Lament 3: Cry Hard With A Vengeance

[magic princess]

Yes, you can screw up your stomach and liver with prolonged use of OTC painkillers and narcotics, especially at high doses. But many of these people who are intentionally taking prescription level doses of OTCs without a doctor's prescription are doing so because the alternative is being unable to get out of bed from severe crippling pain which leaves them unable to work a job or function in life, who cannot get drugs safer for long term use (i.e. opiates) because of these drug laws. The advice is intended as a form of passive resistance. It may very well kill you at 50... But thanks to the way we treat people in chronic pain, that may have gotten you an extra 20 years of functional life. I have a friend who takes care of a girl whose family thinks she's faking it and who lives in chronic pain from fibromyalgia and cannot function. The doctors endlessly accuse her of being addicted to painkillers and refuse to prescribe more, so she's forced into the regimen I described above to actually get out of bed and try to work a job.

After getting to know them, I regarded dispensing that advice, which essentially boils down to " hey, there's no drug interaction between tylenol and advil" and, 2, " hey, motrin is the exact same thing as advil but four times as strong", and 3 " they did a scientific study which said a half-dose of aspirin additionally doesn't have any noticable impact" . I regard that as a morally necessary bit of advice to people in chronic pain, because I'd be remiss in my duties as a human being to not engage in passive resistance by spreading that knowledge against the kind of torture the anti-drug puritans are putting Americans in pain into.

[magic princess]

Look, if the moderators of this board think it's inappropriate, delete the post. I won't repost it then. but the fact remains that people are suffering because the DEA has forced doctors into being American puritan anti-drug inquisitors for them who respond to peoples' chronic pain by treating them like shit, and a hypothetical liability concern shouldn't stop people from trying to help when these individuals literally have no other options except suffering and getting suspicion and revulsion heaped on them for daring to want to stop suffering.

[Aaron]

I really don't care whether you do, or do not give out that advice. Just as long as people realize that it isn't healthy. I'd be a pretty awful hypocrite if argued against it.

[magic princess]

Yeah, it isn't good for you. I was on a dose of motrin that high as well as paracetamol for about 3 - 4 months after my surgery and I was having bleeding problems by the end of it, though they didn't reoccur. I should have included more warnings in the post I wrote, which was my one genuine error, so I'll go ahead and take it down.

[Zod]

From my few attempts at getting my back problems looked into I have a feeling the default physicians position is to treat everyone as a drug abuser until proven otherwise.

[Aaron]

I can't speak for any area but here, we have massive prescription drug abuse here. To the point where narcotics are not stocked in large amounts at drug stores and ER docs will not refill narcotic scripts. There's lots of street drugs as well.

All narcotic scripts are done in triplicate and kept track of as a result of all this, though I don’t think you can get a ban.

[evilsoup]

Look, if the moderators of this board think it's inappropriate, delete the post.

lol

[Losonti Tokash]

I'm not trying to be hostile or talk down to anyone, I'm just trying to help Flagg and Duchess protect themselves. Flagg knows himself and his history so he's actually fine, but it'd be very easy for someone to go after Duchess if they followed her advice and were harmed as a result, even without being bound by a set of medical ethics. Good Samaritan laws only go so far, after all.

[Flagg]

Here's the thing, I can understand them not wanting to give a prescription from the ER. I cannot understand what a low, or hell, a high dose of narcotics IN the hospital under their direct supervision. Especially if the doctor thinks it's necessary. And mine did.

[Ralin]

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.

If it was subject to appeal then there's a chance it could be overturned. And that could weaken America's efforts in the War on Drugs, which is obviously unacceptable. Remember, it's not like he was charged with anythings, so the courts have nothing to do with it. It was handled bureaucratically.

Duh.

[evilsoup]

lol windows 8 is a buggy piece of crap
I've had 6 BSODs in 3 days
uch
(the new UI is great though)

[uraniun235]

Here's the thing, I can understand them not wanting to give a prescription from the ER. I cannot understand what a low, or hell, a high dose of narcotics IN the hospital under their direct supervision. Especially if the doctor thinks it's necessary. And mine did.

Flagg, you might try writing your representatives in state and federal government about this. It's a long shot but there's nothing to lose, and if you get lucky someone might use a little pressure to have your case reviewed (with extra attention paid to "literally every visit results in an actual condition being detected and treated").

[Oxymoron]

They'll just insinuate that he voluntarily makes himself sick in order to get a fix. /cynicism

[evilsoup]

I think you'd be surprised how good local representatives are on individual cases, even if their politics are terrible
so flagg that's definitely something you should try

[Flagg]

Yeah, I'm considering my options. The problem is that the harder you fight the more you look like a drug abuser.

[evilsoup]

well they think you're a drug abuser already & are apparently on some kind of lifetime ban list, so you haven't really got anything to lose by fighting it, right?
just try to stay calm when you're talking to them, getting shouty angry will probably make things worse

[Oxymoron]

On another note, my sister is back to the hospital...

[>:3]

lol windows 8 is a buggy piece of crap
I've had 6 BSODs in 3 days
uch
(the new UI is great though)

It's probably not the OS. I've been running Win 8 Pro for a month now on my new computer, and ran the Enterprise Evaluation for a couple of months before that on my dad's old computer. The handful of BSODs I've had were due to driver issues which were easily fixed.

[RyanThunder]

lol windows 8 is a buggy piece of crap
I've had 6 BSODs in 3 days
uch
(the new UI is great though)

What >:3 said. I haven't had a BSoD since like... 2007.

[evilsoup]

Windows 7 didn't give me a single BSOD over the years I've used it
I've been using Windows 8 on-and-off for two weeks, and I've had six BSODs
this is a new laptop with windows 8 preinstalled, so I'd have thought that the correct drivers would be installed. Then again, the laptop monitor's default settings were shit-tastically washed out, so maybe HP are a bunch of goons

[RyanThunder]

that or my computer is magic because I haven't had any of those issues in months

[Questor]

lol windows 8 is a buggy piece of crap
I've had 6 BSODs in 3 days
uch
(the new UI is great though)

This is the exact the opposite of my experience.

[evilsoup]

apart from the BSODs (which I'll figure out the course of soon enough, I think), I've found it a noticeable improvement Windows 7

[joviwan]

HP are a bunch of goons

Yes.

This is the exact the opposite of my experience.

do you mean "Doesn't crash ever; terrible UI"? Because that's been my experience.

[Losonti Tokash]

Man listened to npr and they had some arch conservative Ben Carson basically ramble for the whole hour almost totally unchallenged. Ugh.