Lyrics: First you say you do and then you don’t/ Then you say you will and then you won’t/ You’re undecided now so what are you going to do?
When you get right down to it, most people aren’t afraid of their death; they’re afraid of a painful death. When we hear about someone who died in their sleep we’re likely to say that’s the way we want to go. Many people in chronic, unmanageable pain don’t fear death; they view it as a release from their pain. In recognizing an opioid addiction crisis in this country and because of government restrictions, doctors are now reluctant to prescribe opioid medications even where it had been used responsibly and effectively. Washington State passed a law in 2010 regulating prescribing of narcotics for chronic pain patients in response to an increase in deaths from opioids. This resulted in many doctors and clinics dropping cases of pain management. Story #1: I once was floated from the cardiac intensive care unit back in the ’70’s to a medical floor and assigned to a young woman in excruciating pain. Her medications were insufficient to control her pain and I put in a call to her physician stating the problem. I waited the entire shift and he never returned the call nor came in to see the patient. My frustration boiled over and I complained to one of the floor nurses. She explained that the patient was dying and should there be an autopsy, the M.D. didn’t want her found loaded with narcotics with a possible charge of death by overdose. Her pain was ignored.
Today most Primary Care Physicians rarely see their patients if they’re hospitalized. Instead, their patients are cared for by Hospitalists, specialists in acute care. Acute pain is typically treated more aggressively for a shorter period of time than chronic pain. Acute pain tends to respond rapidly and often dramatically to other modes of relief as well. Story #2: Upon returning to my room after surgery, the nurses asked about my pain level on a scale of 1-10. I subjectively gave it an “8.” She went to adjust the IV control to give me access to more pain medication when I pressed the magic button. Right then a friend arrived and began to do Healing Touch, a biofield therapy. Result: I never pushed the button and I never took any pain meds by mouth. I was pain free.
Chronic pain estimated in one article to affect over 116 million American adults, is a different story. Not long ago studies came out showing that patients were undertreated for pain. Perhaps medicine overcompensated. Today with the law looking over their shoulders, doctors have severely cut back on opioid prescriptions or, as already stated, dropped those demanding chronic pain patients. Story #3: a dear friend in her mid-’70’s, suffering chronic pain secondary to arthritis, was successfully treated with an opioid before the law went into effect. Her doctor immediately began to cut back on her pain medication. Where she previously lived a fully functional life, she now lives in constant pain on the reduced dosage. The pain has taken away any quality of life she’d had, her world made small by pain. She shared with me that there are many days when she entertains suicidal thoughts or hopes she’ll die just “to get it over with.”
I’d certainly rather see her pain effectively treated but her doctor has acknowledged limits imposed by the law. Shouldn’t the law discriminate between drug abuse and patient-care abuse?
Lyrics: If you’ve got a heart and if you’re kind/ Then don’t keep us apart, make up your mind/ You’re undecided now, so what are you going to do? Songwriters: Sydney Robin and Charles Shavers.
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