Not treating pain because of arbitrary rules and regulations, in my mind, goes against the Hippocratic oath. You know the blurb in the oath about doing no harm? Concerns about opioid misuse and legal consequences stand in the way of that part of the oath.

The pain management discussion interests me because I'm dealing with it first-hand. My husband's back is a mess, so much so that his back doctor, who deplores surgery and considers it a last resort, is practically salivating to get him on the operating table.

I'll spare the medical details of what's going on. Suffice it to say the conditions are causing pain. I'm not talking about the "oh my aching back" kind of pain. I'm talking about pain that is so bad, he screams when he gets up in the morning.  To put this in perspective, my husband's typical treatment of pain, cold, flu or whatnot in the past was to pop an Advil or two, and go about his business. But this is pain that goes beyond something an ibuprofen or NSAID can handle.

His severe pain sent us on a frustrating trip through the health care system. His back doctor didn't want him on Vicodin because of worries about post-operative pain management. But he never provided an effective alternative – the Ultratram he prescribed did a good job of making my husband sweaty and nauseous. And still in pain.

Our family medical doctor, whom I love dearly, had no problem prescribing Vicodan. But getting refills was a pitched battle. The practice doled pills with all the willingness of Scrooge giving Marley his pay. Every two or three days I would call the office, only to hear "but we sent over a prescription a couple of days ago." Then I would have to repeat, yet again, the problem with my husband's pain issues.

When, in exasperation, I finally asked the nurse why the practice couldn't prescribe a big bottle of pain killers and make both our lives easier, she told me the doctor was afraid of being caught giving too many out at one time for fear of being "caught." Like a dealer selling illicit drugs. This well-trained physician feared the wrath of some regulatory agency for prescribing to much Vicodin. 

We were, finally and thankfully, referred to a pain management doctor, who prescribed a series of meds and had my husband sign a contract similar to the one mentioned in the article online. So far, so good – my spouse isn't pain-free (the doctor was upfront in saying that wasn't going to happen). But the pain is manageable, and he's able to function.

When my mom went through horrific pain last year because of her knee, her orthopedist told her doctors, more often than not, under-prescribe opioids for fear patients will abuse them. That doctor immediately increased her dosage of Vicodin. She'd been only taking one Vicodin every six hours, which was what her family doctor ordered. The new dosage was one or two pills, every four hours, as needed, for pain.  She never abused that. Nor did my husband – and he's not abusing his meds now.

Our lesson learned from this is to get to a pain management specialist pronto if you, or someone you know, is suffering chronic pain.

I also have a message to Congress, the FDA and other legislative bodies who believe schedule three drugs are a form of Reefer Madness: Stop making arbitrary rules about what doctors can and cannot prescribe. Stop putting the chokehold on physicians because patients MIGHT misuse pain meds.  For every Rush Limbaugh who abuses Oxycontin, there are thousands of pain-suffers out there who need more than one pill every six hours.

In other words, let doctors do their jobs so they can adhere to their oath of doing no harm.