DOCTORS LOCK THEIR TOOLBOX WHEN PAIN HITS

Getting older is, in some ways, a Drag! Body parts begin wearing out,
normal body functions do not work as well as they used to, getting a
good night's sleep is no longer assured, and pain may creep into our
daily existence, and on and on.

In an effort to lead as normal a life as possible, many of us older
types turn to various medical "tool" to make our lives as comfortable
as and to be as active as possible. These tools may take the form of
prosthetics and various medications. For the most part, medical
doctors are generally agreeable to helping ease the burdens of
advancing age, except in one area. I'll elaborate.

In 1978, I took a serious fall from a building. After a lengthy
hospital stay and many operations in the years to follow, I was
eventually able to enjoy 10-12 years of relatively normal life before
my body started breaking down as an after-effect to my numerous
injuries. Arthritis and the accompanying pain got to the point where
I needed to make use of prescription tools to lead the kind of life I
wanted. I needed anti-inflammatory and pain relieving, prescription
medications. Later on, as a result of my advancing age, I developed
other health concerns that required medication.

As a result of numerous operations, and having to visit doctors more
and more over the years I have learned a fair bit about the latter,
and our Canadian medical system.

If your hips wear out you can get artificial replacements (tools). If
you are not getting beneficial sleep at night, your doctor will
prescribe a sleeping medication tool. If you begin to suffer from
anxiety, drugs are available to fight it. Got arthritis?
Anti-inflammatories. High blood pressure? Pills for that. Not
regular? Laxatives or bran muffins. Pain, to the point that you don't
feel like doing much of anything? Prescription pain-relieving
medication--well, maybe not! Doctors expect you to somehow put up
with pain.

There seems to be a stigma attached to people using painkillers as a
tool to control pain in an effort to make their lives more livable,
and a reluctance by doctors to prescribe them, especially if they must
write out the triplicate prescription that the stronger pain relievers
require. The main reason, in my opinion, is such drugs can be
habit-forming or addictive, and "Big Brother" is looking over their
shoulders.

Sleeping pills can be addictive; doctors freely prescribe them.
Anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs can be habit forming; doctors
will readily give you those. Why not some pain pills?

The strongest pain-killers a doctor can prescribe without having to
write out a triplicate prescription are Tylenol 3s. The three active
ingredients are: codeine, acetaminophen and caffeine. Caffeine can
interfere with your sleep, codeine is and opiate, and in larger doses,
acetaminophen is bad for your liver. A doctor will give you T3s, and I
used them for pain control for a number of years. But eventually,
because of T3's known side effect of interfering with sleep, liver
concerns and the desire for more effective pain control, I wanted to
move on to a better drug.

The result: my doctor of many years flatly refused to move me on to
any pain killer that required a triplicate prescription. He sent me
on to a specialist who passed the buck back to him. Anyhow, there was
no further discussion with him, and that was it. He dug in his heels
and would not budge. He quit on me after 16 years. I had to find
another doctor, and now the new guy seems about ready to wash his
hands of me , too. Who likes shopping around for a doctor? But I'm
not sure it will do any good anyway since it appears doctors are now
part of a bureaucracy. Need I say more?

It seems that if a person wants to use a pill to control pain, you
are no longer using one of the medical "tools", but have become
pill-dependent. Yes, pain medicine has the potential for abuse, and
drugs have side effects--no doubt about it, watch the TV commercials.
But how many pills a day constitute abuse? Individual doctors have
different opinions as to how many of what pills are safe or allowable.

All I know is that whatever makes it possible for me to best get
through the rest of my life is a good thing. I'm sure many others are
in a similar position, and feel the same as I, and are putting up with
the same stigma.

Anyone like myself, whose medical file weighs more than a big city
telephone book, I'm sure, doesn't want to be treated like a common
drug addict by the medical profession simply because we choose to be
active, and suffer as little as possible, in the course of living our
lives.

I read in the newspaper about how doctors were "up in arms" about
design flaws in the new construction at Royal Jubilee Hospital, and
about how our health-care system is in crisis, and other concerns
regarding patient care. I owe a lot to doctors, but it seems to me
that when it comes down to patient's pain, it's not the patient that
comes first, someone else does!