study. Far, far too many "objective" studies are done to simply support the researchers' assumptions, assumptions made before the study even begins. When researchers begin with the notion that "I'm going to prove 'x'...", they seldom prove themselves wrong.

So how about this - the increased opioid presence in these communities is due to the nature of the work that the people there perform. High risk, high injury, hard on the old body kind of work. Like logging, mining, oil field, natural gas field, farming, and that kind of thing. Their decreased workforce participation is due the injuries suffered at that work. In other words, their work is injuring them, rendering them unable to work, and the opioids showed up in answer to that - it's not the opioids that are keeping them from working. I think this study has some problems with causation...

Well done Jeff! This is spot on.

Robert

[piscator]

After a serious accident, I had four painful and unsuccessful back surgeries. One that left me virtually bedridden and in pain for a year. I needed pain meds, but I hated oxycodone, Percocet, because of the side effects. When the time release analgesics came on the market, oxycontin in particular, it was a blessing!

My understanding is that oxycontin was designed to meter dosages effectively to give cancer patients and other unremitting pain sufferers relief without ‘doping them up.’

Taken as directed by my doctor, the oxycontin took the edge off the pain and enabled me to start walking and exercising. And, the time-release oxycontin NEVER made me feel loopy like the oxycodone Percocet did (I hate that stuff). I also think the public doesn’t clearly recognize the difference between the two.

My injury was a life changing event. I had to sell my business and focus on my health and family. I would have missed much of my daughters’ growing up without proper medication. My rehabilitation was dependent on pain control. I would not have been able to hike, swim, fish, or work on my cars without it.

I still can’t sit for long periods. I rarely eat out in restaurants. I don’t go to movies. I don’t travel by airplane. I love my car, but can’t take long road trips like many of you do. There are lots of things that regular folks don’t hesitate a second about that I have to avoid.

Still, I feel blessed that I no longer spend my days staring at the ceiling unable to move. I can’t speak for other people, but the medications (taken correctly) were essential to my recovery. When I hear this subject discussed in public, I feel the positive side of these medications is often neglected.

Yes, there are people who become trapped in addiction. When I participated in a spinal injury support group, I met them. But it wasn’t everyone in the room. It wasn’t even a handful. Most of the guys (and it was mostly guys) that I met, desperately wanted their lives back and DIDN’T like taking pain meds.

Most importantly, I feel that the proper place for these discussions is a doctor’s office. And the discussion should be between a doctor and their patient. The media-zation of this subject has been a harassment to patients who legitimately need these medications. And it’s pushed the cost out of reach for many.

I certainly feel badly for anyone caught in the throws of addiction, but it doesn’t seem fair to make people with a legitimate, even critical, need for a medication; have to jump hurdles they can’t jump and suffer in pain because the public demands something be done.

Robert