You have given the best, wisest response so far. Thank you.

You, sir, are wrong. Extreme pain is an emergency to the one suffering it. Maybe if doctors and pm specialists actually tried to help them stay out of pain without demeaning them, they wouldn’t end up in the er trying to get just enough to get through a might. Maybe they had to shovel the driveway today, vacuum the house, carry around a sick baby who couldn’t be consoled by anyone else, fix the car because you can’t afford a mechanic, drive alone to visit an injured or dying loved one, even though you can’t drive over 20 miles without being in pain for hours after. This is real life for us. Maybe we couldn’t get to the doctor before we ran out of meds. I am a child of the sixties, yet I have never tried as much as one drag of pot. You are far too judgmental, sir.

Love the compassion, wilddick74…you picked the right field

No Kidding! I desperately want the back surgery but every time I go for clearance something else pops up. I am having my THIRD surgery (on stuff that never hurt or bothered me) just to have a disc shaved. I get dirty looks from these self righteous jag offs while you are thinking…where’s the nearest bridge?

Amen sister, I wrote a post about being in pain too, and there are two trolls on here that are wannabe healthcare professionals, I’m betting they’re secretaries for a Doc or something, but their responses are basically what I have had to deal with for over a year now. Apparently there is no such thing as chronic pain in their eyes and they want to just talk shit about everyone, the cynical attitude of “healthcare” professionals, Docs and Pharmacists alike, is probably one of the main reasons heroin is such an epidemic…

I have adhesion’s from an appendectomy that nearly killed me and they had to remove part of my small bowel. About once or twice a year, I end up in the ER with a small bowel obstruction. My surgeon doesn’t want to operate out of fear of causing more adhesions. When this happens I am automatically NPO so I can’t take pain killers at home ( not without throwing them up ten seconds after I take them). I am very lucky my local ER knows me by name. I am always terrified of being on vacation and ended up in an ER with cynical doctors/nurses like you. Because yes, you can get my medical info sent to over to you, and I could wait until you receive it to get my meds, but, until you have had to deal with the kind of pain I am in, it’s hard to imagine that every second I wait feels like hours, and it is so intense I sweat and vomit to the point of passing out. My best friend is an ER doctor, so I understand it is frustrating to deal with soo many drug seekers, but please don’t let them make you jaded against people who really need the “D” drug, and at very first may present as unexplained abdominal pain.

Thank you for such a well thought out and spoken reply. I too worked for many years at a substance abuse hospital and also with many people that had uncontrolled severe pain. When you lose the ability to be objective and have empathy it’s time to consider a desk job where you don’t have to deal with real people in real pain.