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Date Submitted February 16, 2025
Kathy Clark, RN ( retired).
I would like to comment on the story by Senator Keith Kelley from Alabama, and how he wants Seniors to be given non opioid meds for pain. I happen to live with chronic pain. Chronic pain is a condition that never goes away. Anybody can fall victim to chronic pain. It can occur from birth defects, auto-immune diseases like lupus. It can occur from trauma, failed surgeries, burns, etc. Think about our U.S. Veterans who came back from war-with limbs blown off-many of these Veterans suffer from chronic pain. I was born without ANY left hip socket which caused me a life of chronic pain. I limp, have shortened tendons, ligaments-and am missing my gluteus medius muscle. I suffer also from osteoporosis-as well as osteo-arthritis. I live in daily pain. What Senator Kelley fails to realize-is that opiate meds give me a quality of life! I have always taken them as prescribed by an MD. I never sold my meds-I need them to keep me from suffering each and every day! I have endured 8 hip surgeries in my lifetime. I have had 6 surgeries on my left hip-a primary total hip replacement-where a metal rod is hammered into my femur bone, along with placement of screws, and nails into my hip. Yes, these surgeries are highly painful-and taking plain Tylenol just does NOT work! I needed these surgeries-because when the total hip surgeries first were done on a patient-they used cement-which cracked over time, hence needing another hip replacement surgery. I also fractured my right hip, and had hardware placed in that hip. One thing I DO know-the PAIN from these surgeries-occurred in each decade of my life! The ONLY pain meds that worked: opioids. I did NOT become addicted to my meds after my surgery. This is what the general public FAILS to understand. When taken as prescribed, opioid meds work to give the chronic pain patient an excellent quality of life! Many Seniors NEED these meds! Opioids have been around for thousands of years, and there is less than 1% addiction rate in those prescribed opioids. What Senator Keith Kelley FAILS to realize: we have a SYNTHETIC FENTANYL POISONING problem-from drug dealers who illicitly sell these deadly pills from China and Mexico. I say poisoning-because one pill will kill an individual. Anybody purchasing drugs illicitly off the dark web will probably end up with a tainted opioid which is laced with synthetic deadly amounts of Fentanyl, and THIS is the reason we have such a RISE in overdose deaths! It is NOT from we legitimate pain patients who have done nothing wrong! We need to get rid of the 2016 CDC guidelines-because a one size fits all approach to pain care is nonsensical! I am also a retired Registered Nurse who used to work the Hospital setting. I took care of many post-op patients and alleviated their suffering by allowing them to recover safely with adequate dosages of pain meds. I also have taken pharmaceutical courses on pain management. This is what is lacking in Healthcare today. We need our MD’s to be able to prescribe opioid meds. Instead, many Doctors fear the DEA taking away their Controlled substance license, and so many chronic pain patients have been abandoned because we now have a shortage of MD’s who will not prescribe these meds. This is so unfair to the chronic pain patient-as well as any patient who needs pain control in the post-op period. Let’s get back on track. The Purdue Pharma trial gave tons of money to every State Attorney General. Where did that money go? Now, we hear about opioid use dis-order. These are all made up terms to confuse people more. The drug addicted suffer from opioid use dis-order-not the chronic pain patient. The chronic pain patient can become dependent on their pain meds-but this is totally different from addiction. We need our Senators to not get involved in the Doctor/Patient relationship. The Doctor/Patient relationship has been fractured-and we need to fix this problem now!
It would be helpful to have a Medical Doctor speak about the safe use of pain meds -when taken as prescribed. If a National TV AD was aired-this would clarify a lot about pain meds. It’s been more than 8 years of torture for the chronic pain patient. Let’s continue to provide these life-saving meds-and NOT go off the deep end with nonsense of giving pain patients Tylenol( which doesn’t work). These words are my opinion. Sincerely, Kathy Clark,RN ( retired).
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