Warning!... Serious Rant Coming...

Ok...  So yesterday I posted about the misery I was feeling from my Taxol chemo treatment on Tuesday.  The pain was horrific to say the least...unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life.  I have had wisdom teeth extracted with subsequent dry sockets, ingrown toenails, given birth naturally, smashed big toes with very heavy objects, been stung by a stingray...these are among my list of the most miserable pain I have ever experienced, but nothing compares to the pain I experienced a couple of days after my first Taxol treatment.

4 years ago, Sarah had 4 wisdom teeth extracted.  They gave her going home instructions and a prescription for 20 Vicodin for pain.  I was appalled at how easily they give out these narcotics to kids for such a thing. 20 Vicodin...really?  She never really needed any.  She took 1/2 of one just to see what it was like, otherwise Advil was fine.

I had 2 surgeries in March, and they gave me a prescription for Norco...which is like Vicodin.  40 pills, I never filled it...as I never needed it.  Advil, once again was sufficient.

Ron had his teeth worked on a few weeks ago and they gave him a prescription for Percocet.  He took a couple over the course of a few days and that was all.

Ok...so they say that once we are done with a prescription, we should throw away the remaining.  In fact it is against the law to use someone else's prescription drugs.  But I didn't throw them away.  I still had Sarah's Vicodin from 4 years ago sitting in my freezer.  There have been occasions...like when I smashed my big toe with a lodgepole bed...that I have taken one.  That's why I kept them, all the while knowing that I am not supposed to take them...because they weren't prescribed to me.

I know there is a big drug addiction problem with these medications...however not in my home.  What makes me crazy is:

1.  My doctor never warned me that Taxol would produce such immense pain.  I was expecting some bone and joint aches and pains, etc...  But there is no preparing for this kind of pain.

2. They didn't so much as say take a little ibuprofen or Tylenol for the pain. Much less send me home with a prescription for something that would actually work.

3. When the pain finally did reach a level beyond my ability to cope, I had to choose a 4 year old bottle of Vicodin in hopes of relief.

4. When I called in to the doctor on-call the next day, he offered me nothing, except to go to the emergency room, because he's not about to prescribe me a narcotic medication.

5.  Today I called my doctor's office to talk to the triage nurse.  She told me this was just typical of the treatment, almost like she expected me to just suck it up and endure.  She did call in prescription for Diclofenac another NSAID...for mild to moderate pain.  Really???!!!

Tomorrow I have a followup appointment with my doctor, and I feel like ripping into him.  They hand out Vicodin like candy to teenagers getting wisdom teeth pulled, yet for something that they know is excruciating, they hesitate to prescribe something that will work.  I feel like they think I am some kind of junkie begging for my next hit.

This makes me so angry.  So forget the advice they give you to throw out those old medicines, forget expiration dates, forget the laws that say you should not take other people's prescription medications.   I can't imagine if I had left such misery in the hands of the medical community.  I thank God I had sense to keep it on hand....and by the way...4 year old Vicodin still works!!