Quality of Care Hospital Survey

 am a chronic pain patient with very bad disease in my spine for 10 yrs now. My spine has been seriously diseased for 30 years. When ever I go to an emergency room, no matter the hospital, I am treated with covert & overt behaviors, questions, and attitudes which presume I am there for drugs to become intoxicated. I have experienced this dismissal of my real pain, real injuries, real illnesses, & emergency life threatening experiences.  I am expressing this now because, even though the attitude at this visit was minimal compared to some of the abuse from the medical community I have endured before, it was still obvious to me that all of the medical professionals who treated me on this particular visit were behaving with the same overt/covert assumption I was just there for pain medication.  I could hear them speaking of it outside my room.  I was asked strange questions like, " what is this small scab on my wrist?"  ( I assume it could have looked like a needle mark) I am a sober alcoholic for 22 years now, however was never an I.V. user nor addicted to any drugs.  Because this honesty is in my records I am treated with absolute abusive reactions, behaviors, statements, & dismissed & abandoned when I am in real severe pain, & even life threatening situations.  The pain I am treated for on a regular daily basis is obvious & medically proven with several M.R.I.'s throughout a 30 year length of time. ( Chronic for 10 years now.)  I have a real problem with the way the American Medical community is treating people with severe chronic pain.  I have my own & other peoples horror stories which would turn any sane & empathetic human's stomach sour. It is acceptable to treat terminal patients with chronic pain for their comfort & last days of quality of life. Yet... it is not acceptable to treat people such as myself who must continue to live day after day, year after year, decade after decade, so that we may live with some small percentage of comfort from our pain, and possibly experience a very small percentage of quality of the life we used to enjoy.I am attempting to write this simply because in the last decade of severe, worsening daily pain, I have been abused by the very persons I am suppose to be able to go to for help with my health which effects my quality of life experience.  The supposed, " War on Drugs," & the process our country & even some Doctors have agreed upon as a solution to the problems we are encountering with drug abuse, & illegalities involved have some very good points of action.  However; the majority of what has been the result of this, "War on Drugs," & the procedures put in place to attempt to resolve the unnecessary deaths from over dose of legally prescribed pain medications has done just about nothing.  Good Doctors & deserving patients are being persecuted with no reason.  The bad Doctors & not deserving patients are still getting their medications to sell on the streets or get intoxicated with.  The real results of most of the procedures and new policies put in place for a solution have made the whole medical community insanely frightened to diagnose, trust, & treat their patients for fear of being persecuted by fake patients with false medical records.  And Me, the thousands of people like me, are abused in the worst way possible.  We wouldn't allow our dogs, cats, or pets of any kind live with the kind of pain we allow our fellow human beings experience every minute of every day for years & years without end.  The 2nd atrocity, which I find to be very emotionally & mentally abandoning & abusive is the fact that one of the most sacred relationships of humanity, the relationship between Doctor & Patient has been compromised to the point where neither Doctor nor Patient can be completely honest with each other because of the severe consequences of doing so.  I cannot tell my doctor my pain medication is not working properly or well enough without my doctor having to wonder if I am telling him/her the truth.  I cannot hear from my doctor everything going through his/her mind about solutions or possible diagnosis because he/she cannot be completely honest with me.  The consequences of this problem are not being felt by the people causing the problems, only by us the innocent people who are stuck in the middle of it all.  No other country in this world treats their medical patients nor medical professionals in this way.  I know of American citizens leaving our country to find the proper medical care for themselves or their loved ones.  For God's Sake... This is America. The most powerful, & humanitarian embracing country in the world, unless you are experiencing an illness resulting in extreme, severe chronic pain, or you have no insurance to pay for your life threatening illness.  It is simple to find out who is taking their medication as prescribed, or who is not.  There are tests which show these results.  There are so many ways to resolve this problem without abusing and allowing people to suffer unnecessarily.  Teach more than 1 hour in 8 years of education on the topic of pain, chronic pain, pain medications, safety, education for patients as well as the doctors. This is not finished yet, but I am working on it.  Any suggestions?  Topics?  Feelings?  Your personal experiences?I must finally put myself out there & be vulnerable so at least some voices will be heard thru my voice.  I can no longer cower like an abused animal in the corner being dismissed ans abused by under treated pain.In Love Light TRUTH & ServiceStubborn TerrieAnn

Replies

jenleigh1
jenleigh1

Very well written TerrieAnn! I too have been a chronic pain patient for 10+ Years. The 1-10 pain scale is now considered number 5 for checking vitals along with blood pressure, temp, etc. It would seem like doctors would have to recongize and treat this as they would any other problem.

I have been fairly blessed in my journey so far. I was referred to a rheumatologist who believed in my pain and referred to the MRI\'s etc. as \"proof\". Of course there have been some bumps in the road with getting meds, usually when someone new in the doctors office or pharmacy tries to make a name for themselves and judge without seeing the 10+ years history.

It gets me because I hate putting on the fentynal patch that itches, taking pills that make be tired, and not doing it for some kind of high feeling. It doesn\'t solve the pain even just makes it more bearable and as you said, maybe have a moment of my past life and all I enjoyed doing.

At one time there was a web site I found but can\'t find the link to now. Something like: Proffessionals for the proper treatment of pain. (????) If I can find it again, i\'ll re-post.

Thanks for being so stubborn! I normally just hit them in the face with the truth, honesty and reality of it and seems to help me too.

God Bless,
JenLeigh
GTK
GTK

I am just trying to catch up with your journals... seems I am very behind. I don\'t get the DS email alerts, because DS can\'t or won\'t fix whatever is wrong with that system... 8 months it\'s been now and I still get mad when I discover a journal that a friend wrote months ago, which doesn\'t have a comment on it from me. I do try to go around and check peoples pages, but I still seem to miss so many journals. I know it can hurt when you make the effort to journal and don\'t get many or any comments... sorry if you have felt I haven\'t been here for you. I do think I\'ve read this before though... did you post it on the board? Sometimes I read a journal and there is a lot I want to say, but I know I don\'t have time to write it all, so I tell myself I\'ll come back to it later when I have more time... but really my memory is so shot I can\'t remember what I did yesterday, so remembering to come back later is probably asking too much of myself. Anyway I did want to say that you have done a great job with this... very well written, articulate and concise, and certainly gets the message across. As you know, I do feel so much for all my US friends who are suffering needlessly because they can\'t get meds to treat their pain. Sometimes it makes me feel guilty even that my pain is so well controlled. It\'s just not fair... and it makes me sad for you all. What were you thinking of doing with this wonderful piece of work?
Sending sunshine and smiles your way,
take care... Gaye... xxx