The newest opioid crisis?

[El Magnifico Loco]

There is definitely a protocol that must be gone through before a proper doctor will get to opioids. Physical therapy is the first step. The second step is back injections (cortisones) that should only be done under fluoroscopes in series of three a month apart. (Medicare won't pay for three in 90 days.) Often it's the third injection that does the patient so much pain relief. Nerve ablation is often the next step. Then it may be time for surgery. Last resort is doing bone grafts/fusions.

My wife has been under pain management clinics for 17 years, and she's been taking controlled medicines for all these years. She's one of the success stories--living a normal life and staying in society. So many people with bad backs, arthritis, etc. are either invalids or just stay at home people. Proper pain management keeps patients out of nursing homes and hospitals.

CBD oil has been a Godsend for my wife. She's off 1/3 of her pain mads, and she's also off Klonipan. She is much calmer, too. She needs two foot fusions, but lidocaine lotion and Volteran gel on top of CBD oil has really dulled her pain and allowed better walking.

I have NO experience with CBD oil, but have heard of its benefits. One person with whom I spoke told me she got off all of her anti anxiety and pain meds, and just takes CBD oil. She says she feels like a normal person now. It's great to hear your wife seems to have had the same results.

 

[MRG]

Yeah, it took me a few doctors to find on that treated my pain well. Cervical epidurals only lasted a couple of weeks. Physical Therapy helped a lot, but wasn’t enough. Cervical facet injections, two years s after the initial pain, helped a lot more until insurance decided not to pay for it four years later. Surgery is not an option for me according to neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons. Burning nerve in endings help some, but meds are needed in between, but not daily. But the new difficulty in getting hydrocodone has really hurt...literally.

Good luck.

I feel fortunate that cervical epidurals have been successful in getting the intense pain under control and PT is great. I did home cervical traction for a while and it had some temporary effects.

Today I lift 3x weekly, some of it is just like PT only 10x more weight. I don't know if it's helpful or not but I don't think it hurts. Like you, surgery isn't an option.

I did send Walmart corporate a nice email today, thanked them for charging $200 more for the same medication. I'll probably transfer all my scripts to another pharmacy that still accepts discounts on opioids. It won't change anything but I don't need to accept and support bad policy.

Good news is between the antibiotics, steroids, and the fioricet DW is starting to feel like a human.

 

[Big_Hitter]

good news!

 

[googily]

I had hip surgery last year, not a replacement but repairing a labral tear and shaving down a bump on my femur. I was given Fentanyl in the recovery room, and sent home with both morphine (MS Contin) and Oxycodone. It's known to be a pretty painful surgery because they have to dislocate your hip to do the work.

At my 10-day followup, barely mobile and still non weight bearing on crutches, they gave me an rX refill slip for the oxy. Took it to the hospital pharmacy, and after about 20 minutes I was told my insurance company wouldn't cover it, that even after surgery and with a handwritten rX they wouldn't do it. I asked how much out of pocket, and it was $7.64. (I think the pharmacist took pity on me.)

I totally get the need to be much more careful now, but as people have said, the pendulum has swung too far.

On the other hand, if you want opiates thrown at you by the fistful, along with benzos and whatever else, be a stage 4 cancer patient. From the second my husband was diagnosed, they just piled it on. And that's not even including the liquid morphine from hospice. And I deeply thank them for that.

 

[El Magnifico Loco]

I had hip surgery last year, not a replacement but repairing a labral tear and shaving down a bump on my femur. I was given Fentanyl in the recovery room, and sent home with both morphine (MS Contin) and Oxycodone. It's known to be a pretty painful surgery because they have to dislocate your hip to do the work.

At my 10-day followup, barely mobile and still non weight bearing on crutches, they gave me an rX refill slip for the oxy. Took it to the hospital pharmacy, and after about 20 minutes I was told my insurance company wouldn't cover it, that even after surgery and with a handwritten rX they wouldn't do it. I asked how much out of pocket, and it was $7.64. (I think the pharmacist took pity on me.)

I totally get the need to be much more careful now, but as people have said, the pendulum has swung too far.

On the other hand, if you want opiates thrown at you by the fistful, along with benzos and whatever else, be a stage 4 cancer patient. From the second my husband was diagnosed, they just piled it on. And that's not even including the liquid morphine from hospice. And I deeply thank them for that.

Did you ever follow up with your insurance company to find out why they would not honor a doctor's Rx? I wonder if they would have covered it if the doctor's office would have called and appealed? I also wonder how much the cost of medicine in this country has increased due to the doctors employing people just to deal with the insurance companies' 2nd guessing their orders. Insane.

 

[MRG]

Did you ever follow up with your insurance company to find out why they would not honor a doctor's Rx? I wonder if they would have covered it if the doctor's office would have called and appealed? I also wonder how much the cost of medicine in this country has increased due to the doctors employing people just to deal with the insurance companies' 2nd guessing their orders. Insane.

I called twice. The first call I was on hold when their VRU hung up and said to start over.[emoji23]

The second call I'm not sure what the woman said, no idea. Kept asking for her to repeat herself. No idea what she told me, she was speaking English but of unknown accent. I'm normally pretty good at getting some of what was said, I got zero from her. I'll call back next week and hopefully their call volumes are lower. The first week of the year insurance companies are very swamped with rule changes.

 

[googily]

Did you ever follow up with your insurance company to find out why they would not honor a doctor's Rx? I wonder if they would have covered it if the doctor's office would have called and appealed? I also wonder how much the cost of medicine in this country has increased due to the doctors employing people just to deal with the insurance companies' 2nd guessing their orders. Insane.

The reason the pharmacist took so long in telling me she couldn't fill it was because she had been on the phone arguing with my insurance company, to no avail.

And given that I was also having them pay big bucks for the surgery and recovery, and since I only got charged $8, I didn't want to antagonize them.