Posted by Larry Hoover on August 27, 2007, at 20:52:19
In reply to Re: Getting Doctors to prescribe opiates, posted by confuzyq on August 16, 2007, at 20:59:38
I don't know where else to put this, but I need to vent.
My son, 15, has the sad luck of having chronic ingrown toenails. I cannot understand how he can even wear shoes. The swelling. The bleeding. The infections.
He's had doctors take the nails off three times already, so I have some idea of his pain tolerance. He handles pain better than I do. I doubt I'd be able to wear shoes with those toes.
For some reason known only to the doctors, they've refused up until now to permanently block the regrowth of the offending nails. Finally, we got a doctor to do this for him. (Their argument: "He's so young!" Uhhh....so?)
They send him home with 18 Tylenol 3s. It soon became apparent that he's got his dad's 2D6 capacity. Your liver uses 2D6 to convert some codeine to morphine, and he's getting no relief. My son was screaming through the night, banging his head on the wall to block his sensation of the pain. He chewed a hole through his blankets, clenching them in his teeth. The doctors would not prescribe anything for his pain. They didn't want to make him into an addict!
What is wrong with these doctors? 1 out of every 10 Caucasians gets no (or limited) analgesia from codeine. Asking for something else is not drug seeking. You can't get better when you're in that kind of pain.
I drove 2 hours to bring him some Percocets, and within 20 minutes his face relaxed. Another 10 and he was asleep. When he awoke a couple hours later, I had my son back.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:774284
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070824/msgs/779198.html