discrimination by my pain management doctor causing suicidal planning

mrpip2002uk

Hi, i was diagnosed with chronic pain/fatigue syndrome many years ago,and the only pain relief that ever helped me was oxycontin sr.I was on it continuously for 25 years prescribed by dudley pain clinic who ive been under for close to 30 years.

About 2 years ago i was advised by medical staff and pain management that after being on it so long i ought to think about having a break from it for a short while even though i'd had no problems with it at all,after discussing it with my family i decided to take a voluntary break from it with the help of a 6 months bupranorphine tablets course.

Then after 12-18 months i was in so much pain i decided i now needed to get back on oxies sr,but upon asking my by now different pain doctor to re prescibe he stated no because i'm a new patient,i explained no i'm not ive been at this clinic for 30 years,but he just told me he couldnt prescribe them for me,even though i knew of friends that were still on them from the same clinic ?

I went through all the formal complaints process stating he was discriminating against me because i was never told i would'nt get back on them after my voluntary break,all to no avail,he's was the one who made the decision at every stage.

Well with him discriminating against me and not re-prescribing me oxies sr i'm now suicidal with pain,and its gone from the stage of thinking i'd be better of dead than live in this torture everyday,and i was planning how and where to kill myself.My family did get me to ring the doctor who as twice since had to call out the crisis team to me for mental health but even they say its not mental health thats causing these plans but its my severe pain with no good pain relief,with which i agreed with both times.

The nhs ombudsman told me they cant make him prescibe me my old oxies sr,and ive tried contacting soliciters 2 so far and they dont seem interested in my case.

Its ruined my whole familys life seeing me in so much daily pain morning ,noon ,and night, and the worry of what i will do to myself to get out of pain.

Can anyone advise whats the next step for me to try ?i'm out of hope and ideas.

Why he's treating me like this is unreal,their supposed to help with pain not make it worse ! i'm now looking online to see if i can buy some till i can get it re prescribed finally by this pain team, its definately discrimmination against me thanks John

chiarieds

I'm so sorry you're in so much pain @mrpip2002uk - the viewpoint about appropriate medication, including opioids such as OxyContin has changed. My take on this was that there were concerns about opioids from the USA initially, which drifted across the pond, then there were a few unfortunate deaths due to opioids here in the UK. One that I read about was, in part, due to the medical establishment not picking up on the concerns that the patient was already expressing.

That aside (possibly), the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) now has clear guidelines on opioid use. What they have found, & which I can't disagree with from what I've read, is that opioids can help with acute pain, but don't help nearly as much with the sort of chronic pain you're enduring.

I would agree that it can be thought of as completely misleading in your case saying try a break from OxyContin, which to your mind, & I would have felt the same, meant you could go back onto it later, but that's not been the case.

However much you were misinformed, I can only say that in the meanwhile Drs have to follow NICE's guidelines. It was indeed 'wrong' to suggest you were a new patient, when this obviously wasn't the case, but that's why 'in a nutshell' that Drs will not now prescribe opioids for chronic pain. You can see about this here:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193/chapter/Recommendations

You're not being discriminated against, tho understand how you may have felt so. I'd recommend having a frank talk with your GP about alternative medications to at least help dampen down your pain.

If you're affected by ME/CFS then this website has a wealth of information, which I'd wholly endorse:

https://meassociation.org.uk/free-literature-downloads/

On a personal note, I was on Fentanyl patches (another opioid) for years. My GP kept on wanting to increase the dosage to help with my chronic pain. I eventually decided that I wanted to come off them, & did so very gradually. I have to honestly say that in the end I didn't notice much difference to my pain, tho my then current GP did prescribe a slightly higher dose of another non-opioid drug to help instead.

There are ways to decrease your pain, & I hope you will remain open to them. I've found, which has also been found by others, that it's often a combination of modalities that seem the most effective; it's just finding what works for you.

I've long been researching chronic pain, so I hope you'll explore some of the ideas here too:

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/102784/resources-and-tips-for-those-living-with-chronic-pain

mrpip2002uk

A lot of people in the US were misusing oxies,i always abided by my script and had wonderful pain relief from it,my biggest mistake was listening to other so called medical staff, for 25 years i had wonderful relief,and friends i met at the clinic are still on them 20 plus years later their still not getting side effects.I feel such a fool and regret it so much.

Ive tried every so called kinds of pain relief over the last 18 months,Nsaids,all the gabapentins and pregabalins,tapentadols,ametriptalines, absolutely everything all, to no effect,yet the pain doctor as put me on oxyact 20 mg per day and as cruely left me on that minimum dose for 6 months now and has not raised the dose at all ?even though the max dose per day is 400 mg p/d ,even the rules are to regulary raise the dose until it starts giving pain relief,he's not even raised it once in six months,he's treated me very cruely by not even giving it the chance to work.!

But oxyact is oxycodone which is what oxicontin IS?

And if it was so bad for us all who have been on it 20 plus years why are we all still alive and why are they still giving it to my friends who were clever enough to not take a break ? In the USA crooked doctors were were giving boxes of oxy 80 mg tablets for tiniest muscle aches, foot pain, ect ect, which was crazy and irresponcible,i was only on 20 mg tabs after 20 plus years,if i'd have taken 2 80mg tabs i would have been bedbound at least,the crooked drs in the US were not monitered and did it purely to become rich working silly hours like 11pm to 2 am, they were crooked, a film or documentary called The Pharmacist tells the full picture, the doctors were prescribing high doses to junkies basically ! They did'nt care at all.

I'm now 67 and wake up in pain,live in pain,and go to bed in pain, and i am basically housebound since i came off oxycontin sr,i did have a life before but hav'nt got one now and if i was single with no kids i would have been gone a year ago.

What would be best , me having to kill myself because its the only way to get out of pain, or putting me back on a tablet that gave me a life for 25 years,with a very very small chance it might affect my health even though ive tolerated it for 25 years previously with no problems at all ? those are the only 2 options i have ! The crazy thing is, if i was on palative care i would be getting all the pain medication i needed ? Utter Madness !

I can try and buy it online but its £5-600 for a years supply and thats if i dont get ripped off, but i only get £220 pw pension. I cant even afford to buy street drugs to see if they help? but why should i have to do that when ive lived all my life without ever taking a street drug,but i did once try cannabis to see if it helped my pain,but again it was no good. Ive heard its now called Longtec ,dont know if thats true ? John