Treatment Plans Changed or Reduced

Home Page Forums Treatment Options for Pain Treatment Plans Changed or Reduced

Viewing 6 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #421277
      Noki4
      Participant

      This forum has been started to give us a place to offer support and where we can discuss when our treatment plans have been changed and reduced due to the stigma of using FDA approved pain medications.

      Together we can support each other!

    • #421278
      Noki4
      Participant

      My insurance company forced my doctor to change the treatment plan that he has had me on for over 20 years. It just isn’t right that someone sitting in an office can tell a medical professional what he can or cannot do. After all he/she is the one that went to medical school and has the best knowledge of what is right for his/her patients.

    • #421280
      Harry King
      Participant

      Nice post…

    • #424576
      FredFriend
      Participant

      That is outrageous, Noki4, that the insurance company is taking over treatment decisions. I agree that your doctor’s training and the longstanding relationship with you should outweigh what an insurance company administrator has to say on the matter of what will work best for you.

      Have you found any help from your Senator’s office? Sometimes they have caseworkers available to help constituents find care or overcome red tape.

    • #425933
      aliwalia
      Participant

      We recently moved to a new state and were changed to Medicaid from our previous employer’s insurance plan. The new pain doctor follows the CDC guidelines and reduced the daily dosage of the opioid from 120 to 90mg. I want to make clear that we have sought other options to using these medications – surgery, physical therapy, injections – nothing worked. My wife would LOVE to not have to take the medication, but without it her pain is excruciating. Now, with the so-called “tapering” she has hours per day between her dosages that she is confined to bed. Without a change to both the guidelines from the CDC and the public perception of people who NEED the medications and use them responsibly and without abusing them, things will only get worse. I joined a group called Pain Advocates Council that is actively working to inform people, doctors and legislators about the reality of the 20 million pain sufferers, many of whom depend on medications. Like my wife, millions of people are living in fear of having these medications restricted even more. The Pain Advocates Council web site is http://www.paincouncil.org.
      Tell your doctor that the 90mg CDC guideline is only a suggestion and not a rule or a law.

    • #426266
      Kiddo
      Participant

      I was on 150mg of methadone for over 10 years for back pain. I’m in Louisiana. Now my doctor says she must reduce me to 30 or 40mg of methadone a day due to new government regulations. This seems drastic to me. Before pain care I was living in bed. Pain meds have me active and doing great. But I’m worried about being cut so drastically. Can anyone advise me about this cut ?

    • #434701
      RON S. MASON
      Participant

      Kiddo, I’m sorry for what you are facing. Insist on his slowly reducing your daily dosage by 10-15 Mg. per month…. Anything much more than that and you run the risk of some very uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms needlessly.
      Frankly, I’m surprised any doctor had prescribed a pain sufferer any more than 80mgs. per day….
      I lived in WA and was prescribed 80mgs a day after having neck surgery and 3 levels in my back. I am still in excruciating and debilitating pain which limits even the most mundane mobility. It sucks! Anyway, I came to CA and immediately I was looked upon as a walking corpse. The doctors could not believe I was taking the amount of Methadone I was on and immediately focused on lowering my intake… Naturally this led to many heated arguments and my losing the fight.
      After 3 years, they have weened me from 80mgs a day down to 50mgs a day…
      My intent at this point is to detox myself with Oxycodone to the point the methadone is out of my system and I can begin Suboxone, which will help with my pain, but is not so looked down upon that the only thing the doctors focus on is getting me off the drugs… I am so tired of the stress of whether or not the doctor is going to give me what I need, the insurance will pay for it, the pharmacy has it, or if I take more than prescribed and don’t have enough for the last couple of days. NO MORE BS!
      Suboxone is a wonder drug… I was on it for 5 years and it helped with my pain, and was freely prescribed by my pain doc. Only trouble is, not all docs can prescribe. It’s more or less looked upon as a drug to help opioid addicts detox from the drugs… The great part for me anyways, is that it is an opioid antagonist which means that it will block any opioids introduced to your system while on it. Plus the Narcan that is in the formulation will help with blocking any other narcotic also!
      Just tired of dealing with the crap….
      You, need to try to get your intake down, before these idiot doctors who have no clue how to get their patients off of the narcotics end up causing you more pain than what you are already in… Don’t know if you have ever gone through withdrawals, but it is the worse! I dread that possibility more than I do anything else in life! Probably because I have gone through them so many times…

      Good Luck!

Viewing 6 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.