Debby - Medically abandoned due to DEA/Med Board targeting doctor

Kristen - Chronic pain patient, dismissed from doctor due to being suicidal

Gwendolyn S - CPP dismissed from doctor, considers suicide

Debby - Medically abandoned due to DEA/Med Board targeting doctor

Please help. The Alabama state board is pursuing every pain management doctor in the state. They removed my personal 25 year patient relationship with a PM overnight. They closed his office and all of the patients are struggling. We were told to go to the ER which is not an option as the ER is currently getting federal medics to assist with the pandemic. Additionally the ER put out an advisory telling pain patients to not come to the ER. The primary care doctors in this area will not take over any PM caseloads. I did find a physician and luckily I have two insurance policies. This group requires many levels of testing and epidurals as well as nerve blocks. I have been through all these things. Unfortunately I suffered a horrible nerve block that required a blood patch and that blood patch has since been replaced once. I agree current MRIs are necessary but not all insurance companies will continually update MRIs. Every time I receive an MRI the prognosis is worse. I do very well on opioid management. However the only doctor in Dothan Alabama now handling pain management is rapidly reducing patients overnight. There was no tapering or any attempt to stay within the CDC reduction of 10% a month. We are about to be in a crisis mode in the state of Alabama.

Something has to be done to ensure that valid pain patients get the prescriptions needed. Several patients have now died and I feel more or to follow. Many of them suffered high blood pressure due to immediate withdrawal. We keep hearing about these harm policies but yet there are not any clinics opening up to provide help. We need some direction and we need it rapidly. I called the state board and they have absolutely MO contingency plans in place when they shot a physicians office. I do not understand why this is not mandatory before they shutter an office. Why is there not more backlash against these boards? If the goal is to help the community and provide harm reduction, then why didn’t they not simply monitor that position through the investigation process and taper the patients down. This of course is all assuming that the state feels the current MME for that patient is out of bounds. Personally I do not believe the government needs to interfere with physicians but that is where we are. If the government is going to mandate prescription amounts and moreover the prescriptions an individual can obtain for an illness, maybe the government needs to put all the physicians on a state payroll. If we are going to state sponsored healthcare we might as well make the full jump so as not to leave patients stranded. This entire situation very much resembles a totalitarian government. It certainly does not resemble the home of the free.

Not to mention these states are more than happy to override prescriptions for Schedule I (cannabis) in order to profit. That appears to be a little self-serving. If anybody else chose to disregard federal law they would go to jail. I support medical cannabis but I do not support the state deciding what care of somebody should receive. Not only that but to turn around and support a schedule I seems contradictory. Is this really about reduction of harm or money. We all know insurance companies would greatly prefer the medical cannabis program instead of PM therapy. As a patient I’m getting very concerned that we have gone the wrong way in attempting to resolve what has been deemed as a crisis. I do not believe we ever had a prescription crisis. The crisis has always been regarding street overdoses and now of course fentanyl has entered the marketplace. The more PM doctors that have to close down the more overdoses we will see from pain patients forced to the street.

I hate to be that blunt but somebody needs to. Do not think for one minute that a pain patient is going to relinquish their life and no longer be able to get out of bed or enjoy seeing their grandchildren. That is simply not an option and they will look for medication to help them even be able to walk. Many of us trusted the surgeons that helped put us back together when we were broken. We also entrusted that the rest of our lives we would probably be in some sort of pain management therapy. Now that is being stripped away.

What are we supposed to do. Please send in the cavalry because we are way past catastrophe point. I am being told I will have to live with my pain. I am not doing 50% if what I was. My quality of life has plummeted. This is inhumane. This is not the United States of America. Please help me. Please.

Kristen - Chronic pain patient, dismissed from doctor due to being suicidal

I have stage 3 endometriosis and have been going to Pain Management for 2 years with no problems. I baker acted myself on Christmas Eve and now he wants to cut of my pain meds cold turkey. I baker acted myself because I’m in so much pain and I’ve lost everything to this disease. I see behavioral health and have been for over 10years.  He didn’t even sit down and talk to me!! He was screaming down the halls at me!! Doesn’t he realize that I’m so depressed from this disease. I don’t know what to do. Please help

Gwendolyn S - CPP dismissed from doctor, considers suicide

 I have had Fibromyalgia and Herniated Discs and Osteoarthritis and Sciatic Pain since the 90’s and I am 59, will be 60 in May.  Went to Drill Mills until 2010 and had too many Injections to count over the years.  My elderly Family Doc took pity on me and started Rx me Opana because Pain Clinic was making pain worse with bad injections.  After 10 years on High Dose 40mg Opana 3x equivalent of 360 morphine he passed away at 84.  Had to go to a Pain Clinic and they took me immediately down to 20mg morphine aka 2 pills 10mg twice a day.  After 4 months of this insane torture and because I didn’t want a Pain Pump installed in my body, they called me for a Pill Count on Christmas Eve at 4:00PM and gave me one hour to get to an office that was over an hour away from the satellite office I had been going to near my home.  I had only been to this office once and I didn’t drive myself because I can’t drive for an hour anywhere.  My first appointment was August and my last appointment was 5 days before they got rid of me and it included a Urine Test.  They got rid of me after 4 months because they could make more money than they could with me.  It’s that simple.  They wanted my appointment slot for someone who would take shots and a pump.  Because the dose was so tiny it didn’t touch my pain and because they got rid of me like that I have given up on ever having a life again.  I have never ever taken more than I was prescribed and my Doc trusted me so much that he wrote me 3 Rx at a time because he knew I put them in a safe, along with my meds.  Now the Drill Mill Torture Clinic has marred my decades of properly taking my meds, in one fell swoop and my life is over.  If I didn’t have a teenager that needs me right now I would off myself.  And with the recent $7 Million Settlement for Suicide because of denial of pain meds I am definitely considering it, my kid would be so much better off.  My life was stolen on Christmas Eve 2019 and now I am the Living Dead anyway.  I have nothing to loose and my kid has everything to gain.  Thanks again for fighting for Chronic Pain Patients.