I Just Cannot Fathom these number of Pain Prescriptions being written and used when a "true pain patient" must almost "give blood" to get a script!!!

This just blows my mind still. I posted it on FB, but Iam still reeling from the numbers they claim of scripts that are NOT for true and legitimate chronic pain patients! As I say below, my gosh it takes an army for me to get my medication, or it did, until I got my pain pump put in. I had to follow very strict guidelines from my pain dr and I saw him frequently, if I wanted him to help me try and be at least half way able to not be insane with pain. As I said, so many pain specialists will NOT see you for "cash"and if they do they charge an astronomical fee and then these medications are EXPENSIVE! One script can be well over $600.00 even generic! So, how would anyone be able to afford the visit and the pills? Insurance sure as hell will NOT pay for ay more than one visit, and you sure are not going to get by with legitimate insurance going to more than one doctor that gives you these meds. Then most pharmacies look at you like you are an ADDICT even if they know you very well. Even afer using the same pharmacy for many, many years and they know ALL of my health issues, they would be extremely leery for me to come in with more than one script such as this, unless it was something dire like a surgery etc. Even then I think they would question it. And I think WG, CVS, and many of the pharmacies even here in this small town keep "dibs" by checking up if they suspect someone is using more than one of them and it is for pain meds for cash... This just seems crazy to me.... I still think this is some kind of "conspiracy" from the government or some lobbyists or something to make it almost impossible for "REAL chronically ill patients to live a life with some quality"!!!!! The seem to enjoy making it almost impossible for us to get ANY meds not just pain meds!!! Hell I had to beg, borrow and go through hell to get the medication to make my mouth moistened since the Sjogren's is rotting my teeth away! The insurance denied one of the meds, and I had to go research my insurance and what they "would" pay for, then ask my doctor to please call that in instead, because the insurance did not want to pay for the other one!!! It took me two hours or more to find out what they would pay for, then I had to disturb y doctor again due to the insurance being stupid!!! And literally even though I have been doing everything I can to keep my teeth and mouth healthy, I still have at least two teeth they probably have to be pulled due to them just falling apart and several others that hopefully they can "patch" and keep together for now!!!

I tell you it is lunacy! PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!!!!!
I just read an article about people on pain meds "doctor shopping" to get pain pills to sell. What I CANNOT figure out is HOW THEY AFFORD TO GO TO THAT MANY DOCTORS??? You can't file insurance for all of those scripts. The pills are ULTRA EXPENSIVE, so how do they afford to fill as many scripts as they are saying they do??? I have to pull teeth to just get ONE script actually filled out by a doctor and then a pharmacy to fill it. In fact my Pain dr. will ONLY allow you to get a monthly script from a specialist pharmacy and he will only do it there, and they have to mail mine to me from Dallas. I never see the script. He fills them out, that pharmacy picks them up fills them and then they mail mine since I am 40 plus miles away! I know HOW EXPENSIVE these meds are!!! I also know "real" and Legitimate pain doctors will NOT even see "cash" patients many times. And if they do, you jump through many hoops to ever get a script. One visit with mine if you were to pay cash and not have insurance is 300.00!!!! Then any of these meds are 600.00 plus a month!!! So, how they hell does this happen as much as they claim??? I think they have "off" numbers or they exaggerate this! Read this article and see what you think!???? 


http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/drug-addicts-dealers-are-doctor-shopping-for-pain-pills




http://www.change.org/petitions/time-for-congress-to-fix-medicare-for-the-people-fix-medicare-stop-fraud-and-misuse-pay-good-doctors-as-they-deserve

It is Just Crazier every day with Insurance, Medicare and the Government!

I appreciate all of you signing the petition! :) Thank you so much! I just read another extremely disturbing article in our own Local Paper. Our CITY employees are having to bear a 23.6 PERCENT INSURANCE PREMIUM INCREASE NEXT YEAR!!! This is also due to the AFFORDABLE ARE ACT!!! How can the government call it AFFORDABLE" when we are going to GO BROKE paying for it??? And our doctors are going broke because THEY are not getting paid!???? The premiums here in town for our city employees are going up $50,000.0!!!  MONTH!!!! Not a year folks!! A MONTH! Their deductibles are going to be 1,500.00 for an individual and 3,000.00 for a family!!! This is insanity!!!! I need to let people know it is NOT JUST MEDICARE people it is ALL of us with families and our own selves to INSURE!!! I almost passed out when I saw this article! First of all, our community WANTS to support our employees. YET, we also NEED to balance our own budget! I have to say our town does a wonderful job at that. Even after the tornado disaster, and I know that is going to hit hard too, I know our towns people will make sure our budget is on track. but, to have to pay out of pocket over 50,000.0 MORE a MONTH to hell insurance our employees, then they pay premiums along with having to endure deductibles that high... PEOPLE WE HAVE TI STAND UP AND SAY THIS!!! IS !!!!!! ENOUGH!!! NO LONGER can we continue to sit and allow the government and the insurance companies to ROB US BLIND all the while WE DO NOT benefit from all that comes out of our pockets! I URGE AND BEG ALL of YOU TO SIGN THIS PETITION! IT IS NOT JUST FOR MEDICARE PEOPLE But for EVERYONE who pays premiums, doctor bills, and has to endure going broke if you "get broken"... they do NOT care if you are ill, many of them think well, we will let you die! Honestly, that is how I think many of them feel on Capitol Hill. So, if you want make another petition!!! Get on the band wagon if you are seeing ridiculous premiums and no paying of your doctors! My husband came in from the doctor today!!! HE has NO INSURANCE! So we PAY CASH! AN OFFICE VISIT EVERY TWO MONTHS for him to sit down, our doctor walk in, ask him, well how is the pain? Jim tells him< "the same". The take his vitals and send him on his way for what is now 125.00 OFFICE VISIT!! FOR ABSOLUTELY 2 minutes! But, due to the insurance companies and Medicare NOT paying, the doctors have to price gouge those that pay cash! And they know WE CANNOT AFFORD IT! IF I did not get Jim's meds for either free online or here at the 5.00 pharmacy on the others, there is NO way we could get his medications! And if we had to pay for MINE!!!! I can say that many of mine are anywhere from 300.00 to 1,300.00 a MONTH!!! And I have about twelve plus all of the over the counter stuff we buy, Nose Strips, Tums, Allergy meds, all kind of Vitamins, and we added the B-12 to the list today, which is high if it is the sublingual one! Then you have aspirin, Aleve, Advil and even in generic it is still expensive when you add it all up. The over the counter stuff is just as expensive as the scripts! So, basically WE are SCREWED and TATTOOED any way you take it!
what happened to the days of bartering a chicken for a doctor to COME TO YOUR HOME AND SEE YOU??? They would pass out if they thought they would have to make a "house visit"! But, you really can't blame them, they have to CHARGE LIKE HELL TO GET ANY MONEY IN RETURN! ALL OF IT IS NUTS!!!! INSANITY!!!!


http://www.change.org/petitions/time-for-congress-to-fix-medicare-for-the-people-fix-medicare-stop-fraud-and-misuse-pay-good-doctors-as-they-deserve

Welcome News from the World of Lupus - !!!!

http://www.lupusresearchinstitute.org/lupus-news/discoveries/13/07/15/lupus-research-institute-advocacy-secures-2-million-appropriation-lu




Wanted to share this awesome news from the realms of the Lupus World! Our voices have been heard!!!!!

Wow! Now I am Anemic!

If it is not one thing it is the other...

Okay, here is part of the deal I think with me, health wise. First I did call my dentist and they will see me the 1st week in August. They are going on vacation until then. So I told them I would be extremely careful and try not to crack anything else off of these teeth that seem so very fragile. Next, I called my PCP and got the medication for dry mouth. They have two. I had been on Evoxac by awhile ago, and should never have stopped it I guess. I thought maybe it was not working but now I look back, it was probably helping much more than I thought. So, needless to say my insurance AGAIN decided they did NOT want to PAY even for the GENERIC! And it would cost me 300.00! So, I got on my Humana site, and finally found out they are supposed to pay for the generic form of Salagen. So, I called my doctor back, and told them. They did call me in that one instead, so I shall see if the pharmacy was able to get that one paid for. Damned I feel like crap and I am STILL fighting to get meds! They DO NOT CARE if my TEETH ROT OUT OF MY MOUTH!!! Just another example of Medicare/Med. Advantage plans and bull!
Then I got ANOTHER CALL FROM MY DOCTOR, late yesterday afternoon... I am severely B-12 deficient, in other words I am severely anemic. Which would certainly explain my symptoms being so excessive and lasting so long... the severe fatigue, lack of appetite, being so pale, not able to put one foot in front of the other, even the pain in my muscles, and everything that is "a Lupus flare" are also signs of anemia. The "brain fog" is another. They wanted me to come and begin injections, but I asked since I felt so badly if I could do it at home with over the counter B-12. She reluctantly told me I can try, but if I am not better within a few days, then I have to do the injections... I have not been anemic since my daughter was born 29 years ago, so this is strange for me. It has me concerned. I know it does go along with Lupus a great deal and there is "pernicious" anemia and several others, one of them is actually an "autoimmune" type of anemia, that often does come with Lupus, so I found that interesting. Anyway, as BAD as it sounds at least I am NOT crazy!!! OR if I have I also have SOMETHING wrong other that "it is JUST LUPUS"... I get so sick of hearing that "Oh, IT IS just YOUR LUPUS" acting up! the term "JUST" and LUPUS seem almost sacrilegious to say together. So, keeo my in your thoughts and prayers. I feel like total hell! I just am so extremely fatigued and I have all of the other symptoms of anemia and the Lupus flare, thus I feel like a rung out dish rag, as my Dad would have said... or he would say "pulled through a knot hole backwards" whatever that means...
Alas, bear with me as I try and work on this Medicare thing, the group for it and the petition. I REALLY COULD USE SOME OF YOUR HELP!!! PLEASE HELP AND SIGN IT, THEN pass on to your friends that you know are also wanting to see Medicare back in the right shape it is supposed to be in. Miss all of you... I spend most of my time after early in the am... on the sofa watching horror movies on Netflix... I hope this new medication we are getting today gets me up and going very soon. I HATE not feeling like doing anything, and the brain fog is just horrid....


Wed. the 17th more after yesterday....

Yes, it can be "deadly" honestly.. thus the very reason it is called "pernicious".. the definition of it is basically "deadly". I did Venetia.  Thanks  :) I read the "wikipedia summary and it does give a very good look at it. I realize that all of the symptoms I have had lately, even th pain in my hips can be caused by this. Jason I am like you though... I am not sure why, unless it is the Lupus, that I have such a sudden drop in my B-12. They check it and about 4 months ago it was on the "low side" of being "okay". So, why within 3 or 4 months all of a sudden it dropped kind of concerns me. but, it is also a type of autoimmune illness, thus Lupus I am sure plays a role in it. the PA that saw me last week noticed my mucus members in my nose and mouth were very pale, and I was very pale. Then all of the symptoms of severe fatigue, nausea, the leg and hip pain, not wanting to eat, nothing tasting good at all, and I have even been all of a sudden kind of "depressed", but not like regular depression. I thought I was just upset from being ill so long, but I have been crying when I try and walk in the mornings outside, and I can't even stand to pick up one foot I feel so bad. But, Jim has caught me several times in the past 10 days outside sitting alone, or walking (or trying to do my early morning walking) and I am just boo-hooing. Yet, not like a feeling of "depression" of the regular kind. I looked it up and sure enough it is another symptom of this B-12 deficiency. I am getting some of the sublingual B-12 stuff today to take. They gave me the injection yesterday, BUT then did not say a word about giving me more. I read I was supposed to be an entire "set" of them for like a week, then slack off to like two weeks, then at least 1 monthly OR I need to take the oral ones daily forever. So, I am not sure where the mix up is, but I see my regular doctor there on the 1st of August. Unless they tell me differently, I am going to get the oral stuff, take it daily and then I will have a long discussion with him about all of this. He happened to be gone last week, so he was not there to find out immediately what was happening to me. I think he would have probably recognized due to knowing me so well, that I may have needed either injections immediately, or he would have been quicker to diagnose my issues. He knows my total situation so well, in fact he was the one that actually "found" my MCTD, Lupus etc. Had I not had him to be so astute in looking at me, and what all of the issues I was having was being caused from it may have been years before I finally found out, if at all. So, he totally can almost "tell" as soon he as sees and speaks to me what the issue is. He was the one that also found the rare thing with my myoglobin, which is still high also. So, I will make sure we do speak about all of this in August on the 1st. Then I will let my Rheumatologist and so forth know. I had a spell right after the injection that worried me a little though...we let the office, Jim took me, because I just did not feel like driving at all, and we started to the store, and I began to feel cold/hot and clammy. We picked up a couple of things for dinner, and when we got home... I was sweating but had the chills. It really concerned me due to the Humira and I have to watch so closely for infections. I had not ran fever, but that "chilled" yet hot, and clammy does not sound great... Anyway, it may have been our weather. It had been cooler here but the humidity is off the charts... and I got kind of cooled off in the doctors office, then out in the humidity, then back in the house, with our ceiling fans running and the air on... and I happened to have had the fan pointed at me sitting on the sofa... thus it could be just getting a little sweaty due to humidity, then coming in and the fan on me... but I hate when I have something like that happen... anyway, I hope the B-12 clears up some of this freaking fatigue. I can't even pick my arms up to type... they feel so heavy also... it is insanity... and I thought the Lupus fatigue was bad enough... then add this onto it... not fun!

Fear of Disease Getting Worse or Am I Mentally & Emotionally Giving Up?

As I began to think about this so early this morning, I have had a very "heavy heart" lately. I have not really said much to anyone, including my husband or family, but I have been getting increasingly fearful that either these illnesses, the Lupus, RA, Sjogren's, and so forth are either becoming much worse OR my emotional state and mental state is that I am beginning to just "give up" the fight. I have tried to get myself "psyched" up over my 3rd book, and now giving the Congress and government a fight over all of the Medicare mess they have us in. Yet, I just cannot pull my physical or mental state out of the severe fatigue, the place I just cannot get done what I want to get done... due to my feeling so lousy, in so much pain, for so long now. No one can truly know from everything I have been through what the hell is REALLY wrong with me? Why even with a pain pump internally implanted am I suddenly in severe pain? Why are my joints more stiff, like they are "gelling" on me, and the pain in them is horrible? Why are my teeth having more cavities than ever, and seem to be crumbling in front of my eyes? Why do I not feel like going out to the store, doing laundry, cleaning my own home, and honestly doing anything. I feel TOO tired, TOO fatigued, and just too ill to even care if the rugs are vacuumed or the floors are mopped. I don't care what I eat, it matters not. Nothing tastes right anyway. I do not feel lilke even sitting in this chair to write, or even honestly read emails. I could care less about doing my coupons etc, and just have to literally make myself go outside and walk... going outside to walk, water my plants, and watch all of our birds that have nests are are hatching are about the ONLY things I care to do. I don't want to go to my Mom's, Lord knows I do NOT want to go to a doctor, and I desperately need to see a dentist and both of us get glasses, but I do not have the energy to muster to go and have the measurements done we need so we can order our glasses.
Right at this moment, I could either scream or cry... possibly both. I feel like I am just about worthless. I feel I can't even help myself, much less help anyone else. I know when I get ill or have a severe flare or both at the same time, I go through these times... yet this time it feels totally different. I know I always care about what the house looks like inside... no matter how horrible I feel. I will try my best to clean no matter how sick or how tired I am.
The brain fog is horrible. I do well to remember my own name. I have had it for a long while, but it seems to get worse each time I have a bout with it. I have gotten to where if I am slightly interrupted when I am saying something I totally forget what I was saying. My notes I even forget now.. stuff that I usually can remember, I can't to save my soul, as they say. I feel like my entire life, body and emotional realm is just fading away in front of me. Everything I loved to do, does not even interest me.
Even being here and trying to help others that has always given me a driven purpose, has just been not totally within my heart. I go through days of thinking no one even hears a word I say, or does not care. No one wants to listen to me anymore.  I feel as if everyone else has grown tired of listening to my constant whining and griping. It seems I continue to develop some "new" sign or symptom. One day it is my teeth, the next ulcers in my mouth, the next fatigue, the next pain and stiffness, another something else... continually a viscous circle of illness or insanity one... I am truly beginning to wonder which??? I feel like I am going totally nuts..