it sounds like to me that jensaw was looking for the na site,,,maybe she got lost ha ha ha,,typically wooden head nurse

No blondie i was'nt looking for the NA sit i am very familiar with them and need all the support i can get as i have severe pain all the time and trying to deal with an addiction....I am not ashamed of that....it's hard trying to find something that will work for the pain and still keeep myself in-tact....as i stated earlier i am truly sorry for offending anyone on this site i should never have said any of it....i am no stranger to pain....so i don't hold grudges against anyone....i know that i must forgive as christ forgives me. I may need this site as i do have chronic severe pain and i vow to only talk about related issues....i have never started an arguement with anyone in any of my groups and truly feel terrible about....if you still insiston calling me names then so be it....i guess i kind of deserve it.But i still have chronic pain just like you.

Misa....in my opionion it is almost certainly hereditary....my father (Whom i have not seen since i was 7 ) is an alchoholic....that's why my mother left him and none of us had a clue back then that any of that was hereditary....now we know and i got the "Mother Lode" my dad is in a nursing home in south carolina....so far from me...i would like to see him before he dies i only heard from him by letter when i was little and an occ phone call....I know now he had terrible feelings of guilt and i have NO hard feelings toward him at all....i love him terribly and pray every night for him....from what i remember he was a sweet kind soul who i remember used to sing with me lots of little songs....my brother is still working through his feelings for him and i am almost sure he has problems similar to mine but doest say much about it he lives in california anyway i have talked to both of my children and told them to PLEASE be careful and also never to be afraid yo come to me (I was with my mother) because i will always understand and help. soeey for rambling but yes....unfortunantly it's hereditary in some people more than others.

Thanks scottygs, and to everyone else this thread is starting to sound like a bunch of three year olds bickering over a stupid toy. Grow up for gods sake...we can all have our own opinions and there is no reason to argue on the INTERNET over what someone should/shouldn't do. Jeeze.

Don't worry....i have plently of support on other forums....i don't need the critisizm right now....this is the most hateful bunch of people i have ever had the pleasure to speak with....you can all tear each other to shreads.

I have to say I feel horrible for Nemcgrath, for being in pain, for having been victimized, and for feeling unsafe in her own home.
To explain why I said I was never stolen from,
I 'caught' my brother trying to steal from me way back, when I was first dx'd. He had my open bottle of Vicodin ES, and was trying to pour some in his hand. This was in my personal bathroom. This was years before Pain contracts, way before major narcotics were prescribed to me.
He was ( and is ) a genius/borderline nutcase. He actually invented his own ( and made) drug. He lost his daughter, his wife and his job and home due to his disease.
He was taking too long in the bathroom and I just went in. I felt rather I be embarrassed than him get into more trouble with something I might have inadvertently supplied.
My family and I went through horrendous times trying to get him straight. And I thought he was doing 'OK' until that question he asked me when our Mom passed.
I didn't consider that when I stated that I had never been stolen from. I was thinking strangers, people who have been or come into my home.
I also didn't lock up my med's until I got a prescription from the pharmacy for 100 mg Duragesic patches and it stated that any one taking this medication must have a high tolerance for narcotics or this medicine may be FATAL.
This scared the crap out of me. I realised if someone did take my patch and applied it and died, I would feel responsible. Because I didn't take care of my belongings with reasonable care.
Like when I lock my car door and take my keys with me. If I left my car keys in the car, and it got stolen, my insurance wouldn't pay. Because I didn't take care of my personal belongings.
My WHOLE point was simple: if NCMgrath had her med's hidden and locked up, they wouldn't have been stolen and she would have had future relief.
I don't sympathise with the person who stole them. Tie him up and lash him.
But don't give him something to make him poop his brains out or make him fall sleep while on the toilet. What if he fell and cracked his head open? Was alone, and bled to death?
Would it be his righteous ending because he deserved it? No...
But I do apologize for getting everyone all p/o'd at me. We all do have our own path in life, the right to our own opinions and we all walk in our own shoes.
I won't say another word on this subject.

dear jennsaw i found this group very supportive and certainly not "hateful" i am also a rn, and i know the way many nurses see the issue of pain, but i don't and can't work any longer due to cp,but i have never found this site to be hateful, but the thing is, there is a difference between abuse, and legitmate medical needs for narcotics. so only you know, if you are abuseing the medication or if you need it.myself, i have lost both my parents and i have plenty of sad stories also, but it is cruel to attact these people who have to struggle day in and day out with chronic pain. every night i pray to god to wake with no pain, because i beleive god can create miriacles.but if you found hate here,it was what you brought with your intial attitude towards pain patients something we have to put up with by igonarant doctors and nurses. i know, i was one, i once thought "right,whatever" when patients complained of the pain from fibro.,but never interjected my opion, being a professinal.. but now that i have it, shame on me. so be careful before you make judgements on people you might end up liveing a lesson, you don;t want to live! so please do not bring hate here, we need each other, we are hurting.. .

O.K. I see that i am causing a lot of disruption on this site....as i stated earlier i am truly sorry for all the comments i made earlier....nem, please forgive me for talking harshly about you....i am sure you have suffered greatly for all the meds that were stolen from you.I am usually a kind person and don't know what possesed me to say the things i said. May God bless you all and hope you find the relief you need. Jen.

I'm sorry, did I miss something, who criticized you. Don't leave, we are normally a wonder bunch of people. Yes, some chronic pain patients are addicts, and some chronic pain patients are not, but accused of it, and have high tolerance. I commend you on your recovery. I use to be some pretty strong meds. For reason of my own, I quit taking them, today, I am on Ultram and starting lyrica. Believe it or not, the Ultram is working wonders. Na is a wonderful foundation with wonderful people who care, glad you found them.

Blondie wrote:" dear jennsaw i found this group very supportive and certainly not "hateful" i am also a rn, and i know the way many nurses see the issue of pain, but i don't and can't work any longer due to cp,but i have never found this site to be hateful, but the thing is, there is a difference between abuse, and legitmate medical needs for narcotics. so only you know, if you are abuseing the medication or if you need it.myself, i have lost both my parents and i have plenty of sad stories also, but it is cruel to attact these people who have to struggle day in and day out with chronic pain. every night i pray to god to wake with no pain, because i beleive god can create miriacles.but if you found hate here,it was what you brought with your intial attitude towards pain patients something we have to put up with by igonarant doctors and nurses. i know, i was one, i once thought "right,whatever" when patients complained of the pain from fibro.,but never interjected my opion, being a professinal.. but now that i have it, shame on me. so be careful before you make judgements on people you might end up liveing a lesson, you don;t want to live! so please do not bring hate here, we need each other, we are hurting.. ."

..very well said...and the only thing I would like to add is that she didn't find any 'hate' here at all, but merely extreme frustration ...that a couple of people who are also described chronic pain sufferers seemed not to understand they could not put their own particular situations onto someone else. None of us can.

Other points made here too are very valid: that we all have different lives, different living situations, even different levels of pain tolerance and different extreme levels of pain. I've somehow always had the ability to 'walk a mile in another's moccasins'...so wouldn't dream of looking down on another for taking meds I don't (some day I might have to), or for someone perhaps reacting to pain differently than me. I've had different injuries..we can't possibly all have the same pain or results..that's life, and we're all just muddling by as best we can. But to keep meeting up with people not willing to render the same courtesy to others, is discomfiting..especially on a site dedicated to chronic pain. That is what this site is about..common courtesy for fellow sufferers (or should be).

We're not 'attacking'..just becoming increasingly frustrated in trying to get those being so judgmental to see how their jumping on the original poster IS an unwarranted attack...and she should not be judged, most especially not here.

One last point to Chronic: I'm afraid something you said was still contradictory, and I'm trying to understand. As in my situation, you said your incident happened a very long time ago, pre-'contracts', etc. Also, that you didn't begin to take your precautions until you read that your Duragesic patches could cause death. Okay. What about nem or her medicines places her in your position, then? You wish not to be judged, yet are assuming she should have already been doing what it took you many years to think about doing, even though the pills she takes don't have those same dire warnings. Do you see the disparity? I had also wanted to tell you from a previous post of yours, that the last place one is warned to keep medicines of ANY kind is in a medicine cabinet - for two reasons: it's too humid thereby degrading the meds and, it makes them much more likely to be taken by someone other than yourself.

I'll go back to this simply being about a person in extreme pain, physically unable to keep meds locked up while in the throes of an 'attack'..(of whatever kind) and needing their meds right by his/her bedside. Unless you've actually known what it's like to be almost unable to move a hand further than a couple of inches, or be so sick you are completely helpless..you can't possibly speak about this (there are times I'm absolutely unable to even open or unwrap the individually packaged triptans I need to stop a migraine..so give up and collapse without relief) - let alone having to dig around for a key (which of course ALSO would have to be hidden) to a metal box to find my meds? Is anyone supposed to (I mean, really) - keep their meds - in their own private rooms, locked up even while they're suffering and falling asleep on and off?

That young guy could just as easily have slipped into her room and stolen them while she was unconscious from a migraine. When I have one there are times I have no idea what's going on outside of my cocoon of pain..and have worried at times that the house could even catch on fire and I'd be just too helpless and sick to move.

Unfortunately I hear that you're still placing the burden on the victim and that's unfair, no matter how it's sliced or diced. I've explained to you that no matter what your contract says about 'reporting' stolen meds; in real life a patient on strong pain meds is rarely believed..and most police officers won't even fill out a report unless one has absolute proof of the theft. How do you get 'proof'? go buy (at fairly high expense) a 'spy' camera...hook it up and wait for 'the next time'. ..but you can't let them actually steal the same drug or that WOULD be complicity in their drug addiction; so one HAS to then substitute something harmless for the meds in order to get proof of the thief on camera taking the meds out of the bottle...it's a logical premise.

And my very, very last point: IF as you say, a thief fell off any surface; toilet, bed, chair and cracked a skull...or: crashed a car, walked in front of a train, even committed yet another crime against another human being - because they had ingested stolen narcotics (or a reasonable facsimile thereof?) A resounding NO..I would never remotely think to blame a person he/she had stolen the drugs from for their 'untimely' death or mayhem caused(and neither would law enforcement.)

I'm done too. This has taken far too much of my limited energies. Nem has my full support whatever she eventually decides to do...and the thief can deal with the consequences of his OWN actions.