Lament 3: Cry Hard With A Vengeance

[Flagg]

Reposted from that other board:

So I started puking my guts up nonstop yesterday evening and my headache that I've had for 2 months got like 10 times worse. I waited overnight then when it was hour 12 of the pukathon I went to the ER. Tell them about my situation, they get me back in a room and within 3 minutes the doctor comes in and tells me that I've been flagged as a "potential drug seeker" by the state of Washington and he cannot give me any pain medication for my head. At all. Turns out I've been sick too much for some beurocrat fuckers taste so I cannot recieve any painkillers in any ER in the entire state. There's no way to appeal this apparently and I'm pretty much fucked if/when the next massive health crisis raises its ugly head.

Olympia can be buried in 100 feet of volcanic ash as far as I'm concerned. I'm considering looking into hiring a lawyer because the state has officially deemed me a drug abuser and I want to know how the fuck they got the information to even make the bullshit decision in the first place. The HIPA laws should prevent this garbage.

[timmy]

That's pretty fucked, mate. Condolences.

[Flagg]

Thanks. I've looked up the law and there is literally nothing I can do. All of the patient advocacy groups were against it but it got passed anyway. Their reason for being against it? Because innocent people like me get fucked by it.

[Aaron]

Is this for life?

[Flagg]

Apparently.

[RogueIce]

I think the new Tron was a lot of fun.

I never even saw the original Tron.

[Zod]

I think the new Tron was a lot of fun.

I never even saw the original Tron.

Neither have I?

[Flagg]

Let's face it, those jackbooted thugs at the DEA would rape a cancer patient before letting them have a vicodin.

[magic princess]

Edited because various warning information about possible consequences for full informed consent was not also supplied.

[magic princess]

I have a lot of friends with chronic pain, and in the US, our fanatical anti-drug culture means that DIY chronic pain treatment is absolutely mandatory for these people so that they aren't labelled lifelong drug abusers, so there's a fairly sophisticated DIY anti-pain culture in the US.

[Losonti Tokash]

I know you're trying to help out, but just be aware that you are opening yourself to the potential for serious legal consequences and that you can't prescribe for or diagnose someone via a message board.

[RyanThunder]

Yeah, its stupid but maybe PM that shit.

[Stofsk]

How can you have a law that cannot be challenged on appeal?

[RogueIce]

I think the new Tron was a lot of fun.

I never even saw the original Tron.

Neither have I?

Does the movie assume you've seen the original or is it standalone?

[joviwan]

It *hopes* you've seen the original, but you don't have to have seen it to enjoy it.

[Ralin]

How can you have a law that cannot be challenged on appeal?

Presumably because it's not actually a crime or happening through the judicial system.

[Flagg]

Flagg, I can state emphatically that you can take four times the nonprescription dose of ibuprofen plus the regular dose of tylenol at the same time without difficulty.

You can take up to 2,400 mg of advil in three 800mg increments (the standard US dose is 200mg) and 4,000mg of tylenol in four 1,000mg increments, at 4 hour minimum intervals. A single 375mg aspirin pill can be taken with the four dose of tylenol instead of the 800mg of ibuprofen. Collectively this should not result in a serious problem for you. Tylenol and ibuprofen do not interfere with each other, and that is the maximum prescription dose of ibuprofen, aka "Vitamin M" in the US military, 800mg motrin tablets. It may actually be higher but I wouldn't risk that personally. Taking the single aspirin isn't contradicted because people did studies on that because of the use in preventing heart disease to see if it could be taken along with a high-dose motrin prescription.

I know it isn't nearly as good as opiates, but if you're ever in severe pain again... It's better than nothing.

Also, get some sunburn gel containing lidocane and if you get a headache in the future, you can rub that on your head in addition to taking the above regimen for a further effect. That is another very good alternative.

Finally in the case of severe tooth pain, clove cigarettes (kreteks), while dangerous, are extremely effective at numbing the teeth and providing relief, and considering how disabling severe pain is, in your situation with drugs denied to you, may be an acceptable option. They are sold as "cigars" these days, though they come in cigarette boxes. Menthol cough drops would also help.

I appreciate the advice, but unfortunately OTC painkillers are out of the question due to me being a fucking freak of nature. I'm allergic to aspirin and have been since being an infant, tylenol makes me throw up (including the tylenol) and I cannot take any NSAIDS because when I had one of my surgeries I went into renal failure (luckily they got me out of it) and they can also cause GI bleeds of which I have a long and storied history. I have a drug allergy list as long as my forearm as well, including some opiates. I'd kill a motherfucker to be able to take advil.

[Flagg]

How can you have a law that cannot be challenged on appeal?

I could challenge it in court, but I have no money for an attorney and I'd have to take on the state government. And the bitch of it is, the harder you fight being labeled a drug abuser the more you look like a drug abuser. What really pisses me off is that all they need to do is look at my chart (which they apparently have access to) to see that every ER visit was for something eventually discovered and treated.

[Stofsk]

How can you have a law that cannot be challenged on appeal?

Presumably because it's not actually a crime or happening through the judicial system.

My immediate reaction to hearing 'you can't appeal our fucked up system or authority' is to think it's bullshit. Anything can be appealed. It might be written in the law that you can't appeal, but that law might be wrong, and that's why appealing it is important. Of course, whether a court will agree or not is an open question. I don't blame Flagg for not going down that route; the cost of fighting a legal battle can be ruinous.

[magic princess]

I don't give a shit about legal consequences, to be honest. What the US is doing to people with severe chronic pain is fucking horrible, and they deserve any help they can get as the drugs they need are taken from them and they are branded with scarlet letters by our obsessive, hateful, puritan anti-drug culture which literally regards you as an untermensch if you need painkillers to function. I'd also really find it hilarious if the government tried to pursue a case for a random citizen posting anonymously on a message board telling people they can take larger doses of OTC legal painkillers. That's right up there with prosecuting someone for saying "nah, 10mph over won't get you a ticket".

[Flagg]

The thing is, there is no way to appeal being on the list, at least none that I've found. I'd have to challenge the law and it would probably go to the SCOTUS and they aren't going to throw out 100 years of I'M A JUGGALO WOOP WOOP drug policy. I just hope the next mass shooting happens at the DEA because fuck those Nazi cocksuckers.

[Losonti Tokash]

I don't give a shit about legal consequences, to be honest. What the US is doing to people with severe chronic pain is fucking horrible, and they deserve any help they can get as the drugs they need are taken from them and they are branded with scarlet letters by our obsessive, hateful, puritan anti-drug culture which literally regards you as an untermensch if you need painkillers to function. I'd also really find it hilarious if the government tried to pursue a case for a random citizen posting anonymously on a message board telling people they can take larger doses of OTC legal painkillers. That's right up there with prosecuting someone for saying "nah, 10mph over won't get you a ticket".

Would it be better if I said what you did was incredibly irresponsible and a breach of medical ethics? You cannot prescribe drugs for people over the internet, and if he followed your advice and suffered the effects he mentioned, you would be liable for civil and criminal penalties.

Flagg, if you send me some information on what law you're talking about I can ask around to see if there are any advocacy groups that would be interested in helping you.

[magic princess]

Medical ethics? Since when the shit am I bound my medical ethics? I'm not a medical professional. One could very well argue (and that is exactly what I'm saying now) that anonymous advice on the internet is something that no reasonable person should take as authoritative and if someone chooses to follow it, they do so at their own risk.

[magic princess]

I also didn't claim to be a doctor when dispensing advice, which is what actually could make you liable (because that would deceive people into thinking it was informed advice). If your paranoid view of the world was the way things really worked, then every single person who put a video on youtube of shooting bottle rockets out of a PVC pipe while shouting "W00t! you should try this too!" would be in prison.

[Aaron]

Guys, it clearly says on the label how you can take and what not to exceed.

That said, I've fucked up my stomach and most likely my liver as well with prolonged use of OTC painkillers and narcotics.

And hey, this isn't that other board. We don't have to treat each other like crap.