[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