Passing For Normal

There are a fair number of folks in my LJ and DW circles who, like me, are living with chronic pain, and some of us have prescriptions for opioid pain medications of one kind or another. The laws regulating the procedures for prescribing these medications have changed, and the changes will go into effect on October 6th.

I'm posting a heads-up about it because I just got a panicked call from a friend whose doctor cut her off from refills without notice, referring her to pain specialist instead. It's not because she has abused the meds, or because he doesn't believe she needs them. She was hit by a car as a pedestrian; there's no question about her need. He did this because he, a primary care doctor, is feeling too much pressure from those who oversee prescription of these medications. Unfortunately, he (or his staff) failed to give my friend sufficient notice so she's going to be in intolerable pain for at least a week before even being seen by the new specialist.

Point being: If you are taking similar medications and if the doctor prescribing them to you is not a pain specialist, it might be worth checking them to see if this change in the law is going to bring about any changes in your care that you need to know about.

Here's a link to a web page discussing the change in legislation controlling the prescribing of opioid-containing medications:

Old pain medications, new rules

Briefly:

The change takes effect as of October 6th. If you need a refill very soon anyway, you might want to get one before then in order to avoid being inconvenienced (or at least to put off the inconvenience for a few months).

After this date, you will have to get a new paper prescription from your doctor for every 30-day supply. The doctor is not allowed to call it in. It has to be on paper and you have to walk it into the pharmacy. The doctor is allowed to write a maximum of three of these 30-day prescriptions at one time; each one must have a "must not be filled before [date]" restriction, so that you can't fill them all at once, but have to go back to the pharmacy every 30 days for each month's supply.

This also applies to anything containing codeine, including prescription cough syrups, so instead of having those phoned in you'll have to sit there and wait at the pharmacy while it's filled -- even if it means exposing many more people to your virus. (Pardon me; my sarcasm is showing.)

It may be worth noting that Tramadol, a non-opioid alternative to Vicodin, is not subject to these new restrictions. Some people may wish to talk with their doctors about whether it might be suitable for them instead of Vicodin. I'm told it can't be used to get high, and the side effects are supposed to be less onerous, so it might be a good option for some people. I plan to ask my own doctor about it since I hate Vicodin (it makes me sleepy, stupid, nauseated, and constipated) and something with fewer side effects would be most welcome.