DURHAM, NC – Researchers at Duke University have discovered that a typical 30-day supply of Vicodin or Percocet has a 95.3% chance of running out between Friday at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday morning despite only taking up less than 2/7ths of the week. “We were really quite shocked at these results,” head researcher Donald Weis told reporters.
“If we were to prescribe our placebos to patients at 1-2 pills 4-6 hours apart, the distribution is equal across an entire week. When the placebos were exchanged with narcotics the laws of statistics were broken. We saw that 95.3% run out on the weekend with the majority happening Friday evening and Saturday night.”
This comes to no surprise to most primary care providers who are bombarded with narcotic refills on Friday 3:30 p.m.
Really
Yep. Friday at 4:45.
I know nothing about your specific condition or case but if you came to my ED with a spinal mass and awaiting surgery, i would treat
your pain no questions asked…
Have you actually been turned down for pain control in an ED for this condition?
I’m sorry to read about your mother. Like everything in life, it’s the 1% that ruin it for all else.
The problem with this narcotic therapy is the bodies response to all these opioids in the body. There is an upregulation of pain receptors over time. The body actual makes more pain receptors.
This mean the chronic pain patient will actually feel more pain as time and continued narcotic use persists. This means you have to take more to get relief. And the cycle continues…
Well if all this’s already known, why make the truly chronic pain patient suffer I can’t go on trips if coincides with needing to get my pain meds filled and anti-emetics filled. I hate the way the way meds make me feel. No buzz/high just tired of the pain and medications And people’s soap box rants. You no nothing about me. Patricia Williams
Have every excuse in the book. These girls that get pregnant and take drugs for back pain are 1/2 my age. I have never taken a narcotic for anything. Don’t believe in it.
I still have 100% of the last narcotic prescription that I was given two years ago.
Lynn Rose
Sure they do because they are druggies. When these druggies get pregnant it’s very sad.
Yep.My mom is barely prescribed enough pain meds to get her through the month. I’ve seen her MRIs, her back is destroyed. She has legitimate chronic pain. If she has a bad couple days, she has to take extra pills just for breakthrough. Then she’s short at the end of the month. She fell in the bathroom one day and refused to let me take her to the ER for her pain. She said “they won’t give me anything, just send me back home, so what’s the point?” It’s sad and frustrating for those who legitimately need it.
Yep.My mom is barely prescribed enough pain meds to get her through the month. I’ve seen her MRIs, her back is destroyed. She has legitimate chronic pain. If she has a bad couple days, she has to take extra pills just for breakthrough. Then she’s short at the end of the month. She fell in the bathroom one day and refused to let me take her to the ER for her pain. She said “they won’t give me anything, just send me back home, so what’s the point?” It’s sad and frustrating for those who legitimately need it.
Shannon Hopkins- What if they are legitimately in excruciating pain? It may not kill you, but trust me you sometimes wish you were dead. (Talking serious chronic pain pts, not narcotic abusers)
It doesn’t help that I legitimately can’t take NSAIDS because of a drug interaction. I wish I didn’t have to rely on narcotics to feel normal. Not good, just normal. I wish I could pop an ibuprofen and be okay. Narcotics are a pain in the ass and make me too drowsy to function at times, but they the only thing, along with heat, to dull the pain.
It really does suck for those of us with truly painful conditions who take our meds responsibly but sometimes have bad flareups of pain, numbness & tingling, etc. I have a painful spinal cord mass awaiting surgery from a very booked Dr, one of only several in the country who will touch this condition. Sometimes the pain I’d do bad all I can do is lay on my side and cry, but as both a (now disabled) nurse and experienced pt, I know going to the hospital is useless. I seek drugs to make the pain lessen (it never completely goes away, not even with the strongest IV meds) and it never gives me a feeling of being “high”. Thanks drug abusers, for making it impossible for those who suffer to get the relief that they need .
Seriously though I had a friend who was on palliative morphine via pump ,when they they realised on Saturday that she didn’t have a enough to see her through till Monday there
Was nothing they could do !!!
I hate how these people have all these medications but since I’m a nurse, no Dr will prescribe me something short term. 4 LP’s in 5 weeks killed my back. Ibuprofen it is. Does anyone happen to know why they won’t give a nurse a short term script for mild muscle relaxer or pain pill?
Of course!
missing prescription pad.
phone call from pharmacy: “hey you didn’t happen to prescribe a ‘bag of mofine,’ right?”
#whyiwriteopioidscriptsin7dayincrements
I’ve ran many codes of withdraw patients from lortabs and ms contin who didn’t make it. The withdraw is serious which leaves us in the ED in a tough spot. That’s why they usually get enough to get them through the weekend until their own Dr can deal with them. Lessons the liability but still sucks. It’s a viscous cycle I do empathize with. I’m sure these patients didn’t have life ambitions of wanting to be addicts but it’s still frustrating all the same. One endless cycle. Very sad.
Clonidine and immodium…they’ll get through, and won’t die. They won’t die even without the meds to treat symptoms of withdrawal. Just less likely to wish they would…
Well, here is what I tell people – “40 Americans die every day from narcotic overdose (usually accidental). No one dies of pain. So here is some clonidine and immodium. Have a nice few days.” Shockingly, I don’t get many inappropriate drug seekers…
I’ve started giving disclaimers to my pts that “you need to keep this safe, because I do not replace lost or stolen scripts.”
Used to sing “Cry Baby” when drug seekers rolled into the E.R.to give the gang a heads up ;)
My (ex) husband lost my Vicodin rx on the way into the pharmacy after my c-section. Thanks to the seekers, I didn’t even bother trying to get it replaced. I learned to love ibuprofen and acetaminophen. (Worked just fine, actually. And no need for Colace!)
again…amazing
Then they flood the ED telling us the Dr refilled it but the pharmacy messed up and didn’t fill it or their uncles sons friends cousin stole them and they need them asap. When verified by pharmacy that they just had 60 filled 2 days ago, the pharmacy must have miscounted because they only took 2. It’s really just ridiculous. Then we get so jaded from the seekers that the poor people who actually do need them get screwed. Drug seekers are the worst!
Or they get “lost” or “stolen”