Pain Management & Addiction Understood

Letter to Ephesians: I’m going to go out on a limb & argue today’s too common “pain management” with potent drugs, esp. narcotics, is the sissy way out & if it results in addiction, is far worse than the good it does. My doc agrees, will not prescribe a narcotic under any circumstances. Should it be the law?

There’s no need to cite here the painfully documented & researched to death ravages of narcotics addiction. And spare me a sermon on “pain” after I spent more than 30 years of my life as a migraine sufferer who nearly died from the brutal, dehumanizing pain that went along with it. Of course, there are already strict federal & state laws governing the prescription & use of controlled substances, including narcotics. And, of course, in the hours immediately following a major surgery, e.g., it’s important to keep the pain tolerable. Yet, isn’t some pain, even serious pain, part of the healing process & nature’s way of keeping us as quiet as possible during our path to recovery?

But, enough of the sermon I don’t want to get myself. Suffice it to say, one doctor maybe saved my life after having prescribed a narcotic for me as a last gasp attempt to stop the migraine pain … it did all that & more, making me feel wondrous, let alone pain free. Yet, the doc refused to refill the prescription for the obvious addiction potential involved. I went back to dealing with the suffering until a cure was mercifully found years later. Looking back, it was the best prescription I’ve ever had that wasn’t refilled.

Davd Soul