We do not
A friend had to go the the ER for sudden crippling back pain. They refused to give my friend adequate pain relief. They have this helpful sign telling people what they can’t have:
Tip Jar
A friend had to go the the ER for sudden crippling back pain. They refused to give my friend adequate pain relief. They have this helpful sign telling people what they can’t have:
When my husband went to the hospital this past summer, they had a sign up that they would not provide any birth control. It was very fortunate he didn’t need it. He was also told by the pharmacy that he couldn’t get his blood thinner because the insurance didn’t accept the one he was on.
All the Republicans are horrified at the possibility that the government may decide what treatment you can have if we get national insurance, and that would violate patients rights to have their treatment determined by their doctor. The only reason my doctor prescribes the drug I really need is my being willing and able to pay the difference.
I’m on a government plan, and the expressions on doctors’ faces when I tell them the medicines are completely covered is palpable. There are way too many people struggling to afford medications, skipping doses, or substituting less effective/more side-effecty medications due to insurance issues.
On the other hand, a major reason doctors don’t prescribe more pain relief isn’t their own skepticism to patient needs– it’s that “too many” prescriptions of the wrong sort can bring trouble down on their asses as part of the War on Drugs. That’s right, it is also a War on People Seeking Legal Treatment for Chronic Pain.
Fortunately, (I know the friend and I’ve BTDT on back spasms) the muscle relaxants should do the job better than masking the pain. Still, it’s messed up.
Also, War on Drugs again– blacks are particularly undertreated for pain, both because they are more likely assumed to be drug-seeking, and also because of weird cultural subconscious prejudice from the slavery days that assumed black people were less sensitive to pain and has somehow apparently endured.
My friend was in a motorcycle accident. After returning home, he had terrible pain, and went to the ER. Although he didn’t specifically ask for any painkillers, they told him “we don’t cater to addicts here,” and sent him home. Luckily, the second hospital did an examination, and discovered his collapsed lung.
Doctors and clinics can be audited for the number of narcotics they prescribe. They’re loathe to hand out effective painkillers because that threat is constantly in the back of their minds.
Two years ago I had an abscess in a molar. My face was so swollen I looked like a chipmunk. Even at that I practically had to beg the dentist to give me a few codeine pills until such time as the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication kicked in.
A bit off on a tangent:
More and more diseases are becoming increasingly more difficult to treat, due to the various agents acquiring resistance to standard drugs. In some cases even the ultimate bug zappers have lost their bite. (Malaria, TB, staph, coli etc)
One explanation often heard is that many people can’t afford to take the full regime, they save pills for “next time” and this leaves enough of the bad bugs alive and breeding – especially those that already had some immunity. So “next time” the infestation will consist of such thus selected hardier varieties.
Not an optimal use of medical (or financial) resources.
So nice to know that they withhold care for OUR ‘safety.’
A few years ago I was prescribed some hydrocodone (spoiler alert: it doesn’t do anything) and the pharmacist acted like he was being forced to hand over heroin to me. “This is the real strong stuff. It says to take one or two but you better take just half of one. Take one pill just for the real big pain if you really, really need it.” Totally bizarre.
Hospitals work on the same premise as welfare offices: they have to assume all their ‘clients’ are trying to do something illegal and their role is to stop that happening.
Helping people with a problem takes too long and is too hard.
Once when I was waiting at hospital emergency with my elderly dad, there was a woman who was there with her really elderly dad; getting more and more agitated and cross, going up to the window three times asking for him to jump the queue, getting knocked back. Nobody checked him, they just thought she couldn’t be bothered waiting. Her father collapsed and they had to do the full emergency red light flashing several medical attendants get the trolley and she walked into the triage room shouting “I TOLD YOU HE WAS ILL-” and then the door shut. After 8 more hours of waiting, I asked my dad if he would consider collapsing.
Presumably we don’t think the hospital should give morphine to everyone who turns up claiming to be in extreme pain. So how are they to decide which are which?
@ Pinkeen #9:
That’s where the professional triage comes in, isn’t it. Part of the problem seems to be that this function is not always up to standards – perhaps due to overriding rules out of fear of litigation, politics or “War on Drugs” but essentially decoupling the profession from critical examination.