even just sitting here right now I can feel in the right side of my spine right now I'm having really bad spasm then it feels just like it like you're taking it stretching and it's going to break at any moment god it feels like a charlie horse in your back that's the only thing can figure it hurts really bad this is what it feels like to live in constant agonizing pain it's literally like radioactive termites are chewing your goddamn bone like last stage labor pains the way you describe it is you're being tired putting a
fork in a socket and getting it away your tissues off your boat around 17 million Americans live with debilitating chronic pain the relief for their suffering actually exists but some doctors are refusing to prescribe it he looked me in the face and he said I will not give you any medications if you want drugs you can go get them on the street like everyone else get out of my emergency room this is a story about unintended consequences and how they ruin lives you see the relief of these people's pain powerful opioids in the 90s doctors
began handing them out like candy triggering a heartbreaking crisis opioids are now the biggest drug epidemic in American history overdoses have claimed half a million lives since 1999. today opioids like Fentanyl and Oxycodone are dirty words but for chronic pain sufferers like Laura they're life-changing fentanyl is a drug that is very good at managing pain the day when they prescribed that it changed everything for me I was able to run on a treadmill exercise go shopping do volunteer projects with my church I could walk on the beach and stand in the water without wanting to
cry from the pain my body was in I was able to work full-time raise my kids full time multitask I was the queen of multitasking and then they took it away my Administration is working with communities to reduce overdose deaths including with medication we will defeat this opioid epidemic in 2016 in the rush to fix the opioid crisis the CDC advised doctors and pharmacists to limit opioid prescriptions they were well-intentioned recommendations that set down a maximum dosage right here but those recommendations inspired restrictive laws across the country the results the pinned after everything at the
time she said you know because of the government now we need to take you off this medication he said the best you can do is Tylenol and ibuprofen and that's when he dumped me a brief Ray of Hope last year the CDC realized its error and updated its guidelines but they're not filtering down to every state or physician in the confusion doctors are still not listening to their patients most of the doctors are nervous about being written up for over prescribing doctors are afraid of losing their reputations they're worried about losing their DEA number and
they will hold back prescribing drugs to protect themselves in a rush to fix one problem we've created a new one the opioid crisis was a tragedy I understand why the government took the actions it did but I think it was way too drastic I'm not a drug addict not tired of being unheard and angry at losing their quality of life thousands are authoring petitions lobbying federal agencies and protesting across the country state by state I lost my quality of life and now it's in existence I'm just so sorry that some individuals had to suffer Laura's
home state of Minnesota is one of the leaders on this issue it now offers legal protections to doctors who prescribe opioids appropriately but even she still cannot find a doctor to prescribe the dosage she needs for Comfort I I don't get to do anything anymore all I'm doing is breathing air inside four walls I'm not that old I'm 66 years old the opioid crisis is a huge problem but this isn't an either or situation doctors can stop over prescribing and make sure chronic pain patients get relief if only they'd be brave enough to put their
patients first to all the doctors out there I want someone to treat me as a human being if someone is telling you hey something's wrong with my body believe them how can you so blatantly ignore the Hippocratic Oath that you took to do no harm [Music]
