One of the main difficulties I have in my practice is treating legitimate chronic pain patients with the respect and compassion that they deserve. With the pendulum that has wildly swung into the wrong direction most physicians are avoiding treating chronic pain at all. This is a sad situation which often drives our chronic pain patients to seeking other medications on the outside. They either buy or steal medications from friends and relatives or find street medications to do the same. Unfortunately many of these street medications now contain fentanyl which is killing patients left and right.
The tenets by which I practice contain the triad of compassion safety and efficacy. While it is true that many patients had been overmedicated in the past it is also true that very many legitimate patients are now being dropped and forced through withdrawals or drug seeking.
We cannot simply reverse the trend by completely blocking everyone’s access. Many of my success stories contain patients who have been upwards of 500 mg oxycodone per day and are now under excellent control with the use of Suboxone for their opioid dependency and then some mild pain medication such as Nucynta for legitimate pain management. They are just as controlled and legitimate as any other patient out there. These people do not overuse misuse or divert their medications. It is my hope that we can attempt to re educate the medical community to do this correctly.
I have been very excited to find other medical practices who call me for advice on proper pain management and addiction treatment/Recognition.