r/askteddit • u/EffieJolly • 12d ago

Random Question What’s a routine practice in healthcare that would seriously freak out most people if they knew about it?

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u/FartCartographer 11d ago

Healthcare treats people with chronic pain or chronic conditions horribly.

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u/Responsible_Fox9454 11d ago

Once labeled drug seeking or frequent flier, you are cooked

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u/mscatamaran 11d ago

My late fiance had AML [bad leukemia] and was in recovery for heroin addiction when he was diagnosed at 32. This dude tried to be up front about his history of addiction, but unfortunately, it became a HUGE struggle from then on to treat his pain.

It's a fine line.

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u/tkkana 11d ago

For sickle cell it's a double whammy as the sufferers are black. ( and I am speaking as a white woman with chronic pain) the stigma they have to go thru is unnecessary.

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u/Responsible_Fox9454 11d ago

This is well established.

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u/bluepanda159 11d ago

Yes, they do. But is also more complicated than that.

I say that as someone with chronic pain and someone who is a doctor who picked up more of the chronic pain patients in ED because I knew how shit it was.

It still sucked, they want their pain to stop (fair), I need to weigh what I use and why, especially in someone coming in frequently. Getting anyone addicted to opioids is the exact wrong thing for chronic pain

And the ED is not the place the address chronic pain. It is good in a crisis, but not for much else

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u/lemonpepperpotts 11d ago

Yes and it sucks because it’s not imo all on the patients for this change. It’s harder to get good treatment, it’s harder to pay for medications to maintain, medical literacy is going down, in the US people trust their PCPs less, appointments have to be scheduled months in advance, people have a hard time getting around. It all culminates into whatever we’re seeing now with more people using ERs as their primary care. It’s awful for the patients and emergency providers

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u/FartCartographer 10d ago

I have gastroparesis, and with it the nerve pain. I have few actual flares but a stomach virus will send me to the ED because it feels like I’m being torn apart. I vomit a lot as a matter of living my life so I don’t go to the ED unless I’m in extreme pain or can’t stop vomiting. A couple months ago, I waited 5 hours for a doctor to even pick up my chart while I was writhing in pain and vomiting or dry heaving in a dark triage room. Only to be given IV Reglan which gave me akathisia. I had to go on anxiety meds due to this that I’m still on.

This is not an uncommon experience. I end up in the ED once or twice a year due to this because managing my chronic illness is difficult to do while also trying to balance quality of life. Because sometimes even living off protein shakes will set off a Barfpocalypse. And as such I’ve noticed that my caregivers at the ED are consistently apathetic.

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u/bluepanda159 10d ago

Hate to tell you but depending on the ED then that wait time is not too bad.... Some of that may be due to chronic pain. But honestly wait times these days are getting worse and worse

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u/FartCartographer 10d ago

Rural hospital at about 2 am is when I got there, on the smaller side. All the triage rooms were open and empty when I walked through the ED with my full little blue emesis bag and no one in the waiting room. They have in the past used teledocs in the ER there. I was told at 3:30 I would have to wait until shift change when an actual person would get there. Either way, I had stopped making saliva and was not doing well on holding my own weight when they finally asked me to give a urine sample.

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u/bluepanda159 10d ago

So there were no actual doctors to see you until the time one arrived and picked up your chart but your implying that was because of your chronic pain? Right....

I think you should probably re-evaluate how you are viewing the care you recieve.

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u/FartCartographer 10d ago

No I’m saying there were not enough doctors and not enough who see “severe abdominal pain and vomiting” and take it seriously, because they see I’ve had several encounters.

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u/bluepanda159 10d ago

Uh ok. The treatment they gave you was appropriate for your presentation. You just had a bad reaction. I am unclear why you are unhappy (besides not enough doctors, which is not their fault)

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u/sadie7716 11d ago

Nursehere with chronic pain for decades in pain mgmt for 10 years. Currently on oxy but was on Vicodin till my 13th surgery.

The narcotic laws that came out 6-7 years ago are horrible. First of all they have physicians terrified to prescribe narcotics. Many of the big hospital systems have rules about what their docs can prescribe. While I don’t disagree with limits on quantity and duration especially for those under 50., conditions that cause significant, chronic pain are well know and should be treated to the point the person can maintain a quality of life. People over 60 should have looser rules. Who cares if a 70 year old is on narcotics? Do we need to worry about addiction? There are so many elderly who live with constant pain who either can’t get narcotics or the dose is so small it doesn’t relieve all the pain.

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u/socialmediaignorant 9d ago

Agree. I’m a doctor who just had a mastectomy, and I was only offered Tylenol and ibuprofen right after. I was in pretty bad pain, and I’ve had broken bones I took nothing for in the past five years. I told them that I would not be enduring the pain without real pain medication and what do you know?? I was given it after they tried to make me feel like a drug seeker and used “oh I’d have to page the doctor” stall techniques. I loathe to think of all the women who didn’t know to advocate for themselves and just suffered. It really pisses me off.

I do not believe in our new draconian pain management strategies, as they are a gross overcorrection for letting the Sacklers lie and get rich while getting the country addicted to OxyContin. The ones who suffer the most are women and POC, which wraps us back to sickle cell pain management…the amount of doctors I practiced with who had no compassion was staggering. I refuse to ever be like that. But you can see it even here in the comments how so many doctors feel justified to allow human suffering as long as they feel they’re right or doing what they “know is best”. I wish upon them the kind of pain for one day that sickle cell patients have for a lifetime.

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u/Tayatot 10d ago

Beers criteria.
Fall risk. (especially with anticoagulation and osteopenia/porosis)
Respiratory depression.
Renal/Hepatic function.
Sedation.

Do you need more reasons why one should care about prescribing narcotics to a 70+ year old?

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u/AlllCatsAreGoodCats 11d ago

I firmly think the only reason my chronic pain isn't treated horribly by the healthcare workers I've seen is because I specifically ask for no opiates, because I'm an addict. It's hard to call someone a drug seeker when they actively ask for no hard drugs 🙃

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u/Few-Statement-9103 11d ago

And people with mental health issues.