OxyContin patients, then and now

I got my life back now now I can enjoy every day that I live I can really enjoy myself and before even a good day was hell I mean I couldn't enjoy anything but now I can enjoy myself that's we can say it wonderful I look at the future the same way a young guy 25 30 year old would his biggest problem was he would sleep a lot and I mean he said he was at the point where he was to be sitting in here talking like I'm talking and fell right off asleep while he was talking I went to the point where I had to put his salts and shoes on his clothes on he's shaving wash his hair look out of him just like you would look at a two or three-year-old he said I'm in so much pain I've got to have that pain medicine he said I just cannot leave without that pain medicine people would look at him and literally think well he's got to be drunk or he's got to be how son they didn't know you know he was just on a lot of medicine and my phone rang and it was him and he said so I can't go no father and the highway patrolman told me within five minutes after I got off the phone with him he run off the road that's when he ran off the road and they said what happened I witness behind him said that they thought maybe he'd got distracted which I knew what was wrong waiting he fell asleep from that motorist and I knew what it was I think when I first started I was on 20 milligrams in the morning and 20 in the evening it worked it worked since I've been on this new pain medication I have not missed one day of work and my boss really appreciates that Lauren is there every day so I'm able to be very productive productive person again which is really great eventually that stopped working and without increased I think it was 40 in the morning and 40 in the evening and then eventually that got increased this this went on for years going for years I lost my job and I lost my insurance so I got to the point where I couldn't afford it and I didn't buy it one time and that was the beginning of the end for me because I could no longer afford it but that time that I went without it was probably the most unbelievable excruciating horrible time of my life that with Charles were just unbelievable I just knew eventually I was you know I'd probably kill myself od taking this businesses I would never take another oxycontin just you couldn't get me to take another oxycontin never again physical therapy hopefully we'll get them strong enough where eventually I won't need to use the the drug therapy but the drug therapy allowed me to do the physical therapy which would turn load my blood pressure and lowered the blood levels periodically he and I would go have lunch together in the conversation was always the fact that he was taking lots of meds he had just seen the doctor or he was just going to see the doctor or he was about to meet a new doctor so the word doctor and meds and pain those words came up over and over and over again and I would say where's where's the pain I did ask him that and he'd say all over all over especially my back and my my arms and my shoulders all over when I started taking oxycodone two months ago it was the first time I had felt normal since my original injury ten years ago all that time I had suffered greater or lesser extent of pain and now I feel like I really I love what I do and it would be it would be just heartbreaking for me if I had to give up my career because my back hurt so much I couldn't work it makes it possible for me to live a more or less normal life now this medication does not turn you into a zombie it has turned me into an active person again and all these pictures I look at myself I look so heavy and so unhappy and and now I look completely different I feel different life is wonderful again I've I have found life again and it's worth living now and I'm so grateful I am afraid that people like me patients with legitimate chronic pain who can't live without these kinds of drugs in addition to other things I do to manage the pain I'm afraid we're the ones that are going to pay for it we'll be made to suffer if people get overwhelmed in this idea that oh we have to do away with these or whatever I'm it makes me worry for me and how my life is going to be affected I don't I can't go back to the way it was back in the in the early 90s he he took the medicine and and hopes that that was going to change things you know but he had no idea I know he would have never stayed on it he wouldn't ever got on it if he knew how he would have ended up you know years later yes I can see the pendulum swinging the other way now but I just hope it doesn't swing so far as to hurt people like me that legitimately need this as part of my pain management you

Channel: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Views: 6,397,699

Keywords: syndicate, MJS, News, watchdog

Id: pkeQifzvSNE

Length: 7min 25sec (445 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 08 2012