| General Non-Fiction posted September 15, 2017 |
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My effort to get help with pain.
My Letter To Surgeon General
by patcelaw
Office of the Surgeon General
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave SW
Humphrey Bldg. Suite 701H
Washington, DC 20201
The Honorable Surgeon General
I have had rather severe pain in my back now for 26 months. My doctor cannot prescribe even the smallest dose of morphine, which will ease my pain. But, wants me to use medical marijuana. I am opposed to taking any form of marijuana, for several reasons.
1. Having only had one experience with marijuana in any form. We were attending a Dodger baseball game, the youngsters in front of us were using hashish pipes and the smoke was drifting back at me. In just a bit I began to get quite faint feeling. I did not know what it was. For three days after, my ability to think clearly was impaired. I said, if it does that to a person breathing the smoke in an open air setting, what does it to the direct user?
2. I have been free of tobacco use since 1981 and have not used any alcohol since I was still in my teens. And I do not want to put into my body marijuana in any form.
3. I have never used marijuana and to use marijuana would go again my moral code.
4. I also did some research on marijuana and it can cause some bleeding in the eyes. I have been treated since 2009 for bleeding in my eyes and the retina doctor is thinking now the bleeding could have been caused by medications I was taking for the heart and for the back pain.
With my eye problems, I do not need anything more that would cause my eyes to bleed.
In August 2015 I was in rehab for the severe back pain and was put on gabapentin, Within 8 days my vision went from 20/40 in my left eye and 20/80 in my right eye, my vision went to 20/400 in both eyes. So I was legally blind from taking the medicine.
I've had only one month in over 26 months when I was almost pain free, and that was the one month an internal medicine doctor prescribed the lowest dose of morphine he could give and I took only one pill a day.
I am aware there is an epidemic of drug abuse and deaths from abusing drugs. I have read the statistics show that the majority of those deaths have been among people under 30 years of age. There is something seriously wrong with a system that would make old people like me have to endure severe pain. I was 79 in June. All the many treatments, that have been done on me, have been no more beneficial to me than giving me a handful jellybeans and has been very expensive to the medicare system, which has covered me for thousands of dollars for pain, that could have been eased with a prescription for a small dose of morphine.
The last 26+ months I have not truly lived, I have just painfully existed.
What I am asking is there not a way to give me and my doctor an exception, so she could prescribe a small dose of morphine or put me on morphine patches?
I respectively submit this request for an exception.
Patricia Lawrence
Office of the Surgeon General
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Ave SW
Humphrey Bldg. Suite 701H
Washington, DC 20201
The Honorable Surgeon General
I have had rather severe pain in my back now for 26 months. My doctor cannot prescribe even the smallest dose of morphine, which will ease my pain. But, wants me to use medical marijuana. I am opposed to taking any form of marijuana, for several reasons.
1. Having only had one experience with marijuana in any form. We were attending a Dodger baseball game, the youngsters in front of us were using hashish pipes and the smoke was drifting back at me. In just a bit I began to get quite faint feeling. I did not know what it was. For three days after, my ability to think clearly was impaired. I said, if it does that to a person breathing the smoke in an open air setting, what does it to the direct user?
2. I have been free of tobacco use since 1981 and have not used any alcohol since I was still in my teens. And I do not want to put into my body marijuana in any form.
3. I have never used marijuana and to use marijuana would go again my moral code.
4. I also did some research on marijuana and it can cause some bleeding in the eyes. I have been treated since 2009 for bleeding in my eyes and the retina doctor is thinking now the bleeding could have been caused by medications I was taking for the heart and for the back pain.
With my eye problems, I do not need anything more that would cause my eyes to bleed.
In August 2015 I was in rehab for the severe back pain and was put on gabapentin, Within 8 days my vision went from 20/40 in my left eye and 20/80 in my right eye, my vision went to 20/400 in both eyes. So I was legally blind from taking the medicine.
I've had only one month in over 26 months when I was almost pain free, and that was the one month an internal medicine doctor prescribed the lowest dose of morphine he could give and I took only one pill a day.
I am aware there is an epidemic of drug abuse and deaths from abusing drugs. I have read the statistics show that the majority of those deaths have been among people under 30 years of age. There is something seriously wrong with a system that would make old people like me have to endure severe pain. I was 79 in June. All the many treatments, that have been done on me, have been no more beneficial to me than giving me a handful jellybeans and has been very expensive to the medicare system, which has covered me for thousands of dollars for pain, that could have been eased with a prescription for a small dose of morphine.
The last 26+ months I have not truly lived, I have just painfully existed.
What I am asking is there not a way to give me and my doctor an exception, so she could prescribe a small dose of morphine or put me on morphine patches?
I respectively submit this request for an exception.
Patricia Lawrence
 Recognized |
Because of the epidemic of opioid abuse in my country the government is using a club on the problem by not letting family doctors prescribe medicines which would be helpful to sufferers of chronic pain. As a result old people are beginning to take their lives because they can no longer endure the pain. The system is wrong and I hope my letter will make the government rethink their way of handling the problem.
Pays
one point
and 2 member cents. 
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