It's 6 AM as I type this. Been up since 4... The upcoming weather change is reeking havoc with my old bones and joints and the pain won't let me sleep. Not unusual for me so I read this with some interest.
It's often puzzled me why there hasn't been any research into why some people feel pain differently than others. From my personal experience, having had my share of chronic pain, it can be absolutely devastating for some and for others, it's just a bump in the road. I've had a couple interesting conversations with nurses about the subject. Their observations were that some people are just wimps. While that may be true, that has painted anyone that has issues as drug seekers or lazy. I'm neither, and I'm fortunate that I have some doctors that understand that.
Que the rant about insurance companies and federal regulations since the implementation of "Obamacare".
The feds are doing their best to limit the availability of pain meds in the name of keeping them away from drug addicts. (That's backfiring and causing more heroin problems, but that's a subject for another debate) The regs have forced doctors to change how they write prescriptions. Your family doc can't write some pain killers anymore and the pain management docs have to do things like pill counts and urine testing. It all adds up to more money out of my pocket for treatment that everyone, including me, has to jump through hoops to get.
The insurance companies now are limiting what they will cover... I just got a letter from my pain management folks. I have a procedure done every six months... They sedate me, ground my butt and then stick a needle in my neck. Then they pass low frequency RF through the needle and it fries the nerve so pain is decreased. It's not as much fun as it sounds... This is the only thing that works... It's temporary and I get about five months of relief until the nerve regenerates and the pain comes roaring back... The insurance company will only let them do it every six months though. Not five... Six. I'm healthy, so the nerve "heals" faster. Back to the letter, my nerve burn, that's scheduled for Tuesday, will cost me over $1100 because they don't cover it anymore. They do one side at a time, so the burn scheduled for the following week won't be covered either. They had to approve it though... Authorization of a freaking procedure that I am paying for has to be done on their schedule and only if they "allow" it. Then I get a nasty letter about the pain meds (Tramadol) that I take. It takes me about three months to go through a month's prescription... and the majority are used the last month before the nerve burn.
It's all very frustrating and it makes me wonder how someone that is just getting by, but making enough money not to qualify for free health care is getting by. At least I can afford this, but some poor bastard that is slugging it out in a factory making a little more than the kid at Burger King, but makes enough that he can't get the government cheese, is just going to have to suffer the pain or not feed his family.
