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    puncha yo bunsMarina Galperina
    2/11/16 4:34pm

    I’ve never been a fan of Big Pharma conspiracies, but I was quite recently almost convinced. Lulz.*

    Long story short, I have chronic headaches that come daily and vary in intensity from mild to annoyingly bad. I usually just ignore them til they go away, maybe 30-60 min. A couple hours every once in a while. Recently a neurologist offered to me “Well, we can’t really fix your headaches, but here’s this recent medicine for seizures that tested well with your kind of pain.” And I was like...ummmm....

    And then she was like “and there are side effects, like nausea, confusion, fatigue, weight gain, etc, etc...but it’s no biggie, here are these two other prescriptions to combat those side effects.”

    I thought, you want to give me this medicine to treat something I don’t have and take multiple prescriptions to combat the side effects that I don’t need? No thanks, I’ll just deal.

    So what I’m trying to say is that now I’m a full-fledged conspiracist.

    *Don’t worry, I’m not actually crazy. Yet. I did hear this interesting theory about the Earth’s shape the other week tho...

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      lookout!itsthepossepuncha yo buns
      2/11/16 4:37pm

      Well as we all know, the plural of anecdote is data.

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      Seattle Danpuncha yo buns
      2/11/16 4:40pm

      In all serious, use cannabis instead.

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    pedal-forceMarina Galperina
    2/11/16 4:42pm

    Amazing how as soon as a bunch of (non-poor) white people start dying of opiod overdoses it’s suddenly a national crisis.

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      Gawquera de Tokers Townpedal-force
      2/11/16 4:48pm

      And notice the “kindness” in assisting them with the side-effects of their addiction.

      In seriousness, I relied on them post-surgery. They are helpful when pain spikes. I couldn’t even come to close to getting addicted due to the constipation. I always wondered how addicts dealt with it.

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      Thidrekrpedal-force
      2/11/16 5:19pm

      That’s how everything and anything changes in the U.S., unfortunately.

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    MattyWollyMarina Galperina
    2/11/16 5:17pm

    In 2012, 259 million prescriptions were written for painkillers in 2012 (overwhelmingly in the South),

    If living south of the Mason-Dixon Line is so bleeding painful, why not move?

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      HesterMofetMattyWolly
      2/11/16 5:21pm

      It’s amazing how easy it is to get a prescription for them for minor pain. I had a breast augmentation a few years ago and they gave me a JUG of pain killers, and a prescription sleeping drug, AND an anti-nausea pill that was previously an antipsychotic. YAY! I didn’t need anything more than Tylenol and never took any of that junk. It seems like every bump or bruise I’ve had (bike accident, wrecked motor scooter), I was handed a strong painkiller prescription. I don’t fill them.

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      Bronze Sebs FeverMattyWolly
      2/11/16 5:53pm

      It’s the pill mills for the retirees, champ. They already did move...close to their final resting places.

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    barefootinMarina Galperina
    2/11/16 4:58pm

    You know else takes lots of opiods? People dying in hospice. We should definitely force dying people to have enemas every few days instead of developing a drug to help with constipation.

    Yeah drug companies are terrible. Yes addiction is a real and tragic problem. But jesus fucking christ we ought be able to help people manage terrible pain, without forcing them to endure further indignities.

    I like a good poop joke as much as much as anybody, but the outrage about this is some serious assholery.

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      BurnThemAll, Noted CrankyPantsbarefootin
      2/11/16 5:47pm

      Funny you should put it that way- during cancer treatment, I discreetly referred to the painful bowel-related side effects as “the Indignities.” Before then, I had no idea that constipation can HURT like a motherfucker. And, a few days later, that diarrhea can be so toxic that one’s ass is raw and bleeding and walking is agony.

      I’m in remission, but sometimes The Indignities return with a pain level that makes Percocet a necessary evil. So, yeah, anyone that looks down on users of painkillers as simple addicts can kindly go fuck themselves.

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      1Pompadourbarefootin
      2/11/16 5:59pm

      Thank you. These people have obviously not experienced intractable pain or seen somebody they love going through it.

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    World of Cheese!Marina Galperina
    2/11/16 4:38pm

    Or, you could eat a few prunes everyday and increase water intake like I did after I had back surgery and had this problem.

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      andthenshewaslikeWorld of Cheese!
      2/11/16 4:50pm

      I was going to ask, what’s wrong with more water and over the counter stuff like Metamucil? Is opioid constipation different?

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      shelwoodandthenshewaslike
      2/11/16 4:56pm

      It is. Opioids can reduce motility, so increasing fiber and water intake doesn’t usually help much and can make it worse.

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    LordBurleighMarina Galperina
    2/11/16 4:39pm

    It would be nice to see a broad-bore approach to treatment of opioid (and other) addictions, from regulation of marketing and prescriptions to adequate funding of treatment programs, instead of relying on private for-profit clinics—and thus addicts’ financial resources—and 12-Step approaches to bear the brunt of addressing such a widespread problem.

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      PoodletimeLordBurleigh
      2/11/16 7:56pm

      And, sadly, it turns out that 12-step approaches do not work very well for narcotics addiction. For that, people tend to need medication-based treatment, which is not yet widely available. Sigh.

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    Prada LovelaceMarina Galperina
    2/11/16 4:37pm

    I’ve seen these ads popping up around my neighborhood in Chicago. There’s a open air drug trade spot near my house, and sure enough, all the billboards in the bus shelters are elaborate, professional ads for opoid-induced constipation aids. It’s really sad.

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      DisMyBurnerBaeMarina Galperina
      2/11/16 7:07pm

      I think drugs are bad, mmmkay, unless they come from “all natural” like coffee, tobacco, alcohol and cyanide. Those are good for you, because they come from the ground. Obviously the bad drugs come from guys in suits who like soft dicks.

      OR

      Not all “drugs” or “drug companies” are the same? Is it possible that some drug companies actually manufacture drugs with the intent to help fight disease like cancer or HIV?

      Is it possible that “all natural” and “comes from the ground” are meaningless, non-scientific criteria? Is it possible that the FDA isn’t part of the illuminati that wants to destroy you and fake lunar landings, but is actually made up of scientist and industry workers who want to help enforce regulations to make drugs and food safe? AND require PROOF OF SAFETY AND EFFICACY? Is that possible?

      Or is it all a “scam” to “sell you painkillers”? ARe there no other drugs I ask you?

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        lorem ipsumDisMyBurnerBae
        2/11/16 7:36pm

        There are goid drugs, but drug companies are not exactly altruistic. Check out their financial statements some time.

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        DisMyBurnerBaelorem ipsum
        2/12/16 11:45am

        What company is altruistic? Who has expectations of altruism from for profit industry?

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      hydroxideMarina Galperina
      2/11/16 4:34pm

      Yeah, it’s really ridiculous to claim that the human body is such a complex system that you sometimes can’t make omelettes without breaking adds. I mean who believes such a crap? It’s evident that the human body is made out of Lego bricks any child can rearrange any way it wishes. To suggest you need to talk with experts is preposterous!

      That is to say:

      Get a bleeping education. You’re quite evidently in way over your head.

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        MashaMarina Galperina
        2/11/16 5:28pm

        Ugh. Yeah I take blood pressure medicine because I have dangerously high blood pressure due to the combination of my anti-depressant (which I can’t get off of, since it has notoriously terrible withdrawal effects, and also I get very sad without it, as one might expect) and my hormonal birth control (which I have to take because of my PCOS).

        I’m 28. I take at least four daily medications. I can’t wait to see what happens when I hit my thirties; I imagine I’ll have to start looking on Pnterest for ways to jazz up my pill box that I carry everywhere like a particularly disease-prone senior citizen.

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