-> Sure, extreme physical pain 24x7, 365 will kill us, but there are some
-> *amazing* and phenomenal safeguards in place that keep us
-> functioning. If you desire to be medicated, I'd make sure you know
-> what the other side of that sword holds.

->  WC> Used to be a M.D. G.P. could just prescribe.
->  WC> Now you need a MRI, see an orthopedic surgeon and then go
->  WC> to a pain management clinic to get relief.

-> Been there...

Me too.
Was a narcotics addict at age 8 without knowing what narcotics were.
Severe repiratory problems I was prescribed hydrocodone ( alcohol
and codeine) Chericol -C with codeine cough syrup and hycodan
a synthetic codeine.

But that was prescribed by a general practitioner long before the war on
drugs and anyway I wasn't expected to live for much of ten years.
Thought I was insane coming off all that crud when my health improved as
no-one told me about addiction or withdrawal.
Kicked it all cold at 15.
                         
->  WC> I can't even afford the co-pays for all this.

->  WC> OTOH an aquaintance of mine went to the emergency room 11
->  WC> times last year for prescription drug overdoses!

->  WC> The 12th time he went straight to the morgue.

-> Haven't done that. Frankly, I wonder why I'm still standing. /-:

I tried to talk him into sanity, no-one home :-(

->  WC> An out and out drug addict not welcome in my home for years he had no
->  WC> trouble at all getting all the prescription narcotics he wanted.
->  WC> He was downing 40 - 60 narcotic pills a day.

->  WC> I called last January and got "number no longer in service."
->  WC> Immediately I went to www.sptimes.com and checking the obituaries
->  WC> found he'd died Dec. 25, 2004.

->  WC> I'd been expecting this for quite some time, he was 43.

-> Truth be told, it sounds like he died many years previously.

My opinion as well.
I underwent spinal surgery and upon awaking never once touched the
morphine pump button for the I.V. in my arm.

->  WC> I'd be grateful for the pills he took in two days for an entire
->  WC> year's time span.

-> I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here Wayne.

-> No questioning your need for relief, but the relief can be hard to
-> live without. My first dose, I was in tears *without* the pain. From
-> then, I thought I couldn't live without it.   

I'd take them with extreme discretion, like when grocery shopping.

-> I suspect you are practised in Eastern arts of mediation, and
-> relaxation? 

Nope.
I'm practicing limiting my motion to limit the mind numbing pain.
Doing fairly well just at the moment.
Perhaps some scar tissue has built up between my discs
as the surgeon who did the discectomy suggested relieving some
pressure on the nerves?
Who knows, feels better anyway.   

For now the arthritis is giving me a break too, it's
like winning the lottery!     

-> I thought I was pretty good at them too, but when they
-> weren't keeping up to my workload, I had to visit the Chief
-> Neurologist before I was taken seriously. That was taken as a direct
-> affront by my previous MD, and his staff, where all sorts of ill will
-> was exchanged. I thought they were petty, and I suspect they thought I
-> was just a punk kid looking for a high.

-> Little did my protest about their action plan make it to my charts. I
-> wanted to leave my facility, to REDUCE my dependence on the old codger
-> and the narcs, where my chart read that I was just looking for a
-> Dr. Feelgood. Polar opposites to be sure, but who's going to be taken
-> at their word?

-> "I need a new MD. All my guy is doing, is doping me up, and sending me
-> home. Please, I want to be off them, and I want to try less than
-> traditional treatments, if it will mean so much as one less pill I'd
-> have to take in a day."

-> "Mr. Bradley is an addict."

-> Petty idiots IMO. Smart idiots to be sure, but how childish can a
-> professional be? 

When Jeff much to my surprise went to the U.S. Veteran's Hospital
and admitted the full range of narcotics he was taking I
was astonished they prescribed him morphine sulfate.

The idea of course was he'd stop taking all the rest of
the drugs and just go with the one potent pain killer.

Of course Jeff kept up the whole range of drugs plus the morphine.
I knew his days were numbered then.
He surprised me by lasting near two more years.
                                 
Talk about your stupid doctors.
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