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Pat Oreilly

The following is a series of articles by Pat Oreilly

We will be adding new articles on a regular basis

About the Author

Chronic pain is not just pain that lasts a long time...
Doctor, PLEASE...
Oxycontin
Multidisciplinary Pain Management...Why?
Pain Relief? You need to read this!
Addiction, Tolerance, and Other Nasty Wives Tales
More articles coming soon...

"Doctor, PLEASE...."

Pat Oreilly

This was a difficult article to write, it will make some enemies, but I feel it is important to publish. Every day I receive letters from chronic pain patients that have been working with a pain specialist that is starting to back off on prescribing opiate medication.

There are several reasons this happens, the Oxycontin problem is one. Many doctors are beginning to worry about being sued or charged with over-prescribing opiates.

However, there is another reason that this happens, and I feel we all need to be aware of it. That reason is that we all are being judged by a standard that is very difficult to fight, and it is that pain is the number one complaint of hypochondriacs. I hate to even say that word to people in pain because the largest majority of people in pain, including myself, have been falsely accused of this in the past.

However, if we are to level the playing field with our treatment we must be aware of the fact that we are all judged by the actions of a few, very loud people that claim to have pain and don't. This was a revelation to me when I first started to work with people in pain, and it took me a long time to stop being angry with those that made me look bad. But in the end, anger only hurts ourselves, and changes nothing.

The reason I bring this up is that we must understand that it is imperative that we are aware of the way we are communicating about our pain to the doctor. It is so easy to fall into destructive traps when we feel we need stronger medications for our pain. In fact, I did fall into that trap myself, and had to fight for two years after that to finally get the medication I needed to go on with my life.

Some of the ways we hurt ourselves when asking for stronger medicine are:

1. Crying, the doctor is looking for objective information on our pain, and when we bring in too much emotion it sends a warning.

2. Telling the doctor too much about our personal life. One thing the doctor will ask when he/she is considering prescribing opiates is have we used recreational drugs or alcohol in he past. If we say yes, we put ourselves at risk to be denied opiates. Unless you have really had a problem in the past with chemical addiction, you are better off not talking about using these substances at all.

3. Acting like your pain is more painful than anyone else has ever experienced. Focusing on ME is a common trap we can fall into when we live with pain. The pain is so disruptive we have a hard time thinking about anything else. But in becoming self-absorbed we look desperate, and looking desperate is dangerous.

4. Calling the doctors office too often between appointments, or making appointments too often. Most often in treating people in pain, the squeaky wheel gets ignored.

We want to project a picture of a mature adult that is taking the proper self-care steps to reduce our pain and are willing to work with the doctor knowing that in most cases of chronic pain there is no one treatment that will stop the pain. If you find yourself falling into any of these traps, try to be aware of the impact your actions and words regarding pain are making on anyone that is treating you. By doing so you will increase the chances of your doctor making a favorable decision about medications.

Pat Oreilly, 2002