By Dr. Lorri Greene
Remember those pain level charts in your physician’s office that asked what level of pain you have? I used to think they actually cared about legitimate physical pain. My pain is at a 9 today.
Do physicians care? Not these days.
Most are too afraid of going up against the DOJ, DEA and the Medical Board. I actually don’t blame physicians, as the edict has come from agencies that they have no control over.
I do wonder why the Medical Board has not confronted these issues. But perhaps it’s easier just to ignore us who have been diagnosed with physical pain, even if we have MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays to prove we are legitimately hurting.
Before this so-called “War on Drugs,” I was able to get two Vicodin a day from my primary care doctor. In fact, she is the one who suggested it.
Then one day, she called me in and said she would no longer prescribe it. When I asked why, she went on about all the new regulations.
So there I was, left with 10 Vicodin and no more to come.
So now I am angry. Angry I can’t sleep because no position is comfortable; angry that even cannabis isn’t helping; angry that physicians who say, “Above all, do no harm,” have harmed me and thousands like me.
So if I seem like I am feeling sorry for myself, perhaps I am. And I am feeling sorry for so many I have talked to who are in the same boat.
Is it my fault I was born with hip dysplasia and other abnormalities that have led to this pain? If I had been born 30 years later, it would not have been a problem.
Today, they have fixes for the things I have if they are caught when you are young.
Is it my fault that my mother took a drug to avoid a miscarriage, even though she had not miscarried before?
She gave birth to me at age 21. I am part of a longitudinal study of this drug, which turns out to be not so great for daughters of DES mothers.
Lest you think I am suicidal, you would be mistaken. Anger energizes me to do more than I have been doing.
However, the pain makes me too tired to get even get up some mornings. There is a part of me that wishes I could go to Sacramento and Washington D.C. and tell them in person who they are hurting.
But I sometimes wonder if they would care. After all, I am a senior citizen, a waste of space, and as some have called us, a “boomer.”
Rest assured I will not give up. I do not intend to live the rest of whatever life I have left in this kind of pain.
There has to be an answer. There has to be hope.
If you have been hurt by doctors pulling pain medication from you for no apparent reason other than the never-ending and illusive “War on Drugs,” I would like to hear from you. You can email me: [email protected].
Don’t let them take away our lives because some people have overdosed. I would bet there are more deaths from cigarettes and alcohol than there are from Vicodin or Norco.
And they are still sold over the counter, not as drugs (even though they are), but as general food items in some cases.
Maybe time to hold the people that are responsible for hurting so many people accountable. I know I will in the next election.
Lorri Greene, Ph.D., lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea
