Yes they do and people with CP are treated horribly!

What that stupid nurse said to you was UNCALLED FOR!

I just posted on pyphysical therapy bullshit, the drug addict response makes me furious!!!!!!!!!! Michelle

And theses people are in the health care industry....disgusting.

As a retired RN, I am appalled to hear this. Judgmental much? Seems like rather than leaving her own stuff at the door, she brought them to work. Unfortunately, many people have had addicts or alcoholics in their family. That makes for a jaded nurse.

Unless you were so medicated you were slurring your words or were at risk for respiratory depression, she should have given the medication as it was ordered!

I'm sorry this nurse caused you more grief than you were already in. If that happens again, ask for the patient care manager(PCM) or the Director of Nursing. The hospital will always advocate for the patient. Patient care is how these hospitals stay open!

They're TAUGHT to distrust pain patients. After awhile it gets to be a reflex. It's sad and yes, disgusting, but no one seems to care.

15 years ago I was being titrated to the proper med and dose for my RSD. I had a terrible day and was crying from the pain- NOT something I did. I called my Phys Med doc and he told me to go to the ER, there would be papers with instructions to put me in overnight on a stronger med.

The ER doc saw me, read my chart and then put the kibosh on any meds for pain. He admitted me w/o telling me that he had changed the orders! All the jostling around made my foot really bad. I asked for the medication I'd been prescribed by my doctor. The nurse said, No, that the ER doc had refused those orders and made new ones.

I was so naive, I thought he had written for something better! I had undergone an IV b/c my PM doc had ordered one for IV morphine. The ER doc had ordered something else- a pain med that had a large amount of anti-inflammatory in it. Torredol? Is that anti-inflammatory? Anyway, I happened to have had a bad reaction (throat swelled shut) from one of the meds we'd tried for RSD and as it was an NSAID, my chart said "No NSAIDS".

But the ER doc didn't care. I was dying of pain and laying in the hospital bed when the nurse came with the med. I asked what it was and when she said the name, I KNEW it was the medication I'd had a reaction to. I was terrified as I moved around the bed, trying to get her to stop.She was trying to put the medication in my IV and I grabbed the area where they put meds, and screamed. I told her I was allergic to the med she had and I was leaving. She smirked at me, left, and came back with a clipboard.

"You're signing out against medical orders," she said.
"Not against MY doctor's orders!" I told her and I got out of there as fast as I could, which was not so fast as I couldn't find my crutches. To this day the pair I was using back then are gone. I never had to use them regularly but I'll never forgive that hospital for allowing that ER doc to take over.

The next am, my Phys Med doc and I met and he apologized. He said that RSD was misunderstood and that I would run into this kind of thing a lot. He gave me an injection and my Mom drove me home. I think it was that next week that we started on higher doses of MSIR and MSC.

That was the last time I recall being treated that way in the hospital, but then again I rarely, RARELY, go in. It has to be so bad I can't breathe before I would go in for RSD or pain of any kind.

It's sad, it's wrong and it is a disgrace. Maybe we should all start taking names? I'm starting to think that an article or news program is what we need for attention. There's no reason to treat CP patients like criminals! SOOOO sick of this crap!

I can relate to this. Besides my RSD, traumatic arthritis, and lower back damage and pain, I broke my knee and tore my medial meniscus several years ago. Of course, I went to the ER. I was given nothing. I had to ask for a Motrin. I got the "look." Did they think I damaged myself on purpose for more medicine. Think of the word. Medicine. Why in our case is "medicine" a bad word. I was angry. It was terrible pain.

I agree with thaliajen. We should start taking names.

That had to be a horrible experience for you. I'm allergic to Toradol also. I found out in the ER when I severe pain from IC (bladder disease). That was before I had a pain medicine dr.

In 2009 I wound up going to the ER after 3 days of being deathly ill. I called my pain dr. He told me to get to the ER and he'd make sure I was taken care of. HE DID thank God.

I had meningitis got it from to many steriods. Anyway, I knew I was dying but I signed that contract so I refused to go to the ER until he told me to go. BF at the time was furious with me for waiting 3 days to call my doc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is always call your PM dr. before going to any ER. If the ER isn't following your medication regimen pick up the phone and call your pain dr. We have to stand up for ourselves and demand that we get the best treatment possible.

I got lucky my PM even came to the hospital to see me and monitor my pain meds. He was incharge it was a good thing because my brain felt like it was going to explode.

Healing hugs shakyT

Ten years ago, I had my gall bladder removed on an emergency basis. There's an 8 inch scar under my rib cage (can't wear a bikini, Sobs!).The gall bladder had "perforated" literally seconds after the surgeon got it out. He said I was within a hair's breath of peritonitis.
I was told by staff attending me that they were amazed how little pain meds I called for (self dosed), in view of the extent of the surgery. I'm passionate about not becoming addicted.

Heres one for you boys and girls.

About a year ago i went to see my pcp because in addition to the usual aches and pains i had slipped in the shower and pulled something loose in my lower back, and after going with it and a heating pad for 5 days i couldn't take it any more.

So i went in and after examining me my doctor gave me a 3 drug cocktail shot for the pain. This shot was something he regularly gave to his patients in severe pain. about halfway home i started getting the chills and shaking. by the time i arrived home i knew something was wrong, i couldn't control my body, i was shaking uncontrollably. i also was drenched in sweat, to the point where it looked like i had jumped in the pool, yet i was freezing.

By the time the ambulance arrived in my driveway i was shaking horribly and crying in pain, i couldn't even get out of the truck under my own volition. The ambulance rushed me in to the ER, and after my wife called my pcp he called ahead and told the ER exactly what had happened and what he gave me. In the ambulance i started seizing and my heart rate became severely erratic. I have never been so afraid that i was dying.

My pcp realized i had a rare reaction to the shot, apparently one of the drugs he gave me in rare cases expels opioids from the patients body, now bear in mind i had been on vicodin and morphine for quite some time at this point so apparently what was going on was my body was in full-on withdrawals.

Now when i got there my doctor had called and explained all this to the ER docs, also remember something was jacked up in my lower back, so every time i seized the pain in my back was excruciating...

even with my medical history, my wife explaining what happened, and my pcp calling ahead, and the fact that i was screaming in horrible pain and crying the entire time. The attending at the ER made me wait in agony for 7 1/2 hours while he ran multiple tests to ensure that i was not a junkie looking for a fix to get me out of withdrawals. After they got their heads out of their asses they gave me a shot of morphine that got me back to normal within 10 minutes.....

Why i ask... WHY did I have to wait almost an entire workday to be relieved of this horrible suffering????

I was stereotyped plain and simple, like so many of us that go to the ER.. even when we know this will happen to us...

Its truly a horrible world we live in, with a healthcare system thats prejudiced against us, the very individuals that need it the most...

I still wake up screaming at night occasionally because i have a nightmare and in my nightmare im back in that hospital bed scared that i was about to die. terrified that the next wave of pain would leave me paralyzed for life....

But hey.... as long as the ER covered its ass i guess i shouldn't complain right......

Kris.......

It is so terrible that we are treated like this. I did once have a bad experienced at an ER. I was having a terrible migraine from my cervical disk issues and it was I think about day 3 and I just couldn't take it anymore.

They treated my like a total drug addict looking for a fix. It was a terrible feeling. I even brought the meds that I am on and it was obvious that I was not out.

Its just too bad that the drug seekers have to ruin this for us when we really need help!!

Oh no Caleb! That is AWFUL!

Why can't they give the benefit of the doubt FIRST - just listen to the patient and BELIEVE them... they would rather let 20 people suffer just to stop that one "addict" trying to "get drugs"...

No dignity, no respect, understanding, its abuse. Whatever happened to the oath they take "Do no harm?" What you went through is most definitely harm!

Nurses are "taught" to distrust chronic pain patients by addicts trying to get high under the guise of being in chronic pain. I think that's why we get a bad rap. ER's are famous for sending people home only for them to return within hours, needing emergency surgery, etc. A big PR thing going on while I was still working was "Pain as the 5th vital sign" lol.

I remember going to the ER, being put into a room and laying in there for 2 1/2 hrs with my husband. NO ONE came in, not a nurse or even a tech to see how I was doing or did I want something to drink. I asked to speak to the Charge nurse before I left. I told her how snotty the RN was who "took care of me" and how I was left to rot in that room. We need to speak up and ask for the person in charge to hold these crappy health care pros accountable!