Re: One More Log for the Fire for Dr. Moore
From: K Nygren (ifirgit@yahoo.com)
Thu Jan 9 20:29:51 2003
Someone bring out the fire extinguisher!!!!!
Dr. Moore, this board provides a much bigger service to adhesion sufferers then just educating each other...which by the way is something many of us have had to do with our own DOCTORS. Some have been willing to learn, while others have thrown the research in the garbage...right in front of us.
This board is a sounding board. It is a family. It is support for everybody....many of whom have NO support at home. It is also a place where we can help each other with our own skills. Personally, I spend a lot of time trying to help adhesion sufferers successfully file for disability. Why? First, because I used to work for the SSA and know exactly what they are looking for...how things need to be worded so that the caseworkers don't have to guess at someone's interpretation of the word severe...or other subjective definitions. Secondly, I have been through this process myself, twice. Your statements regarding this are your first that have really stirred my pot. With all of the people I have helped, I have never met one who wanted to quit work...who wanted to receive disability. That is the last thing any of us want. Give us our lives back! Let us work!!! Let us feel like we are contributors to society! As I stated above, I have been through the filing of disability for myself twice. I was found disabled both times. But, I did wanted to work. Within 15 months of first being found disabled I went out and found a job. I tried to work, but that was when my series of 28 (however many it was...I'm losing track) surgeries began and noone could have worked through that. That used up my trial work period. After I had gone through most of those surgeries I believed that I could once again contribute to society...could feel needed again. I returned to work...lost my benefits. After a little more than a year my problems with chronic urosepsis began. I could not sit or stand because my ureters were kinked off by adhesions when I was in those positions. It was with great sadness that I gave up my job. My employers loved my work...that would have put up with the conditions that I had to work under. But, my body would not allow me. So, please don't think that we're trying to shirk our responsibilities in life. If you knew me, you would know that I am
the last person to lie down and roll over.
By the way, if you think that SSA is going to find someone disabled just because they filled their paperwork out properly, you are very mistaken. You MUST have the medical evidence backing you up. There are very strict criteria to being found disabled...as so many people on this list can verify. But, having the paperwork completed correctly, having the doctor's letters written properly could mean the difference between being allowed or denied. Would you want one of your patients to be denied because your letter was not written clearly enough? That is the only thing that I am trying to prevent. No one is trying to make money by helping people get disability. I do it because it is my way of feeling like I am helping.
As for the narcotics, I am on large doses of narcotics. I take 60mg MS Contin bid and Lortab 7.5/750 prn. There is a difference between addiction and dependence. People who need the drugs suffer from dependence. People who take the drugs to get high suffer from addiction. In my case, my doctors beg me to take my medication. I just recently went through three weeks without the MS Contin....somehow I don't think I am addicted or dependent. But, when my pain is high my BP can run as high and most often does, as 220/160...no exaggeration there. It doesn't matter how much blood pressure medication I am on (five different), the BP becomes more and more elevated the more pain I am in. I, myself, worry about becoming addicted. I always have...that's why the doctors beg me to take my medication, because I tend not to. But, would you prefer I not take what is necessary and have a stroke? Before you talk in such broad terms, remember there is another side to every coin. Maybe I am an exception, I don't know. But, I have to think that most of the others are like me. We don't like the effects of the medications.
As I said earlier...please continue to participate. We can learn from you....but more importantly to us, I think that we can also educate you as well. Perhaps you can take that education to work with you and share it with your fellow physicians.
Karla
"Dr.Moore" <BBM1969@BELLSOUTH.NET> wrote: I almost hate to say this, but I feel an odd sense of responsibity to
bring it up. Maybe because I like to stir up the pot, but maybe also
because I really think there maybe some bad players out there. I want
my patients who may read this message board to know there are other
opinions.
I am disturbed by the number of posts on this site that deal with
narcotic use. Some of the posts almost have an "exchanging recipes"
feel to them. I prescribe narcotics regularly for patients with real
pain, but am always worried about addiction. And someone with poor
bowel motility surely doesn't need to be on chronic narcotics.
I also am disturbed by the number of posts that describe in detail how
to get money for your adhesion pain. Sure, if you are disabled from
your adhesions, you should be able to collect what is yours. But there
seem to be almost as many how-to posts on getting disability as there
are discussions on the disease. There is even one post on how to get
disability if you have interstitial cystitis (how is this connected??).
Karla
**Soaring with my angel**
http://www.geocities.com/karlasfamily2001
http://www.geocities.com/princessd82000/BraydensHaven