A Double Dose of Dealing With Addiction

So a person I know claims that the doctors waited to long to test for Lyme and it "left the blood". Also the person claimed that the tests look for a bacteria in the blood. The fact actually is that the blood tests look for antibodies to B. burgdorferi and there can be false positives to the test so a second test is then done to determine the diagnosis of Lyme Disease.

I have looked at several sources and can not find a time limit as to not being able to find it with the blood test. In fact if you test to soon after infection you will get a false negative and it is advised that if Lyme is suspected that the test be repeated in six months to a year. This kind of flies in the opposite direction of the claims the person has made.

Personally one of the first things this person ever asked me is if I knew a doctor who prescribed narcotics. This really should have been my first clue but I had no idea of the facts at the time and just trusted them.

It was after a confrontation on social media where the person pushed hard for the name of a doctor I saw in the ER and what the medication was he gave me that I realized there was something very wrong with the situation.

After all why would a person not take "I don't know his name, I can't read it on this prescription" for an answer. As well the medication was unreadable as well. I had no way to tell them what they wanted. Six interactions with them pressing for the name of the drug and the doctor later they got all upset and accused me of not wanting to help a person who was in pain.

It sparked on me finally what the real objective here was. The pain medication at all cost. Then I recalled the conversation earlier when they said the doctors accused them of just wanting drugs. Well so I looked it all up.

Sure enough there was no grounds to their story being the truth. I also recalled my brother going from doctor to doctor in a search for pain medication they claimed he did not need and was not responsible enough to use. In his case it ended up with him being looked after in a care facility after they found him on the floor unresponsive for the third time.

He is now in need of constant care and will not be getting out. He is in fact in there for the rest of his days.

I personally have a condition that causes me to now and then be in terrible pain. I have in the past tried all manner of pain meds and treatments for this. Nothing has worked. I then found later on after years of not being medicated for it, a treatment of CBD pills that reduce the pain levels dramatically. Even in a very strong flair the pain is at a manageable level. In fact at this moment I am in day 3 of a flair and have managed to do many thing including go out with friends for five hours. This same CBD pill has worked for several other friends with chronic pain some even more dramatically than myself.

So what is the difference between CBD and narcotics? CBD is made in this case from a strain of Cannabis that has next to no THC in it. That is to say if you took the entire bottle you would not even get a slight buzz. The narcotic pain meds of course give you a buzz and then some. Personally I don't like that feeling, I find it repulsive.

I do not blame anyone for becoming addicted to pain meds. The reality is there is an epidemic of this happening. The difference here is that street drug addicts tend to want to be this way and don't make an excuse. The prescription addict however, claims a continuing need for them.

In the brief time frame that I used such drugs I did so only when the pain was great enough that I could do nothing buy be in bed all day. I did not want to take the day to day non stop pain away at the expense of needing to slowly increase the dosage of a rather toxic drug.

Addiction is of the mind and the body. This makes it a hell of a thing to treat. The thing there is a person has to first realize they have an addiction issue and then look for treatment for it. So being there is an out of control epidemic of this happening the doctors have taken it away as an option.

When I was given the drug prescribed in the ER I took 1 dose and hated the way it made my head feel and took the rest back a few weeks later to be disposed of. By that time I did not actually need it in the first place and had no wish to use it again unless I really had to. For that I would have to be in more pain that I ever have been. Trust me I've been in a lot of it at times and without medication.

The natural alternative that I am using now reduces my day to day pain and my flairs by about 80%. I was skeptic as to if it would work but it sure as hell did and with no head change. Honestly I'm fine with the fact of needing to wait for hours in an ER to be medicated to get me threw that night of terrible pain and NOT be given any for at home. Typically the worst part is only one day of it in the first place for me. I'm lucky, I know people who flair for weeks and months at a time and are in a living hell.

After a lot of bad blood with the person in question and an ex long term friend who keeps following their line of lies, I still wish I could help. Now for a different reason, but the desire is there. I also know from most of a lifetime of living with a brother who has an addiction, I literally can't help this person. Just like the doctors can't help them.

Yes for people like myself who would use it responsibly and measure it out as needed, it's a bummer to not really have that option. But due to the epidemic we face we can not expect it to happen. After all real pain and fake pain look the same don't they.

The big victims here are those who are in terrible pain that can no longer get pain meds. The ones who have taken their lives to end the pain rather than live in a personal hell with no hope. I don't know if that falls on the heads of the medical professionals or the ones who caused them to take action. All I know is a lot of people are losing here for many reasons and that saddens me.