6 ms·

Oh great: > Sometimes, they must send patients on frustrating journeys to find pharmacies that haven’t yet exceeded their caps in order to buy prescribed medic

Oh great: > Sometimes, they must send patients on frustrating journeys to find pharmacies that haven’t yet exceeded their caps in order to buy prescribed medicines. Does this then get them put on the secret list of "people with drug seeking behaviors" which apparently includes people who fill prescriptions for their dogs? [0] [0] https://www.wired.com/story/opioid-drug-addiction-algorithm-chronic-pain/ https://www.wired.com/story/opioid-drug-addiction-algorithm-...

genmud 4y ago
It is absolutely insane right now with medication... My wife blew out her knee last year, breaking her tibia, patella and femur. Do you know how many painkillers they gave her to take home? 12 pills! They said to come back to the ER to get more if she needed them, before surgery the following week(?!). I think it was like a 3 day supply and we both were like WTF. My 1 year old dog (who is batshit insane, but we still love her) had to have part of her tail amputated because she kept breaking it open, the vet had us giving her 3x painkillers 2x a day. The pharmacy tech insisted they weren't going to fill a followup script because she had already been prescribed 60 pills, 10 days before and refused to perform basic math. (3*2*10=60) I'm all for trying to address our opioid issues, but it feels like instead of addressing the issue of doctors running pill mills, over-prescribing these drugs, they are focused on just not allowing them to be prescribed at all... Even for people who genuinely need them.
- the_mar 4y ago
  I mean, you do know that regular Tylenol still works as pain medication? You don't necessarily need narcotics for broken bones.
  - Spivak 4y ago
    I think there's two schools of thought on this one. A: Time limited access to narcotics is safe and effective pain management for severe but temporary injuries and I don't exist to suffer in this world -- give me the good stuff. B: If I can reduce my pain into "bearable" with nsiad painkillers then I don't want to take narcotics. I think one of the dangers of B in the real world is that for severe pain doctors are terrified of prescribing narcotics that they put you on the nsaid cycle with extremely high doses which can wreck your stomach lining and liver. When I was recovering from surgery they gave me Xanax, Vallium and Tylenol to basically sedate me for 2 straight weeks because of this nonsense and it was miserable. Just trading one kind of high for another but the new way you mostly keep the pain.
    - the_mar 4y ago
      I’m not trying to say that narcotic painkillers are ineffective or necessarily dangerous. I am saying that many kinds of pain can be managed with OTC medication. There aren’t necessarily two schools of thought. It’s more that if let’s say ibuprofen isn’t helping the pain, it may just be that you aren’t taking enough of it. It is a very effective pain medicine.
      - sammax 4y ago
        What a shitty take. There’s only so much ibuprofen you can take before the risks start outweighing the benefits, and there’s plenty of pain that is much stronger than that.
        the_mar 4y ago
        Actually you can take quite a bit of ibuprofen for a short period of time with no long term problems. You can also take ibuprofen and acetaminophen. It is quite the hot take that narcotic pain meds are safer. I’m not at all suggesting ibuprofen for pain management of cancer patients or people immediately after major surgery. But for a big chunk of outpatient procedures enough OTC pain meds will actually work just fine. I’m not some granola advocate here. Nor am I trying to say that everyone should just tough it out. But you can’t seriously say that 800mg ibuprofen is more dangerous or less effective than opioids for wisdom teeth removal
  - pyinstallwoes 4y ago
    Have you suffered excruciating pain for multiple days in a row? Non stop? Like so bad that your muscles recoil in horror that then causes even more pain in a recursive loop of horror?
    - carlmr 4y ago
      Actually yes, in Germany if you break your bones you get ibuprofen, if you get your wisdom teeth pulled, you get ibuprofen. We don't have an opioid crisis anymore. Pain is a fact of life. The problem in the US is that there's the expectation to work the next day. It's ok to be in pain, it's also ok to miss out on work. If you accept these two basic facts you don't have an opioid crisis anymore.
      - the_mar 4y ago
        Actually in the US you also get ibuprofen. I had very invasive jaw surgery and sinus repair. It hurt. I got 600mg ibuprofen and 600mg acetaminophen for the pain every 4-6 hours. It definitively took pain down to tolerable levels.
        sterlind 4y ago
        as a counterexample, I had an infected tooth over the weekend. I took ibuprofen and acetaminophen around the clock, and it did jack shit. I was lying in bed and whimpering in pain, so close to going to the ER, but I knew they wouldn't do anything for me. I actually have mild PTSD about that incident. It was the second-worst pain I've experienced in my life, and it wouldn't stop.
        the_mar 4y ago
        Question 1: how much did you take? Question 2: what makes you think opioids treat infections?
        sterlind 4y ago

genmud 4y ago

It is absolutely insane right now with medication... My wife blew out her knee last year, breaking her tibia, patella and femur. Do you know how many painkillers they gave her to take home? 12 pills! They said to come back to the ER to get more if she needed them, before surgery the following week(?!). I think it was like a 3 day supply and we both were like WTF. My 1 year old dog (who is batshit insane, but we still love her) had to have part of her tail amputated because she kept breaking it open, the vet had us giving her 3x painkillers 2x a day. The pharmacy tech insisted they weren't going to fill a followup script because she had already been prescribed 60 pills, 10 days before and refused to perform basic math. (3*2*10=60) I'm all for trying to address our opioid issues, but it feels like instead of addressing the issue of doctors running pill mills, over-prescribing these drugs, they are focused on just not allowing them to be prescribed at all... Even for people who genuinely need them.

the_mar 4y ago
I mean, you do know that regular Tylenol still works as pain medication? You don't necessarily need narcotics for broken bones.
- Spivak 4y ago
  I think there's two schools of thought on this one. A: Time limited access to narcotics is safe and effective pain management for severe but temporary injuries and I don't exist to suffer in this world -- give me the good stuff. B: If I can reduce my pain into "bearable" with nsiad painkillers then I don't want to take narcotics. I think one of the dangers of B in the real world is that for severe pain doctors are terrified of prescribing narcotics that they put you on the nsaid cycle with extremely high doses which can wreck your stomach lining and liver. When I was recovering from surgery they gave me Xanax, Vallium and Tylenol to basically sedate me for 2 straight weeks because of this nonsense and it was miserable. Just trading one kind of high for another but the new way you mostly keep the pain.
  - the_mar 4y ago
    I’m not trying to say that narcotic painkillers are ineffective or necessarily dangerous. I am saying that many kinds of pain can be managed with OTC medication. There aren’t necessarily two schools of thought. It’s more that if let’s say ibuprofen isn’t helping the pain, it may just be that you aren’t taking enough of it. It is a very effective pain medicine.
    - sammax 4y ago
      What a shitty take. There’s only so much ibuprofen you can take before the risks start outweighing the benefits, and there’s plenty of pain that is much stronger than that.
      - the_mar 4y ago
        Actually you can take quite a bit of ibuprofen for a short period of time with no long term problems. You can also take ibuprofen and acetaminophen. It is quite the hot take that narcotic pain meds are safer. I’m not at all suggesting ibuprofen for pain management of cancer patients or people immediately after major surgery. But for a big chunk of outpatient procedures enough OTC pain meds will actually work just fine. I’m not some granola advocate here. Nor am I trying to say that everyone should just tough it out. But you can’t seriously say that 800mg ibuprofen is more dangerous or less effective than opioids for wisdom teeth removal
- pyinstallwoes 4y ago
  Have you suffered excruciating pain for multiple days in a row? Non stop? Like so bad that your muscles recoil in horror that then causes even more pain in a recursive loop of horror?
  - carlmr 4y ago
    Actually yes, in Germany if you break your bones you get ibuprofen, if you get your wisdom teeth pulled, you get ibuprofen. We don't have an opioid crisis anymore. Pain is a fact of life. The problem in the US is that there's the expectation to work the next day. It's ok to be in pain, it's also ok to miss out on work. If you accept these two basic facts you don't have an opioid crisis anymore.
    - the_mar 4y ago
      Actually in the US you also get ibuprofen. I had very invasive jaw surgery and sinus repair. It hurt. I got 600mg ibuprofen and 600mg acetaminophen for the pain every 4-6 hours. It definitively took pain down to tolerable levels.
      - sterlind 4y ago
        as a counterexample, I had an infected tooth over the weekend. I took ibuprofen and acetaminophen around the clock, and it did jack shit. I was lying in bed and whimpering in pain, so close to going to the ER, but I knew they wouldn't do anything for me. I actually have mild PTSD about that incident. It was the second-worst pain I've experienced in my life, and it wouldn't stop.
        the_mar 4y ago
        Question 1: how much did you take? Question 2: what makes you think opioids treat infections?
        sterlind 4y ago