Doctor Declines State’s Offer In Battle Over Opioid Tapering Ethics
[Dr. Connie Basch, submitted]
The complaint against Basch surrounds what she would call five “legacy” patients that came to her several years ago on high doses of opioids and anti-anxiety meds. The state alleges even though she tapered them to lower doses, she wasn’t doing so fast enough in adherence with state-mandated schedules.
While the instances cited in the complaint date back a few years, Basch has continued to legally treat over a thousand patients at The Full Circle Center for Integrative Medicine while battling the state over what she believes are harmful policies that even the feds don’t agree with.
“No standard opioid tapering schedule exists that is suitable for all patients,” the FDA acknowledged last year.
“Those five patients (cited in the complaint) were stable, Basch told Humboldt Last Week several months ago. “They were on ridiculously high doses but they had been for years from other prescribers… Forcing tapers on legacy patients is not a constructive intervention. It should be individualized. I believe you have to persuade people to taper and then they do well.”
Basch believes legacy opioid patients who are not tapered properly are more susceptible to heroin use, suicide, and other detrimental outcomes.
Her case is likely to go before the medical board sometime this fall. She says she doesn’t have the estimated $150,000 to spend on defense funds and will likely lose her case because she’ll be defending herself without a lawyer.
“I’ve learned that if you are willing to spend enough money you can continue to practice medicine no matter what you’re doing, which explains our colleague in McKinleyville who was on probation twice,” Basch said. “On the contrary, if you are caring for low-income patients and are low income yourself, the options are much less, which is pretty standard for this justice system in our country.”
Basch also says she equates some policies impacting opioids to those impacting COVID-19.
“Our government is focused on the ‘look good’ that is appearance over substance,” she said. “They are able to claim low numbers of COVID-19 infection by refusing to test most of the people who likely have it. We have been arguing with public health for the last two weeks about testing various patients who have been on airplanes but not from the limited number of countries that were on the original lists, even though some of them have worked in sensitive situations such as in the schools or as healthcare providers. So, in essence, they are able to claim low numbers of infection while putting more people at risk and likely leading to more mortality. To me, this seems similar to the ‘doing something about the opioid crisis’ that results in stable pain patients being converted to unstable heroin users, being relegated to unrelieved pain, or committing suicide. It looks like the number of prescriptions have gone down, despite the death rate and overall misery rate going up.”
This story begins at 10:52 in the new episode of Humboldt Last Week streaming below.
Quick local stories, also on Apple and Spotify
Episode 164 description: Arcata’s new arcade for grownups is now open, a Eureka fast food update, a prostitution sting, cannabis enforcement, adoptable animals, election results so far, an update on that casino hotel in Trinidad, sentencing for the teen who murdered his foster dad, an update from a local doctor battling the state over what she calls harmful opioid prescription tapering mandates, the Humboldt-shot movie of the week, crime updates, and much more.
Humboldt Last Week episode 164 partners: North Coast Co-op, STIL, Brick & Fire Bistro, Bongo Boy Studio, Trinidad Vacation Rental, North Coast Journal, Photography by Shi, Redheaded Blackbelt, 99.1 KISS FM
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
This physician is a victim of changes in governmental policy, but is also a victim of manipulation by poor risk patients.
All five of the patients in question should have been sent to rehab, and removed from pain management. Dr Basch was fighting a losing battle with these patients, and I am surprised she lasted in this field, as long as she has…
Dr Basch should take her lumps, do her suspension, and endeavor to practice a less risky type of medicine…
The “government” is not conspiring against her, but the current environment of anti-narcotics, is unfriendly to pain management, which has always been a high-wire act anyway.
If you take high doses of anxiolytics and narcotics, you face a future where the drugs will no longer work, and even if you increase the doses to dangerous levels, the efficacy fades over time. Good luck finding a cooperative physician, and, there are many pain-management practices in Santa Rosa. Doctor Basch should drug test any remaining patients, and frequently, and also should retain a competent attorney, and immediately, if she wants to defend against malpractice suits, and state actions.
My advice to patients: go to inpatient rehab, and after a long period of suffering, you may learn to live without drugs. Your life will be improved, and you won’t have to sit in doctor’s offices, and wait at the pharmacy, for drugs that don’t work anyway.
Your post has an air of patriarchal pomposity and condescension to it. Exactly who do you think you are, anyway?… Of course, you are hiding that, as you cowardly hide, and peek out from behind, your false identity. Dr. Basch has a brilliant intellect, which has consistently, and steadfastly, served, and benefitted, her grateful, and humbled, patients, for all these many years. She knows her path; you do not.
Sing it, Pam!
Thank you Pam! Dr. Basch is a brilliant physician.
I had a long experience using these medications, in a progression over 40 years. In the end, I was given 150/100mg MS Contin tablets every month, along with 180 1mg Xanax tablets. I was also provided with basically unlimited 10mg Lorcets, which I never took. I was never a street addict, my insurance paid for every single pill. I never took drugs my doctor didn’t prescribe.
In the end, I was a mess, for 10 years, and finally checked myself into inpatient rehab, fired my physician, and suffered through another 4 years of insomnia, chronic pain and mental health issues related to post-secondary withdrawal.
It is my opinion that pain management produces patients who are addicted to multiple drugs, people who are also convinced that no other option exists. Nothing could be further from the truth!
My life without these, or any other drugs at all, including no cannabis or alcohol, tobacco, or anything else, is greatly improved. Doctors are not welcome into my life, and the entire Doctor/Pharmacy/Hospital paradigm is, in my opinion, set up to control your life, maximize income for professional personnel, and to control patients rather than keep them healthy or treat them with respect and dignity.
I was sold a load of garbage by the medical profession, continued to consume it years longer than the time that I knew I needed to end my relationship with it, and now it is my feeling that “pain management” manages only drug addiction produced by the drugs handed out by physicians. Most of the drugs that doctors like Dr Basch administers are useless in the long run, and in the short run, these drugs produce highly dependent drug addicts who will do anything and say anything to keep the supply coming.
I have also seen the results of pain management while working in the emergency rooms of your county, and other counties, and I can tell you that patients separated from their pills are very desperate indeed.
I recommend that all patients who are worried about “losing their doctor” contact the nearest available inpatient rehab facility, and then attend, detox, and reclaim your life, now, before you are sitting at home, going into withdrawal.
Doctors who maintain hopeless cases, like the patients above and in the previous posts
relating to these patients, are doing nobody any favors.
Obviously, patients with terminal conditions, patients with debilitative and surgical pain, cancer and many other serious conditions, should be treated with any drug necessary and determined to be appropriate by their physician. I do not, in general, believe that the state should be inserting itself in between patient and physician, but this is the system we currently have. Physicians should act to protect their licenses, so that they can continue to treat their patients.
Protect yourself from these physicians, look for alternatives, get clean if you can. Doctors think drugs are necessary, but, in my opinion, drugs are very seldom a good way to go, and many common drugs can be extremely harmful.
Many will howl that their condition is intractable, but the powers that be may well end your relationship with the drugs you depend upon. Prepare yourself for this eventuality, now.
You’re making the assumption that all of her patients are on pain meds. You are incorrect. The vast majority are not! People are afraid of losing their doctor because she’s irreplaceable and the medical community here is small and not suited to fit everyone in. Looked for a doctor recently in Humboldt? I hear people talk about how hard it is all the time! It’s great that you’ve kicked a drug habit, but not everyone is in that position. Not everyone needs to get off pain meds. So many with difficult and complex issues will be left out in the cold with nowhere to go. Pain meds aren’t even a factor! Stop, people, with the judgement! She’s doing amazing work and the Medical Board is doing a disservice to Dr. Basch, her patients, and this community. It’s a money game that she can’t afford to play. Read the article!
You are the one assuming! This case is only about 5 patients, all of whom were prescribed outrageous, dangerous, and ridiculous amounts of narcotics “by other physicians”. Doctor Basch apparently tried to treat these unfortunate patients, when she should have referred them to rehab.
Of course you don’t want to lose your doctor! Of course pain management patients don’t want to go off their addictive medications! Many conditions absolutely warrant the use of narcotics and are not treatable by other means!
I was a pain management patient most of my adult life, and all pain management amounts to addiction management, as a final result! Your physician knows this.
Dr Basch claims that she can not afford to fight this, but she sounds like she thinks that making a big fuss while accusing the state of mismanagement will produce a positive outcome in the case! Wrong! She needs competent legal counsel, and quickly! Then she needs to face her fate, and stop fussing!
The state will find something else to do, and, so will Dr Basch. Whether there are enough doctors or not, the few you have, they need to operate according to the standards set for patient safety.
I personally would not be a doctor, for any salary. I wish Dr Basch well, and hope this is resolved without increasing the suffering of her patients.
Meanwhile, each person is advised to be their own advocate, when consuming medical care! Physicians are not magicians, and they can only do what the licensing board will allow. If you allow yourself to become habituated to certain medications, you are almost assured of difficulties, whether supply problems, or prescriber problems. Plan accordingly, and always have a backup supply or a backup plan.
If you can, don’t get started with addictive medications, and if you do, be able to get off them! Remember, narcotic withdrawal takes 4 days, but recovery takes the rest of your life!
We already have a shortage of providers, and, asking an important, lifeline provider to prescribe dangerous amounts of schedule II and schedule III and IV drugs puts everyone else at risk.
Good luck!
“Pain management is addiction management” – false. Addiction diagnosis requires 2 or more criteria. Most pain patients only meet one criterion – withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly (which happens with many medications).
Genetic polymorphism, congenital malabsorption, and many other diagnoses (often rare ones) could cause a patient to legitimately benefit from an unusually high dose of opioid medication.
The important question is – how has the patient been functioning? If they aren’t meeting their own life goals, it’s possible the medication isn’t helping. If they are meeting their own life goals, and if slow-tapering the medication makes that impossible, then medication is beneficial for them. Even if the same dose of the same medication would be fatal to someone else.
After every other therapy fails, palliative opioid medication can be a disability accommodation, allowing people with horrific medical conditions to live as close to a normal life as possible.
Walking is healthy and sitting too much can lead to death, but the state doesn’t set limits on how many patients can be prescribed wheelchairs.
Jesus, Chris, What makes you think your individual case applies to everybody? Dr. Basch is 100% correct that state policies are NOT in line with federal guidelines. The CDC, the FDA, HHS, the AMA, the U.S. Surgeon General and Human Rights Watch all back up what Dr. Basch says. The HHS Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force report that came out last May says that pain patient care needs to be individualized, “patient-centric”. The CDC came out with a statement last April that said patients should not be force tapered and refer to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine “No Shortcuts to Safer Opioid Prescribing” by Dr. Deborah Dowell, lead author of the 2016 CDC Guidelines for Opioid Prescribing for Chronic Pain. The FDA issued a statement last April as well – “…FDA has received reports of serious harm in patients who are physically dependent on opioid pain medicines suddenly having these medicines discontinued or the dose rapidly decreased. These include serious withdrawal symptoms, uncontrolled pain, psychological distress, and suicide.” HHS came out with another statement last October, again reiterating slow, VOLUNTARY tapering – “Unless there are indications of a life-threatening issue, such as warning signs of impending overdose, HHS does not recommend abrupt opioid dose reduction or discontinuation”. The AMA came out with Resolution 235 in November of 2018 saying the same thing – NO FORCED TAPERING. The April statement by the CDC was a clarification of the 2016 Guidelines, widely misinterpreted and misapplied by states across the country including California. The clarification was prompted by a letter to the CDC from Health Professionals for Patients in Pain, signed by over 300 healthcare professionals nationwide, 100 medical faculty and 3 former White House Drug Czars. Human Rights Watch profiled the U.S. treatment of chronic pain patients in their Dec. 2018 report called “Not Allowed to be Compassionate” and likened the treatment of pain patients here to that of victims of police torture. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have all included in their policies support for pain patients having access to pain medications. Even Joe Biden now has a clumsy statement in that regard.
So “Jesus, Chris”, I hope you can find the care that works for you but allow others to access the care that works for them! You and the State of California are woefully out of line with federal and other guidance on the issue of opioid prescribing. When questioned on this issue, State representatives Assemblyman Jim Wood and Senator Mike McGuire are silent. Why?
Thank you Hope! You speak the truth that so many are afraid to hear. I say we all donate to Dr. Basch defense fund. Is there one? I would surely to donate some of my measly disability income because I have Diseases that cause intractable pain! Without pain meds, I would be in bed all day, but instead I am able to take care if myself and have a LIFE!
Has a fund been started? Go fund me! Great place to start
Very well stated! Thank you!
FYI not everyone should come off of their pain meds. Not everyone on then is a “junky”. Why were you on them if you were able to get off. Broken neck, back crushed tail bones & a horrible neurological disease leave me medication bound forever, neurosurgeons refuse to operate. Yet your judgemental bs is part of what’s causing issues for those of us who do really need them. Fyi you were on a lot more than I ever have been. You should’ve spoke up. I doubt they just increased your meds, as you had to have been complaining a lot about your pain. Yet you judge people like me. WHAT A JOKE!
As a credentialed health care person, my response to the post is, “Smart advice.”
Stated another way: Contrary to almost everything heard and spoken, there is only one person who is in control of one’s health: Oneself. To diverge from this truth is to choose to be dis-empowered and only one person will suffer: Oneself.
She didn’t prescribe those drugs. They were from other doctors. She was safely and compassionately weaning them. You have your story and others have theirs. But you clearly are being judgy and righteous and your horse is too high.
So sorry you experienced that. I can understand why you are so passionate about it.
Also, ONE antidotal experience or even a small group’s does not need to dictate everyone else’s options.
What about the Suboxone program? How come more people don’t look into that?
Suboxone is only for addicts and it is fraud for pain patients to use addiction programs for pain management
Steve you are so wrong. I am a 72 year old woman that was on Norco for well over 15 years. I was thrown under the bus in May of 2018 and it took me till 8 months ago to finally find a doctor to help me. I have numerous issues worse being stage 4 Osteoarthritis in just about every joint in my body. My doctor now put me on Buprenorphine sublingual tablets (a form of Suboxone). I am not an addict using an addiction drug for pain management. It is not as effective as the Norco use to be but it helps me live somewhat of a normal life. I wish people would do some research before they judge people like me.
Big diff between. Suboxone & bupe.
Suboxone does nothing for pain- and can cause other life threatening issues. I hear it works for some addicts- although addicts I know sell it to buy heroin. So. Any other ideas?
Drug addicts who still have a problem are always the most judgemental assholes
Drug addicts who have actually taken responsibility are quite the opposite.
We know which camp Mr Christ is in
Amazing the ignorance on here of people who don’t know the difference between tolerance, dependence and addiction. Can’t speak as to give patients whose specifics are unknown, but many chronic pain patients successfully manage their conditions on long term opiod therapy, and do so because it’s been the best of all tried treatments. The BS hype conflating legally prescribed opiods for legitimate reasons to responsible pain patients with illicit drugs and intentional abuse is the cause of harm throughout the pain community. Look at one example ignored by media/politicos: Krebs/SPACE Veterans Affairs study. At yrs end, none of the 212 patients on opiods, all checked with random urinalysis and PDMP, showed any sign of misuse or addiction.
Chris Jesus, So your assumptions are based on one case – yours. It shows your ignorance to think that all of the millions of pain patients are just like you.
Oh please. BS
So you didn’t actually have pain. You were addicted. Please don’t project your problems on to people who actually have painful conditions.
That is YOU!!!! And you are ASSUMING “Jesus Christ” that all patients are addicts because you were!!??? I fight and fight and fight because I need them to be able to live a daily NORMAL life!! This physician is a smart woman and there needs to be more like her!!
Jesus Christ??? Smh!! Grow up!
I had been on my 2 Rx Opiates when an NPA decided “opiates are bad” & we are going to taper you. My meds were taken as directed for 19 years and were still working when she began my cruel journey. Perhaps you didn’t need your medications Chris, but it turns out I did. I lived for 6 months without them and let me tell you of the torture it feels like when you have nothing but glops of nerves all stuck together in your spinal cord ,but do not know that as yet. You know that something is terribly wrong though. Something worse than CRPS, Fibro or even Post Lyme Syndrome, Arthritis etc. My 12 MRI’s showed clearly to Dr. Tennant that I have had Adhesive Arachnoiditis for at least 13 years and never knew it. The powers that be in D.C. needs to make a distinction in written law for those that REALLY need these meds and those that just think they do. Drs should have the powers but after all this is post 2016 CDC Guidelines/#kolodnykills era.
You unfortunately were part of the problem, patients who are not suffering from chronic pain yet ask for help with chronic pain treatments and meds should definitely go to re-hab. But the true pain patients suffering from chronic debilitating conditions that have no cures and limited treatments have the true legitimate justification and need to continue their lives with any sort of relief to have some degree of life should not be punished for your shameful deceit to the medical communities attempt to aid in what they believed was a valid patient. Your experience screams deceit and shame and you owe the victims of your actions apologies. You helped push patients into suffering and contributed to their loss of quality of life. Along with doctors who can no longer help those suffering, You blame the doctors when you should blame yourself. True chronic pain patients can not just stop pain medications and be cured …. that proves that you were an addict.
Jesus,
Just because you abused opioids and tranquilizers doesn’t mean everyone who takes them abuses them.
Took them for a dozen years with effective yet stable dosing because I wanted reduced pain. Once the pain was bearable, I didn’t need more. Chasing the pleasure of being high is by definition elusive, so it consumes everything available.
I agree with you 100 percent
I agree with you 100% That persons statement reveals someone who DOES NOT experience real pain. Obviously a cheerleader for those who punish us who really do.
You are correct, they actually sou d like a coward and have no clue about what a patient needs and dont. Your reply was right on. Thank you.
I completely agree with you Pamela! Blessed Be!
Amen!
How do you know they didnt need the medications? People have been taken off pain meds just because without any actual assessment of whether they might need the opioids which has caused numerous deaths as people go to the black market or take their own lives.
True and I’m not sure I can stay in Humboldt county! Already had several back/neck surgeries. I’m NOT going to get one more needle shoved in my spine! I need a pain pump, a real GP and compassion! Till then I’ll continue begging for my monthly Opioid RX!
Apparently you dont suffer 24/7. Walk in my shoes, live like I do, then talk about narcotic medication.
Mostly spot-on.
Grim, but spot-on.
She’s playing the martyr. Typical for a physician.
You obviously don’t know her. Your statement is bullshit and you have zero knowledge of who she is a doctor and a person. You sound like a jaded, disgruntled…I don’t even know what. But, you couldn’t be further from the truth.
95% of Doctors treat their patients correctly but big Pharma has other more expensive drugs they want to hook you on like lyrica & zanax &Gabapentin (Neurontin).
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2020/3/6/being-taken-off-methadone-is-inhumane
No I don’t use pharma drugs just a little edibile MMJ now & then for sciatica.
The DR. needs a go fund me site.
And about those drugs tests there are the cheap ones the clinics use and there are the real ones sent to sacramento, the cheap ones are often incorrect.
Patrick Kennedy is one of the let’s terrorize Dr’s. crew. The rest of the crew can be found at the link above.
They also want to make Kratom illegal.
[edit] Not everyone who takes pain medication is a junkie, Judgey McJudgerson
Thank you.
Thank you
You have No Idea what you are talking about. And just that type of ignorance is contributing to the torture of millions if Americans that have had their life sustaining medications taken away by politicians trying to appease a few. I have been on what they consider high dose for close to 30 years and i am doing fine. Not asking for or needing stronger dose. I do hope you never develope an illness or have an accident that you will need pain mgt. You will see that your statment is without merit. Thank you
You are an idiot, talking about something you know nothing about, but yet you know what should be done, just like the government. How many years have you gone to medical school ? How many years have you practiced medicine? You have know way of knowing what is happening to the chronic pain patient. It’s so bad out here now they won’t write a script for any pain situation. So she has 5 patients that have chronic pain, and are living half way decent lives because of a medicine that was meant to help with pain. It gives us back part of our lives. It takes away a part of our pain. Not all of it. We don’t get high on it like the addicts do. We learn to live with it. Learn we will never have our life back but we might be able to get a part of it. Would you like us better just collecting disability and living in our beds all day, what’s wrong with you. Let us have our lives back. We weren’t hurting anyone. You didn’t even know we existed .
Methadone works too.
You sound so ignorant? I pry you never have to deal with chronic pain on a daily basis or see a loved one suffer with it. The people who truly suffer with chronic pain and have been on meds a long time with not one single problem or showing any sign of addiction are paying for the drug addicts and it’s not fair!! The dea are doing wrong by this!! And the cdc said this crack down wasn’t even ment for long time chronic pain patients!!!
Prohibition does NOT work
Your crazy I am a chronic pain patient who has been on 2 different pain meds for well over 25 years on high dose .I was born with painful diseases . so I guess I should go to rehab get out of here .I also have one year left on this earth.
Suicides by chronic and acute pain patients are rising quickly. We know nothing about the diagnosis of these patients but we do know when a patient has a devastatingly life long condition that causes pain, they will probably be poor. Taking CPP off of their medications that they take as prescribed lowers there quality of life, lowers their functioning and ability to take care of their daily living needs. It’s unfortunate the public is so unaware of all the devastating conditions that can cause chronic pain. Opioids are not the problem when prescribed. It’s fentanyl , heroine, and meth. All street drugs.
The DEA has no business interfering with the doctor/patient relationship. Which is sacred.
Correction: It’s illicit fentanyl analogs, Heroin, and meth
Rx fentanyl is getting lumped in, but it is actually very safe when used properly
You may well be one accident or one illness away from suffering just a portion of what some of these people suffer daily. Imagine screaming, crying out in agony every day laying in bed not abel to get up for almost two entire years!! This is the face of untreated intractable pain. Praying for it to end but wanting to live! You should feel it for a day! Trying to find a doctor to give the life restoring medication ;then to hear you (apparently arent addicted)…I dont know why they wont prescribe!! Pure torture living in undertreated or untreated cronic pain.
All because of addicts and the (you will get addicted lie!)
You are saying that damaged nerves miraculously go back to normal if one tapers off the meds? I suffered for years before being offered hydrocodone. After 12 years it shouldn’t work…,according to the experts, but it does.
THIS IS TO JESUS..IT’S OBVIOUS YOU DON’T HAVE A CLUE WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT. WHEN YOU SUFFER FROM CHRONIC PAIN IT MEANS SEVERE PAIN 24 HOURS A DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK…IT NEVER STOPS..UNDERSTAND ?? HOW LONG COULD YOU HANDLE IT ? RIGHT NOW IN THIS COUNTRY 100 MILLION PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY AND COMMITTING SUICIDE. THE GOVERNMENT HAS TAKEN AWAY MEDICATION FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER,PAINFUL DISEASES AND INJURIES,SOMETIMES THE ONLY THING THAT CAN BE DONE IS CONTROL THE PAIN..IS THAT SO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND? DON’T YOU THINK IF EVERYONE TAKING PAIN MEDICATION WAS A ADDICT,WE WOULD JUST HIT THE STREETS AND FIND A DRUG ? OPIOIDS ARE MEDICATION,NOT FOR ADDICTS TO GET HIGH..NEXT TIME THINK BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR [edit] MOUTH,MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING.
You paying for all this “accessible” inpatient rehab…???? This alone disqualifies your statements.
Unless you have an MD after your name, which you obviously don’t by the ignorant content of your response, you really should quit giving advice.
“My life will be improved” hmmmm !????
I’m female 60 years young. Profession: landscaper, groundskeeper, tree trimmer/remover. I’m a CCP since 1996 when one doc butchered me badly at a c/section. And another to do a reconstructed surgery for 8 hrs! I’ve been lowered my meds 85% thanks to this opioid crisis and can now only get out of a laying down position for 3 hrs straight. I have to time my out of house businesses, cuz around after 2 1/2 hr I experience pain w uncontrollably muscle spasm in legs and back and will need to lay down. Then Wait til it mellows out andthat mostly takes hours. I love to have enough meds for my whole 24 hours in a day but no !!!! that is now impossible!! I’m glad I’m older but I feel for young folks w pain problems. If I were them I move out of USA. So don’t say -my life will be improved!!!! I’m now only work 2 hr shifts when I usually worked 6 a day!
I’ve been of medication now for 2yrs. I exist. 80% of the time I spend in bed or on the couch. Not any quality of life. I guess I’m lucky I can sneak a bath in on low pain days. I have everything to live for and desire to participate in life. Not watch it pass by. I don’t cry anymore it does help anything. I’m not one of her patients but I am just like one of the 4. Try a day in my life
Jesus, Chris
Your comment is ignorance at its best.
Intractable pain patients with diseases like Trigeminal neuralgia, CRPS, Ehlers Danlos syndrome, Adhesive arachnoiditis, and Cancer just to name a few often require higher than normal amounts of pain medication.
What about people who metabolize their medication differently and need more pain medication than others ?
We’re not all genetically the same so we need individualized treatment. These 5 intractable pain
patients are about as much addicts as you are Einstein.
You seriously need to do some research instead of trying to speak upon a subject you know so little about.
Who are you? I noticed you didn’t have the courage to state your name. But you felt the need to bash this doctor who in my book deserves a medal for courage and going beyond the call of duty. SHE DIDN’T ABANDONED PATIENTS!!! She realizes the dangers of doing so.
[edit] My husband was.on extremely high doses of opioids. He started them, at very low doses, 40 years ago. You do build up a tolerance. If not for the pain medication, he would have committed suicide years ago.
I hate judgmental people like you. Maybe, you ought to walk a hundred feet in a chronic pain patients shoes. [edit]
You are obviously most fortunate because it is clear you dont have a clue what pain really feels like.
Some patients don’t need need to increase dosage over time. Genetic polymorphism, congenital malabsorption, or a number of other diagnoses (often rare ones) might cause a patient to legitimately benefit from a stable high dose of opioid medication.
It can be discrimination on the basis of perceived disability – which is against the law – to refer a patient to addiction treatment when that patient does not meet diagnostic criteria for addiction. Addiction diagnosis requires 2 or more criteria. Most pain patients meet only one: withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly (which happens with many medications).
Pain management with high-dose opioid medication is indeed a risky type of medicine. There are cases where that risk is warranted. Cases where every other therapy (and combo) has already failed. The ~10% failure statistics from interdisciplinary pain rehab programs. Cases of rare genetic disease where no other treatments exist yet, only palliation.
With that palliation, people with horrific medical conditions can lead as close to a normal life as possible. Risks/benefit calculations – such as determination of maximum acceptable dose – should never be attempted by a state agency for a whole population.
Faster tapering is contraindicated by evidence. Studies show, while there is some correlation between high dose and high risk, DESTABILIZING a patient who is functioning well on a stable dose INCREASES risk.
That’s the riskiest medicine of all.
Reese thank you for your post, you on the other hand KNOW what you are talking about! Thanks again!
Chris Jesus, you have an opinion based on your own experience. I have a very different experience. I fell ill with ME/CFS thirty years ago. Before I became ill, I had never imagined that pain on that level existed. I went to bed feeling normal and woke up crippled by pain, barely able to walk ten feet. I thought back then that this illness would go away but autoimmune diseases don’t go away. Over the years I have tried everything but the pain is only managed by “demon opioids.” Reading your comment that all pain patients taking pain meds should go to rehab is strikingly ignorant. I am not addicted. I tapered down to a very low dose without any rehab or detox or 12 steps. That is because I am a pain patient, not an addict. Addiction is a disease of compulsion, we all know people who drink alcohol and don’t become addicted but a few poor souls do become addicted. It’s the same with pain medications, some become addicted, studies show that less than 1% of pain patients become addicted to their medications. That leaves 99% of the population suffering should these meds be banned. Suffering to make folks like you “feel better” about those terrible opioids. Not for their own benefit.
When I had enough meds to control the pain I was able to do things. I went to events and socialized woth friends. I did easy yoga, I walked in the woods, I even went to the local gym to swim and lift light weights. I had a life, not a normal life, this illness won’t allow that. But it was my life and I was doing pretty well trying to be as strong as possible. Then this “opioid epidemic” hysteria took over and I was made to taper my dose.
Now I am crippled by pain and housebound. Over the past two years I was in the hospital so many times I lost count, for GI bleeds and extremely high blood pressure. My health and stamina are ruined and it’s obvious my body can’t go on like this forever. Both the GI bleeds and the sky-high BP are caused by constant pain stress. It’s clear that you know nothing about the impact of living with intractable, constant pain. Or you wouldn’t say that chronic pain patient’s lives will improve without those “evil” pain meds.
Your life may have improved but it’s illogical and insulting to try to dictate the medical care of millions of people living with chronic pain based on your experience. How can you even think of dictating my medical care? Or the care of millions of other chronic pain patients? You don’t know all of us and see our struggles. You don’t know about our medical conditions or medical histories. Most importantly, you are not a doctor and certainly not mine. You may have good intentions but the road to chronic pain hell is paved with such good intentions by people who somehow believe they know more about treating pain than the doctors do. Know more about our health issues than we do, know “what is best for us”
With all due respect, all I want from people like you is to be left alone to live my own life. This “opioid madness” nonsense is harming and even killling a lot of disabled, medically fragile people, because unmanaged pain makes them sicker, due to the uncalled for, uninvited interference in their medical care, or because they kill themselves to escape their pain. If you don’t want to take pain medications that is obviously your right. You do not have the right to ditate what medications other people can or cannot use.
Excellent post! Your life and mine are almost exactly the same! One day I felt like a Human Being and the next day I was being treated like a drug addict! THEN I found out I am dying from emphysema, I have only a few years left, my (useless) doctor wrote a Palliative Care referral and EVEN THOUGH it states specifically in the CDC guidelines that Hospice and Palliative patients are exempt from these guidelines, I still cannot find any doctor to treat me for the extreme pain that I have even though I’m dying! All because the pain I have isn’t coming from what’s going to kill me. I have emphysema which is basically for all intensive purposes a painless disease (until the very end). So since my pain is NOT coming from the condition that is killing me they won’t treat the pain from the Degenerative Disk Disease and Severe Arthritis I DO have…
It’s just unbelievable, everything is unbelievable…
Rehab is for drug addicts, using these services in non-addicted patients is either not covered or insurance fraud
Also, these medications don’t stop working
Even once detoxed, the patient remains crippled by their untreated condition
Please expand on what your personal experience is so that we can better understand why you can say with all certainty that these patients, and thousand’s of other Compliant Chronic Pain Patient’s around the country cannot be on long-term AND stable dosage of their prescribed medications. Instructing that patient’s on high dose opioid therapy should admit themselves to inpatient rehab and “learn to live” when they have clearly been maintaining a relationship with their physician and compliant with their medications, simply only makes sense for the self-medicating, Dr shopping addicts that Dr. Kolodny drools over. Believing you can actually assess the medical necessity of any pain patient without actually knowing their full medical history is pure ignorance. It’s called “pain management” because they realize the concept is to manage their pain, try to keep it at a tolerable level that allows them to have increased function and the ability to be active participants in their lives. Sadly, the collective is far more concerned with those who are illicit drug users, the one’s who aren’t the least bit interested in giving up the “high” they are chasing. Those who are in true, intractable pain don’t have euphoric feelings from the medication. Maybe it’s because they’re taking the medications for the actual purpose they were intended. Becoming an addict is a process that requires thought and action, repeat.
And what exactly is your professional title? Are you even a medical professional? Are you an “addiction/rehab specialist”, a pharmacist practicing medicine without a license better yet a “self-proclaimed expert”? Unless you have personally evaluated and treated the patients in question, you have absolutely no business diagnosing or pushing your “treatment plan” for them! Why do all of you anti-opioid zealots think that your bias driven, non-fact based opinions should be forced upon legitimate, diagnosed chronic/intractable pain patients instead of scientific, data driven and compassionate healthcare? This Doctor is honoring her oath “First do no harm” with medically sound, compassion that keeps her patients from committing suicide due to untreated pain, using illicit drugs as their only pain management option or dying from co-morbid complications (endocrine disjunction, cardiac arrhythmia, stroke, hypertension etc.). Maybe you should focus more on your personal biases, rather than labeling legitimate patients as addicts and advising physicians who are safely treating TREIR patients with evidence based, appropriate and compassionate healthcare!
I agree!! She is one of a few good doctors that remember the oath they took to “do no harm”. I applaud her!!! Whatever she needs I will support her. She is 100% correct on the suicide heroine issue. I’m an Army nurse and I’ve seen it prevalent among active duty and retired vets. It’s pitiful. We’re talking amputees. Severe TBI’s, critical wounds. It’s beyond ridiculous. Let’s tackle Antifa and then talk about how to continue to help chronic pain patients instead of kill them.
Rehab?? Do you know anything about these patients or why they are being treated? Possibly that they have severe injuries or disabilities and suffer every day intolerable pain unless they have pain medication to help them have quality of life. It’s people like you that have been blessed to be healthy that puss me off. You need an education. Obviously you know nothing about medicine .
You obviously have not cared for a chronically ill patient with severe chronic pain. I am that person. Ironically I have a 30 year old disabled adult dependent who was addicted to pain medications and fought the battle against his craving for additional highs. He is one of the fortunate ones. He is 2 years clean. He went into Rehab 3 times before he was strong enough and determined enough to be done with that lifestyle. It was horrible for him but his addiction was also horrible for my Chronic Illness. I managed to become stable with a great Doctor and the right combination of medications. Unfortunately I was forced off of the two medications that helped me best. I had been on them for 6 years but the government decided that my Dr. did not know how to treat her patient (me) correctly and threatened her license. I am now bedbound from pain that could be treated, but that treatment is denied to me due to illicit drug use by addicts and illicit drug users. This is just plain wrong and so harmful to people who are not addicts and are in pain.
Omg what medical school did you attend???!!! Over 50 million Veterans and non veterans are being harmed forced taken off our prescription pain medicine. We HAD productive life’s. We went to school, worked, volunteered grandkids activities now we are bedridden. Millions and millions of people with painful diseases painful illness were on same RXs same dose for 10,15 20 plus years. Narcotic opiate opioid are NOT bad words it’s addicts when they chase that chase they scam steal and lie. The CDC put FALSE numbers in the 2016 guide lines that have harmed so many . The DEA needs Congressional Hearings they are putting good Doctors in jail.
This coming from someone that has never had chronic pain. You could never indure the pain I & others have had to live with!!! Please STOP talking about something you know nothing about except what you read!
Not all knowledge comes from books or false news.
It always amazes me that doctors only look at getting patients off narcotics while forgetting or not carrying why they were put on them in the first place. If a patient has real pain and that is what these drugs were designed for why would you completely remove anyone from a pain plan. Its great if you go to rehab and come off narcotics but something must replace it.
It’s interesting to me how many are fine with Marijuana while it being federally unlawful.
You are wrong there is a lot of supporting g evidence that long term opiates can be successful. I do not belong in rehab, I deserve to have my pain treated so I can be a productive person in society. I was on the same medication for 24 years had a job raised my kids alone. Took care of grandchildren and boom your medication is gone. And I have tried everything out there injections, nerve ablations, spinal cord stimulator and on and on. And let’s not forget the 47 different medications I suffered through. Many making me very I’ll and one landing me in the hospital. Until you have walked in a chronic pain patients body then we will see what you say. I just had a leg amputated, Tylenol and ibuprofen for pain! I suffered it was barbaric! I just cannot explain to you what it’s like to be in pain all the time.
As long as they aren’t acting as a pill mill, ala doctors in Florida in the mid 00’s, let the doctors treat their patients. Nobody can declare a one size fits all tapering schedule. They should focus on doctors that are starting new patients on opiates and leave the longterm users to sort it out between doctor and patient.
She runs pain groups and gets people off opiates, she is no pill mill. Anyone who knows her, and she’s got so much support from both the medical community (doctors, etc…) and the general community, knows that she’s always looking out for her patients and their welfare, often at her own expense. She is the most amazing doctor and does not deserve this. She should get awards, commendations, and accolades for the work she is doing, not this nasty bullshit.
Dr. Basch was my doctor when I lived in Humboldt County. She helped me get off of lorazepam after being on it for 20 years, subscribed by a different dr. Everything you said about her is true. I’ll never find another doctor like her. I support her 100 percent and am so sorry she has to go through this.
It took me over a year after tapering to 90MME’s to feel normal. I had anxiety for the first time. I remain in chronic pain. White knuckle 6 hours a day. Barbaric ! — I can see how this this fight against legitimate pain Patients instead of addicts ends up forcing people to illicit drugs.
This is an OUTRAGE. A real doctor being victimized by idiot bureaucrats.
Is that Doctor Give Them More?
Connie is a extraordinary physician. What about all her other patients? I’m so sorry to see what she’s going through. And then we have the government’s new drug. Suboxone. Which is also addictive. What a farce. I don’t want the government into my health care, and directing with my care provider can treat me for, or what they treat me with.
Bobo
Have you ever had an abscess tooth and taken a couple vicoden to get through the weekend till the dentist could pull it?
Not anymore!
I have 4 diseases that cannot be cured and my options are being limited because of the government’s restrictions of those who went before me abusing pain meds.., I call BS. Why should I be bed ridden now to pay for their abuse.
I have MS, Degenerative and Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and equivocal Lymes disease and My ‘Dr’ wants to cut me off? That’s just wrong. I do believe I should have a choice just like Hospice patients because I cannot live like this for long because this isn’t living.
It’s suffering. This needs to be judged on a case by case, individual basis.
I wish she was my Dr or that mine would stand up for me.
You can’t expect that no one should be prescribed pain meds. If I was a dog, at least someone could put me down.
Truer words have not been spoken! I have everything that you do, as well as Crohn’s disease (they removed 13 feet of my intestines) PTSD from losing my 15yo son, chronic pancreatitis, Lupus, have had 2 strokes and now seizures and they want my gabapentin, norcos and Ativan even though I was able to run 2 business, bookkeeping to cashiering, without any trouble. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! This is what works for ME as a chronic pain patient… Good luck to you ✌🏼💪🏼
Connie is a wonderful doctor, knowledgeable about so many possible solutions to any given health problem. She has been my doctor for many years and I treasure that she is in this county, especially since doctors are few and several have just left! Hundreds of patients have written letters about her spotlessly ethical care. Seems a little hoaxy to me——- an effort to “do something” by government, no matter the cost.
Is there no attorney with a conscience and a friend or relative in pain who is willing to step up in this case?
Attorneys are required to do some pro bono work from time to time are they not? This is the TIME!!!
This is the kind of doctor we all may need. Anyone can find themself in intractible pain. I am sickened that she is facing this without a lawyer
She’s not my doctor but I do live a life of pain I’m sure willing to contribute to an attorney for her
( actually her patience ) defense
“Attorneys are required to do some pro bono work from time to time are they not?”
Answer: No.
The mere idea or expectation of forcing anyone working in a given profession to work for zero compensation epitomizes the lameness of so many Humboldt people.
She sounds like a legit healer. On a personal level Kratom and CBD have helped me immensely with chronic lower back pain, and other temporary injuries.
I wonder how many people need surgery and won’t go to the doctors because of fear of the potential of no treatment for pain?
If you’re on medicare or medical it keeps the medical costs down for the government now doesn’t it.
I know of 20 people at this moment. Not willing to be put in agonizing pain.
I am one of those im 70
She turned my mother in law into a morphine addict, and she didn’t even have any pain 🤨 She also turned my infant away for us being literally a few minutes late to our appointment, we decided to take him to the ER and was told if we waited 3 days until our new appointment, my son would have died from dehydration caused by gastronitice. 🤬
Your mother allowed herself to become an addict. If she didn’t have any pain why would she even start taking a pain med? Sounds like you’ve got an ax to grind and are doing it to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Also, you SHOULD have taken your son to the ER, a doctor cannot treat dehydration in an office. Please!
I’m sure there is much more to that story that yur spewing! [edit]
Your mother had the CHOICE to become an addict! Did the doctor strap her down and shove the pills down her throat? It’s way past time for addicts to accept some personal responsibility!!
How very transparent of you to openly declare “she turned your MIL into a MS04 addict”! This is very clear u have a very limited knowledge of healthcare in general so l will attempt to educate you! Yur MIL of her own free will visited Connie & after a detailed hi of her past & present complaints suggests yur MIL try x,y,z! She returns to her 4 f/u care & when asked she declares that x,y,z are ineffective! Dr Connie then suggests with yur MIL consent that she try another non narcotic analgesic & yur MIL is fully on board! Another f/u visit is scheduled & yur MIL continues to suffer so after giving informed consent meaning the benefits & risks are thoroughly explained regarding low dose MS04 with both parties understanding risk/benefit thoroughly! Yur MIL is most likely titrated to a dose that’s conducive to improve her quality of life & F/u appts continue & close monitoring for possible unwanted SE are maintained! Yur MIL most likely was doing very well & the bond between the Dr/ pt relationship is maintained through honestly, trust & empathy! Any1 of an average IQ would understand that the pt would not go back under the strict rules that now ensue over pain mgmt! No one made yur MIL a “MSo4 addict”! I’m guessing through yur alledged criticism equating to slandering of this fine Dr that u haven’t a clue what the difference between dependence & a “MSO4 addict” is! Dependence is expected on most drugs depending on the specific drug, the length of time on the medication p, & adherence to the medication! Withdrawals will occur basically with most drugs & need to be tapered off opposed to being cold turkeyed 2 soften the w/d symptoms! Basically w/d symptoms do not indicate addiction! The second nugget u need to know is less than .6% of pts using rx analgesics develop an addiction when they r monitored & taken as rx’d! Finally addiction is a brain disease meaning u must be predisposed to this disease! 99.5% of ppl that r rx’d them & taken as directed will never addict!! Shocker! As far as yur child the whole scenario is just a mothers hysteria with zero basis to back it up! I have a strong feeling u have an ax to grind withvDrxConniecso u confabulation yur so called experiences to slander her when right now needs support that unable to offer due to yur extreme anger! What actually happened we will never know but how about this 4 speculation! U go in as a pt to be evaluated by Dr Connie c/o back pain u request MSO4 , request denied as Dr Connie feels u can benefit from a non narcotic analgesia & you are appalled bc u feel yur pain is worse than yur MIL! It all comes out in the wash! Case closed!
I’ve had surgeries at St Joe, and in my experience, they aren’t shy with pain meds. I had my own button for morphine drip, and was prescribed a lot of pain pills to take at home. I’m not a pill person so I didn’t use them. I was glad they were prescribed in case I would’ve had pain. If I were a person that’s into pill popping, I think they gave me enough to get hooked.
Even when I had an IUD put in, way in the past, they sent me home with a giant bottle of Percocet, and a refillable unlimited prescription. I had a 6 month old baby, and I was 21 yrs old! I never took even 1 of those pills, but looking back, if I had been into it, I could’ve gotten unwittingly hooked for life.
Pain meds work well when you are in pain, and it would be awful to suffer unnecessarily. Also, it would be awful to be addicted.
Not true at all ..see people only read and Beleive what they want I am on 2 different pain meds for well over 20 years and guess what I’m not addicted ..i don’t have to have them I don’t take them everyday
Glad you take responsibility for your issues. Chances of getting addictions when in intractable pain are low. Many people in hospitals are giving morphine IV and don’t addict. If pain is aggressively treated in the beginning for healing and comforting no need for LOT.
Pain killers work. Such a sensitive issue. They also completely toast your liver and brain. Most people who have been chronic users of pain relievers are eventually barred from using them. Once people are barred from using due to high enzyme levels in their liver, there is no tapering. Quit cold turkey or die of liver failure. Pain killers are a deal with the devil, he’ll come for your soul eventually.
It’s NOT the opioids that effect the liver or kidneys. The acetaminophen (Tylenol) mixed with the opioids is what irreversibly damages the liver and the kidneys are damaged by anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen, aspirin, Aleve, Advil) as well as increased risk for heart attacks. The fact that all that chronic pain patients are allowed to use anymore is Tylenol/NSAIDS, is causing much more organ damage to them with little to no pain relief.
So that’s why your liver still gets tested for 10ml ms contins and 60ml time release morphines? The majority of high milligram pain medications have 0 Tylenol in them. That’s reserved for Vicodin, and some Percocet. They don’t test your liver for Vicodin usually, they just remove you from it, or move you onto something heavier and then start testing your liver. They shouldn’t be used for a lifetime, just a short time. They work really well, but the longer you use them, the more apt you are to experience the dark side of those medications. Use at your own risk, even if your doc prescribes them, evaluate if you need them or if you can just tough it out. Just remember, we all have to play the burning cards we deal.
MSContin contains no Tylenol, it also never came in a liquid (ML) or harms your liver at any dose. [edit]
Your reply really doesn’t make sense. I never said MSContin contained acetaminophen. I was referring to Vicodin/Percocet etc. as well as the fact that most docs refuse to prescribe opioids and tell you to take or alternate acetaminophen and NSAIDS. These two OTC meds are extremely hard on the liver, kidneys and heart and gastrointestinal system. Chronic use of them, as the only available treatment for pain is extremely hard on multiple body systems. Not to mention the risk of developing Stevens-Johnson Syndrome with NSAID use. After taking Ibuprofen for years, I developed this extremely painful, often fatal reaction. Google it and look at the pics. I was in the ICU for 6 weeks, on a ventilator and can never use any type of NSAID again or I will die. Acetaminophen and NSAIDS are just as dangerous and have just as many side effects as prescribed opioid medications do. It depends on the patient. Every patient is different and our medical care should reflect that. If you’re so concerned with MSContin, don’t use it!
Opioids do not harm your liver, that’s Tylenol (which is in Percocet and Vicodin to prevent abuse).
Opioids do not harm your brain, in fact JFK ran the country on opioids
John F. Kennedy’s Pain Story: From Autoimmune Disease To Centralized Pain (WayBack Machine, pdf) http://bit.ly/JFKwbmPDF
More people die from NSAIDs every year than all Rx opioids combined
More people die from acetaminophen (aka paracetamol, Tylenol) alone every year than all Rx opioids combined
The reason you had a PCA was because it’s proven that patients use less with that method. Maybe you don’t realize that the machine isn’t unlimited. It has a lockout for maximum dose that the doctor permits you.
You can’t have an unlimited number and refill on Percoset. It’s a controlled substance. You have to return to the doctor after a few months. The bottle is only filled with what your maximum amount per month would be.
What would you have done for pain if you suddenly had it between appointments? Your doctor trusted that you are like 98% of the population and don’t take anything that you don’t actually need. He trusted you on that. Was he wrong to trust you?
If what yur stating is truthful, a version of this may be partially true but that was so many years ago & pain was the 5th vital sign so the pendulum swung too far now it’s swinging way too far in the other direction! The other important nugget that you apparently are not aware of is that addiction is a brain dx meaning u have to be predisposed to addiction! 99.5% of ppl with an active rx when taken as rx’d are fine ! The remaining ppl need to be monitored closely but that doesn’t mean their pain can’t be treated! Yur story may be partially true but my guess is it’s mostly confabulation! #factsmatter
Percocet is a CII and refills are illegal
IUDs are incredibly painful for some people and undertreatment of that pain is a big problem
I’d put money of your whole story being bull$4!t
I had an infection down in my root canal. I was in major major pain. I was told to trade of between Tylenol and Advil. I don’t know how I lived through it. This is what is going on. Wake up America. No meds to the wounded vets coming home after fighting you you and me. No more meds for cancer patients, end of life patients. Who cares if they get hooked? We know they wouldn’t. Just using their ridiculous philosophy. People coming out of surgery sent home with Tylenol. But the worst is the 50 million chronic pain patients that did not cause any trouble being turned away. After 10, 15, 20 plus years of taking their meds responsibly, being treated like criminals. Their doctors and pharmacist being treated like drug pushers.
You may well be one accident or one illness away from suffering just a portion of what some of these people suffer daily. Imagine screaming, crying out in agony every day laying in bed not abel to get up for almost two entire years!! This is the face of untreated intractable pain. Praying for it to end but wanting to live! You should feel it for a day! Trying to find a doctor to give the life saving medication that helps control the pain so you can get up out of bed to live; then to hear ” oh you (apparently arent addicted)…I dont know why they wont prescribe!!” Pure torture living in undertreated or untreated cronic pain.
All because of addicts that use illegal drugs and the (you will get addicted lie!)
Stop the torture of legitimate cronic pain patients!
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it
Portugal’s radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
Since it decriminalised all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime. By Susana Ferreira
Jesus Chris Where did your pain go when you got off the drugs you now condemn?? Or did you really ever have any pain ??
WHERE DOES THE PAIN GO..????????
You learn to live with it. A focused mind that has learned how to mitigate its own pain is a far more effective tool in this world than a clouded mind that relies on substance for survival. People deal with pain in different ways. Some choose pills, others choose focus. Once you realize your body is just a vessel, a biological, intergalactic space suit if you will, you realize pain is just a warning system that lets you know when your biological suit is being damaged. True pain is when you are receiving actual damage to yourself, discomfort is what the majority of us have. Once you learn how to distinguish true pain from discomfort, living with discomfort becomes much easier, which is what 99% of us actually have.
Good for you! Keep “focusing” your “discomfort” away and let our physicians treat those of us with legitimate pain with medical care that is between us and them. Your condescending, self-righteous attitude is obviously all you need.
When a doctor sees a patient and diagnoses an illness, what gives bureaucrats the right to interfere in the treatment process? Have they examined the patient? Do they have any information whatsoever upon which to act? In actuality, they are guilty of the false practice of medicine and general incompetence.
Dr. Basch is a fine medical doctor.
What is happening to her is plain wrong!
I suffer from chronic pain due to a very serious progressive disease.
If my pain is not managed, it is life in a wheelchair for me.
Which is cheaper for the US government?
A 24-hr. a day nursing home (which is where I will end up) or a solitary pill every day?
You read that right, a solitary, as in ONE, pill a day, so I can still live a life that would be otherwise not livable.
Frankly, I’d quickly become a sad statistic I fear!
There is no way that a doctor prescribed something as potent as morphine for a patient who reported no pain. The doctor didn’t fill that prescription or spike her coffee with it.
Other patients need to be seen. Their time and conditions are just as important as yours. Be considerate of them. Show up on time.
No, she isn’t giving those patients “more pills” in the way that you are speaking of. She is helping the “legacy” patients that have been all but abandoned by the very physician’s that may have originally been the physician that was originally managing their pain in the first place. Just the fact that these patients were on high dose opioids doesn’t mean that their care was mismanaged or that they were over-prescribed these medications by their previous doctor either. They have diagnosis’ of some of the most painful conditions that exist! For whatever reason, their original physician retired, moved, whatever the reason, etc. These patients – who have done nothing wrong – have now been left with no doctor and no prospects of finding a new doctor once they are asked when trying to secure an appointment with a new doctor if they are prescribed opioids by their previous doctor – when they answer – yes – they are unceremoniously dumped by the prospective “new” doctor because the new office is not accepting any new patients who have chronic pain, or they are told if they do accept them as a patient that not to ask for any opioid pain medication because that doctor will not treat your pain. They are on high doses of opioids and benzo’s, all stable for decades or longer. These people work, take care of their children, their pets. They are on these medications because they need them to be able to continue to work and provide for their families. These people are are now called “legacy” patients. These “legacy” patients are also not addicts!! According to the CDC, an estimated 20.4% (50.0 million) of U.S. adults had chronic pain and 8. 0% of U.S. adults (19.6 million) had high-impact chronic pain, with higher prevalences of both chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain reported among women, older adults. Many “legacy” patients are who the CDC is talking about in their count of 50 million chronic pain patients in the U.S. This Dr. Bausch has been the one physician who is helping these abandoned patients and now she is being criminally charged! People should be outraged and rushing to action to help this doctor who actually has character, compassion, and is truly altruistic, instead of assuming the worst of her. She has taken over their care and is supervising it with compassion and concern for their safety and long term health. People that are “force” tapered too rapidly by their physician’s are at a very high risk to develop active addictions to illicit heroin/fentanyl and many end up sadly overdosing and losing their lives due to a physician’s irresponsible handling of their again “forced” taper of their prescription opiate pain medication that the particular patient has been stable on for usually more than a decade! The real drug problem in these United States is the traffic of illicit heroin and illicit fentanyl (a synthetic version of fentanyl that has absolutely nothing to do with the safe prescription version of fentanyl that is used by many chronic pain sufferers). The trafficking of those 2 illicit substances are what people are overdosing on and dying. Pharmaceutical Opioids are not what people are overdosing on. Chronic pain patients who take long term opioid therapy have an addiction rate of less than 2%! 50 million chronic pain patients in the United States are being stripped of their legal prescription pain medication as the wrong reaction to the illicit drug trade rages on. We all need help. Drug addicts are now receiving the help they need and the chronic pain patients are glad that is happening. Now the CPP’s (chronic pain patients) need help too. They need their lives back now! They aren’t addicts, they haven’t broken any laws but they are being treated like common criminals. Forced to take drug screens, and submit to surprise pill counts. We all need to stand up for our rights! #painpatientsvote
Folks, the response here is about what I expected, but remember:
I am not the one trying to pry those “life giving” pain pills from your fingers! The prohibitionist, parochial and religious zealots in your beloved government are responsible for the witch-hunt!
I tried to tell you, these drugs are addictive, and you have to enlist in the army of pain management patients to get them at all!
YOU, have to beg, borrow, wheedle and plea for these drugs, and, you have to make a deal with the devil: the medico/pharmaceutical/regulatory industry, in order to maintain your new habit!
IMO, this sucks completely because YOU hand over control to doctors and the government!
All drugs should be legal, all pharmaceuticals should be over the counter, and, you should be able to purchase any amount, even lethal amounts, if you so desire!
What is the difference between 100 proof vodka, 151 rum, and narcotic pain killers anyway?
Why is one available, and the other controlled by doctors?
I advocate sobriety, self-control, and manifesting the advocacy of self-dertermined healthcare… How do YOU want things to be?
It 100% sucks that government interferes with professional providers, but, there is so much fraud, so many bad doctors, and such poor care dispensed by “mid-level” practitioners, and, so many attorneys waiting to levy blame and awards, so, what are we to do?
It’s a simple problem, just make medication available to all, and, if you want a professional and one is available and affordable, well that’s an option…
Hospitals will be standing by to clean up the mess, 24/7, because it’s such a great business…
None of what you said is factually accurate
From way I read article she was tapering slower than board wanted. LTOT requires individualized taper. No Board can direct a taper schedule , each patient differs. One size does NOT FIT ALL in pain mgt and taper. God help our doctors and pain patients.
There are many who posted who are ignorant of importance of not tapering too quickly. Research studies are showing weekly that rapid tapers have high mortality rates. Check them , inform yourself prior to being critical of a Dr trying to save lives of patients who had no Dr to rx for them. Pain can happen to any of us via auto accident, failed surgery. onser of disease, virus, and no patient ever wishes to live this life. We need to lstand up and have governor who appoints these board members investigate their frivolous action. We have current shortage of pain physicians and it will worsen as this behavior continues.Be careful if you are being critical of Dr. You may be stricken at anytime and wish you had a doctor. Hospital administrators and government have reduced our doctors to data entry clerks. As example, physicians who treat pain are being directed by administrators with highly inflated salaries and who have no compassion for patients in unceasing pain caused by failed surgeries. Don’t head to large well known healthcare known nationally and worldwide. I’ve had failed surgeries by their surgeons and managed by pain clinics. Injections, every med possible with severe life treating adverse effects of anti inflammatory meds. 2 continuous years PT. They stated I would have to take meds to maintain quality of life. Now, under pressure from Administration , they are forced to abandon me. This is the life of a real patient who has paid $$$$$ out of pocket. I would think these people are so fortunate to have a Dr. Who cares. STAND UP FOR HER. SUPPORT HER. YOU MAY NEED HER AT TIME YOU LEAST EXPECT. FEW ARE LEFT.
I was abandoned a week after receiving my 3 month refill. It took me a year to self-taper off 300mcg/hr Duragesic and 20mg oxymorphone q4h. The end of the taper was hell. I am no longer a PTO board member, I no longer run the summer reading & feeding program, I no longer volunteer at my local food bank, I now spent the vast majority of my day in bed waiting for unconsciousness. And, my neurosurgeon REALLY wants me to have surgery for my brain cancer… I don’t have the heart to tell him how I really feel about extending my life as is.
I have a spinal implant that used to help, but now…
I was hit by a car and recieved a fractured femur neck and severely broken arm after a total hip replacement I was sent home with my arm in a sling still severely broken and looked for a doctor for two and a half months before I was seen by a trauma doctor who put a plate and fourteen screws in my arm.I was given narcos for the pain and had to drug test after the first month to get any more…the pain 24 7 is unbearable and believe me no pill took it away…but it did knock it down.i go to sleep crying and I wake up crying, everyday.If I was denied those pills I would have killed myself, believe me. The constant agonising pain I feel daily will subside soon I hope,but I thank my nurse practishoner for recognizing my need and going to bat for me with my Dr. She saved my life. Unless you live with constant pain ,mind your own business or shut the f up!
The bottom line:
In the United States of America, the Dr. prescribes appropriate treatment for his/her patients. Drug addicts, i.e. snorters, shooters, eaters
of heroiin, cocaine, ketamin, etc, etc, need massive help; not to go to rehab 1,2,3 times, etc. but true help as outlined in the book OPIUM.
An outstanding book by two physicians who address the entire issue of opioids for pain (yes) and practical approach to treat drug addiction.
There are addicts in every line of work, including physicians and nurses, but throwing the baby out with the bottle is plain stupid and ignorant.
68 yrs old, 2 hip replacements, 2 total shoulder joint replacements, cervical spine surgery, and the arhtritis continues to eat away at my body, including my finger joints and now knees. Noone should make policy in these United States about pain treatment who doesn’t walk in the shoes of chronic pain sufferers. Take politics our of medicine.
[…] Give them hell Doctor Basch! […]
[…] Doctor Declines State’s Offer In Battle Over Opioid Tapering Ethics – Redheaded Blackbelt […]
I’ve been on a personal rampage myself the last couple weeks ( really it’s been since the God awful 2016 CDC Guidelines.
I hope very individual who has in any way supported forced tapering and defended the actions of DEA lives with excruciating pain for the rest of their life or has to watch their child or spouse live under these conditions.
Its disgusting that these torturous, inhumane guidelines have caused to much death and destruction. The ca. Med board needs to prove, that good patients that take hi doses of opioids will turn to heroin just to get loaded. First of all, pain patients dont get loaded from thier medications. THEY TAKE AS DIRECTED! Not one person that took thier opioid pain relievers as directed ever overdosed or dies. NOT ONE! Force tapering onlybrings back the severe pain they were in before taking thier medicine. Now millions are living in crippling pain, with no support from thier doctors. Many have taken thier lives because the pain is just too menacing. The ca board .must be filled with PROP DRS that believe responsible opioid prescribing means zero opioids. THAT IS TERRIBLE THINKING. NOT ONE PAIN MGT DR IS EVER COUNCELED ON HOW AND WHEN TO PRESCRIBE. THE TAPER GUIGELINES ARE JUST MADE UP BY DRS THAT HAVE NO VLUE. THE PENDULLUM HAS SWUNG WAY TO FAR. THE O LY WAY A PAIN PATIENT MIGHT.GO TOHEROIN AND THE ARE CO.PLETELY CUT OFF. BUT EVEN THEN THEYLL LAY IN BED IN PAIN ALL DAY HOPING NOT TO WAKE UP.
Any opiate exposure, prescribed or illicit, while it never “causes addiction” will ‘trigger’ it for 4 out of 1000 so exposed because of their genetic predisposition to hyper-respond in the reward center. This TRUE ADDICTION is a serious issue needing medical help.
SO, …996 in 1000 will NEVER addict.
Simply withdrawing, …is not evidence of addiction of any kind.