When did you decide to take your health into your own hands?

[sweetpea123]

I started ordering online in 2009. Back then I could order on a pharmacy website, fill out an online questionnaire and a prescription would be supplied along with my meds which would be delivered the next day. It wasn’t too long after that those options were no longer available and I had to start ordering from IOP’s. That’s around the time I found this site.

Wow that was really living the dream back in 2009!!!

 

[jenh22]

I started ordering online in 2009. Back then I could order on a pharmacy website, fill out an online questionnaire and a prescription would be supplied along with my meds which would be delivered the next day. It wasn’t too long after that those options were no longer available and I had to start ordering from IOP’s. That’s around the time I found this site.

Wow that was really living the dream back in 2009!!!

It really was!

I was bored and started looking at some of my old posts from a decade ago. Right now I can’t see any of my senior members posts but it’s still crazy to see how much things have changed.

I saw a post from 2014 stating that I had never received an LL

Now I get at least a few every year.

 

[Deanzer]

Suppose it was when it became nearly impossible to get a doctors appointment never mind get what you were previously prescribed!.
Basically they just done the rapid detox and bye now routine!!.I can see the GREAT BRITISH nhs being privatised within the next 10yrs MAXIMUM and to think we had the pride of the health care system not so long ago.
Actually tbh I was supplementing what I was prescribed before covid came to this earth but since then I don’t really see a difference?,as in during the lockdown period you couldn’t go near the GPs not much has changed in my eyes!.
Deanzer….

 

[crueheads]

I took it into my own hands due to a lack of health insurance... Without health insurance, even a simple office visit cost can easily exceed the cost of getting the meds online for stuff I have already been diagnosed for but doctors won't script without repeated office visits... I also got entirely turned off by doctors and the fact that they all treat me like a junkie the minute I walk in the door for my back pain because I'm not getting regular checkups due to lack of insurance... I have a chronic back injury and the only thing that helps when it flares up is opioids, and the minute I inquire about them with the doctor during a flare up you can see the accusations all over their face and if they do actually script me any, it's like 5 or 10 pills... I'm not some junkie I only take opioids when my back gets unmanageable with over-the-counter pain pills and that might only be for a week or two each year (although it could be more) but just the same if I try to get opioids during one of those flareup it's like pulling teeth and costly...

And even for my wife who does have basic medical insurance, her meds are cheaper to source overseas as her annual deductible is so high that every office visit is out of pocket for her most years... Her doctor will only script her 4 migraine pills at a time with 3 refills, but her insurance will only pay for one refill a month, so after she uses those 4 pills it's all full price out of pocket if she needs a refill before 30 days!!! In the end she can get 6-12 months worth of migraine pills online for about 20% of what it would cost in office visits over that time period...

 

[crueheads]

I started ordering online in 2009. Back then I could order on a pharmacy website, fill out an online questionnaire and a prescription would be supplied along with my meds which would be delivered the next day. It wasn’t too long after that those options were no longer available and I had to start ordering from IOP’s. That’s around the time I found this site.

Wow that was really living the dream back in 2009!!!

It really was!

I was bored and started looking at some of my old posts from a decade ago. Right now I can’t see any of my senior members posts but it’s still crazy to see how much things have changed.

I saw a post from 2014 stating that I had never received an LL

Now I get at least a few every year.

It was a dream back then, so much easier, so much more selection... The worst part for me back then was hoping that Money Gram or Western Union wouldn't ban me or that the clerk at the store wouldn't refuse to send the money to that random name in that random city that you were emailed just an hour before and had to keep a straight face about knowing them when they asked

 

[sweetpea123]

I took it into my own hands due to a lack of health insurance... Without health insurance, even a simple office visit cost can easily exceed the cost of getting the meds online for stuff I have already been diagnosed for but doctors won't script without repeated office visits... I also got entirely turned off by doctors and the fact that they all treat me like a junkie the minute I walk in the door for my back pain because I'm not getting regular checkups due to lack of insurance... I have a chronic back injury and the only thing that helps when it flares up is opioids, and the minute I inquire about them with the doctor during a flare up you can see the accusations all over their face and if they do actually script me any, it's like 5 or 10 pills... I'm not some junkie I only take opioids when my back gets unmanageable with over-the-counter pain pills and that might only be for a week or two each year (although it could be more) but just the same if I try to get opioids during one of those flareup it's like pulling teeth and costly...

And even for my wife who does have basic medical insurance, her meds are cheaper to source overseas as her annual deductible is so high that every office visit is out of pocket for her most years... Her doctor will only script her 4 migraine pills at a time with 3 refills, but her insurance will only pay for one refill a month, so after she uses those 4 pills it's all full price out of pocket if she needs a refill before 30 days!!! In the end she can get 6-12 months worth of migraine pills online for about 20% of what it would cost in office visits over that time period...

The migraine pills are so crazy to me. I also have migraines and I feel like people who don’t get them don’t understand how truly debilitating they are. I first started to get them around 12 years (some type of genetic component because my mom and sister also get them). Triptans didn’t work for me and caused weird side effects. Before all of these CGRP meds came out (nurtec, ubrelvy) the only thing that could break a 3-4 day migraine was tramadol. I discovered it worked by accident, I had a migraine after a foot surgery and the tramadol just happened to help. After the foot surgery I was only given 5 at a time so I basically had to pick and choose if I wanted to suffer through or if it was bad enough to take one of my precious meds. Then after a while they would no longer give tramadol at all. They treat anyone with pain as drug seeking nowadays truly a shame. Now I use nurtec which takes away the headache in under an hour. I only get 8 per month though and because there is no generic version it costs $1300. With my insurance it costs $900. Luckily they have a savings card right now that covers the rest of the cost, but I don’t know what I will do when it expires. The system sucks and I can’t imagine a doctor only giving 4 migraine pills a month. So happy you are able to get her a proper supply!

 

[crueheads]

The system does suck, her doctors excuse for only scripting 4 a month is because that is all the insurance company will allow per month on the co-pay, after that it would be full price...

What is working for her right now is Sumatriptan, it knocks her out for a few hours but it's not like she was going to be functional with the migraine anyway...

 

[Deanzer]

That’s the issue in the USA with opiate meds PURDUE fucked it up for you all with the just increase the dose shit!.
Not only that they’re idiotic claims that Oxy are NOT Addicting and mst ect are bad for liver and FAR more addictive,now you take a chance buying god knows what’s in them from iops with fentanyl and the rest of it.If you can get real oxy the prices are MAD crazy .There’s quite a few different docu/dramas about how evil these pharma companies were pushing OXY as the miracle med for pain free life it’s disgusting that they still haven’t been jailed for all the ODs and the fact that many people are now using either H or Fentanyl as it’s just unobtainable if your not in the low percentage of the Superrich in the US!.
It’s Disgusting how they got it past the FDA too absolutely evil in my eyes!!.
Deanzer….

 

[crueheads]

For me, I don't even want OXY, when my back flares up, codeine or hydrocodone will at least take the edge off and allow me to get out of bed and that is all that I want to do when that happens... I'm sure OXY would do the trick as well, but I don't want to get loopy, I don't have an addictive personality and I don't even like getting drunk, so I take just enough pain killer to knock the pain level down... Sadly they group every opioid now into the devil's pills that only druggies want... And now as you said, who knows what you will get from any overseas pharmacy nowadays, I don't want to run the risk of getting something that is fentanyl-laced, so I have explored other solutions to my pain management now, but it would just be so much easier if I could get some codeine or hydrocodone from a local doctor when needed...

 

[sweetpea123]

@jaders yes and don’t even get me started on the higher chance of maternal death during child birth in women of color!

 

[Lins8888]

Years ago when my doc wouldn’t give out tramadol anymore. All the docs are so scared to give anything out they just cut u off & leave u in miserable pain/ depression. It’s awful & something needs to be done. Sooo many people where I live are dying of fentanyl daily b/c docs cut them off simple pain meds….seems to be a losing battle though. I don’t know what we can do when we can’t get out meds & docs don’t listen. A person can’t live their life in agony pain & not function. Not worth living. Something needs to be done. Lots suicides here too sadly. I just don’t get it. I know people w/ cancer who can’t get hardly anything in my state. They act like every one is selling it on streets & it’s not the case. It’s so sad. I just got out of hospital recently & can’t even get out of bed to take good care of my kid like I always have which is more depressing. I’m having to beg every one for help constantly. Awful way to live as I know many others are too….what do we do tho?

 

[jaders]

Years ago when my doc wouldn’t give out tramadol anymore. All the docs are so scared to give anything out they just cut u off & leave u in miserable pain/ depression. It’s awful & something needs to be done. Sooo many people where I live are dying of fentanyl daily b/c docs cut them off simple pain meds….seems to be a losing battle though. I don’t know what we can do when we can’t get out meds & docs don’t listen. A person can’t live their life in agony pain & not function. Not worth living. Something needs to be done. Lots suicides here too sadly. I just don’t get it. I know people w/ cancer who can’t get hardly anything in my state. They act like every one is selling it on streets & it’s not the case. It’s so sad. I just got out of hospital recently & can’t even get out of bed to take good care of my kid like I always have which is more depressing. I’m having to beg every one for help constantly. Awful way to live as I know many others are too….what do we do tho?

You come here and find places that sell what you need. They're out there and honestly, I think the market is growing. I feel like I have more options than I did a few years ago. They are all pretty much "clandestine" rather than any legit pharmacy now tho, which is what law enforcement has brought us to...

But it can be done safely and effectively, with some effort. This forum is extremely valuable for us folks who want to make our own decisions about our own quality of life and get around what our very unwise society has forced upon us.

Stick around and hope you find what you need!

 

[Lins8888]

@jaders I hope so Jaders! I’ve had hard time w/ tram. I had great guy for couple years & he got new shippers “he said” & all of a sudden-two fake packages. In blisters but pills fell into pieces & it def was NOT tram-no bitter taste, just fell apart like sugar. Luckily no fent as I tested but God knows what it was…. He won’t give refund & says he found good product & is sending He blamed shipper & said every one having hard time finding tram now but hopefully that will end. I can’t remember if u liked tram or not but remember talking to u in past! Anyway Found another route I’m “trying” so hoping it works out

 

[Lins8888]

I took it into my own hands due to a lack of health insurance... Without health insurance, even a simple office visit cost can easily exceed the cost of getting the meds online for stuff I have already been diagnosed for but doctors won't script without repeated office visits... I also got entirely turned off by doctors and the fact that they all treat me like a junkie the minute I walk in the door for my back pain because I'm not getting regular checkups due to lack of insurance... I have a chronic back injury and the only thing that helps when it flares up is opioids, and the minute I inquire about them with the doctor during a flare up you can see the accusations all over their face and if they do actually script me any, it's like 5 or 10 pills... I'm not some junkie I only take opioids when my back gets unmanageable with over-the-counter pain pills and that might only be for a week or two each year (although it could be more) but just the same if I try to get opioids during one of those flareup it's like pulling teeth and costly...

And even for my wife who does have basic medical insurance, her meds are cheaper to source overseas as her annual deductible is so high that every office visit is out of pocket for her most years... Her doctor will only script her 4 migraine pills at a time with 3 refills, but her insurance will only pay for one refill a month, so after she uses those 4 pills it's all full price out of pocket if she needs a refill before 30 days!!! In the end she can get 6-12 months worth of migraine pills online for about 20% of what it would cost in office visits over that time period...

The migraine pills are so crazy to me. I also have migraines and I feel like people who don’t get them don’t understand how truly debilitating they are. I first started to get them around 12 years (some type of genetic component because my mom and sister also get them). Triptans didn’t work for me and caused weird side effects. Before all of these CGRP meds came out (nurtec, ubrelvy) the only thing that could break a 3-4 day migraine was tramadol. I discovered it worked by accident, I had a migraine after a foot surgery and the tramadol just happened to help. After the foot surgery I was only given 5 at a time so I basically had to pick and choose if I wanted to suffer through or if it was bad enough to take one of my precious meds. Then after a while they would no longer give tramadol at all. They treat anyone with pain as drug seeking nowadays truly a shame. Now I use nurtec which takes away the headache in under an hour. I only get 8 per month though and because there is no generic version it costs $1300. With my insurance it costs $900. Luckily they have a savings card right now that covers the rest of the cost, but I don’t know what I will do when it expires. The system sucks and I can’t imagine a doctor only giving 4 migraine pills a month. So happy you are able to get her a proper supply!

Yesss I’m on nurtec too for migraine & it is lifesaver but screw that $900 lol. It sucks!!!!!! I have to decide if head hurts bad enough to take pill or save for future date constantly can’t afford that crap again. U are just like me I think! The Triptans suck & did NOTHING for headache & the tramadol helps me big time but God forbid getting doc to prescribe. So sorry u guys have to deal w/ migraine too. U literally cannot function but nurtec is lifesaver & headache gone in 20 min if u can afford. Sometimes it takes YEARS to get generic. My tram was very cheap but doctor decided enough & didn’t want to prescribe it to me any longer as he worried I had been taking too long sucks as it’s just a light pain killer. It’s not like I was asking for anything big I got the dependency on pills lecture & try prescription ibprofin yea that really helps lmbo. Does nothing for me

 

[jaders]

I took it into my own hands due to a lack of health insurance... Without health insurance, even a simple office visit cost can easily exceed the cost of getting the meds online for stuff I have already been diagnosed for but doctors won't script without repeated office visits... I also got entirely turned off by doctors and the fact that they all treat me like a junkie the minute I walk in the door for my back pain because I'm not getting regular checkups due to lack of insurance... I have a chronic back injury and the only thing that helps when it flares up is opioids, and the minute I inquire about them with the doctor during a flare up you can see the accusations all over their face and if they do actually script me any, it's like 5 or 10 pills... I'm not some junkie I only take opioids when my back gets unmanageable with over-the-counter pain pills and that might only be for a week or two each year (although it could be more) but just the same if I try to get opioids during one of those flareup it's like pulling teeth and costly...

And even for my wife who does have basic medical insurance, her meds are cheaper to source overseas as her annual deductible is so high that every office visit is out of pocket for her most years... Her doctor will only script her 4 migraine pills at a time with 3 refills, but her insurance will only pay for one refill a month, so after she uses those 4 pills it's all full price out of pocket if she needs a refill before 30 days!!! In the end she can get 6-12 months worth of migraine pills online for about 20% of what it would cost in office visits over that time period...

The migraine pills are so crazy to me. I also have migraines and I feel like people who don’t get them don’t understand how truly debilitating they are. I first started to get them around 12 years (some type of genetic component because my mom and sister also get them). Triptans didn’t work for me and caused weird side effects. Before all of these CGRP meds came out (nurtec, ubrelvy) the only thing that could break a 3-4 day migraine was tramadol. I discovered it worked by accident, I had a migraine after a foot surgery and the tramadol just happened to help. After the foot surgery I was only given 5 at a time so I basically had to pick and choose if I wanted to suffer through or if it was bad enough to take one of my precious meds. Then after a while they would no longer give tramadol at all. They treat anyone with pain as drug seeking nowadays truly a shame. Now I use nurtec which takes away the headache in under an hour. I only get 8 per month though and because there is no generic version it costs $1300. With my insurance it costs $900. Luckily they have a savings card right now that covers the rest of the cost, but I don’t know what I will do when it expires. The system sucks and I can’t imagine a doctor only giving 4 migraine pills a month. So happy you are able to get her a proper supply!

Yesss I’m on nurtec too for migraine & it is lifesaver but screw that $900 lol. It sucks!!!!!! I have to decide if head hurts bad enough to take pill or save for future date constantly can’t afford that crap again. U are just like me I think! The Triptans suck & did NOTHING for headache & the tramadol helps me big time but God forbid getting doc to prescribe. So sorry u guys have to deal w/ migraine too. U literally cannot function but nurtec is lifesaver & headache gone in 20 min if u can afford. Sometimes it takes YEARS to get generic. My tram was very cheap but doctor decided enough & didn’t want to prescribe it to me any longer as he worried I had been taking too long sucks as it’s just a light pain killer. It’s not like I was asking for anything big I got the dependency on pills lecture & try prescription ibprofin yea that really helps lmbo. Does nothing for me

Don’t you wish you could tell that Mofo that all he did by cutting you off against your will was to drive you to now try and find it much less safely! Gawd these people are just idiots! They save their “bacon” instead of caring about the needs of their patients.

Did you try telling him that the CDC said they NEVER intended folks to be taken off of their meds against their will?

Such stupidity…

I don’t have a need or use for that med, myself but it’s a godsend for some folks and has so little opiate it’s silly that they are so worried.

 

[Lins8888]

Absolutely!!! Makes me so angry. My hometown is a mess (as many others) from pain pills so my docs are BOTH saying that they fear they could get in trouble for prescribing too long. One mentioned me going to pain clinic but someone told me half the docs won’t give out meds there, only injections which made me worse like 15 years ago! It’s awful. I have friend with cancer who gets a VERY SMALL amount pain meds & doesn’t have long to live & his doc is giving him the PATHETIC BARE Minimum nice way to live out your days in pain….its ridiculous. They force people to risk their lives just to live a decent one pain free. They used to send you in years ago every 3 months and made killing money wise off these meds and now just “cut u off” when u do nothing wrong….whats ridiculous is this same doc wants to prescribe me 3 mg of klonopin (which I think is a lot) for ptsd/anxiety etc. I feel benzo is 10 times worse than weak pain pills & makes me a forgetful zombie who prob should not even be driving when taken :/ they’re strong for little me lol! But yea Jaders something needs to be done, but I don’t know what. We can write letters (which I did couple years ago along w/ others on here who advised me to) but it clearly did nothing. I’d love to tell this doctor exactly what I think but then he’d prob call pharmacy & have me black balled from anything controlled etc….ive heard of docs & pharma doing that. I may try pain clinic route as my route is becoming soo expensive….plus the risk & anxiety is causes thx for caring for those of us needing pain meds when not ur thing!! My fam & friends just don’t seem to get it it sucks bad lol I want to be out enjoying my days w/ kid & not hurting & miserable to make them happy. Pain/ depression makes u irritable too & I hate that

 

[crueheads]

Yesss I’m on nurtec too for migraine & it is lifesaver but screw that $900 lol. It sucks!!!!!! I have to decide if head hurts bad enough to take pill or save for future date constantly can’t afford that crap again. U are just like me I think! The Triptans suck & did NOTHING for headache & the tramadol helps me big time but God forbid getting doc to prescribe. So sorry u guys have to deal w/ migraine too. U literally cannot function but nurtec is lifesaver & headache gone in 20 min if u can afford. Sometimes it takes YEARS to get generic. My tram was very cheap but doctor decided enough & didn’t want to prescribe it to me any longer as he worried I had been taking too long sucks as it’s just a light pain killer. It’s not like I was asking for anything big I got the dependency on pills lecture & try prescription ibprofin yea that really helps lmbo. Does nothing for me

The wife lucked recently, she was getting her migraine pills from her OB-GYN as the migraines peeked during pregnancy and that was the doctor she was seeing most often... I actually Googled it up and apparently, OB-GYNs regularly script migraine meds, who knew ‍♂ Anyway she recently got a new primary care doctor and for the hell of it she inquired about migraine meds, and was able to get a script for 12 of them with 3 refills out of her new primary doctor... We will still be getting them overseas due to cost and hassle but she is now able to take a deep breath as she has a doctor that isn't pushing back on scripting them...

As for tramadol, as I have said before on the forum, I used to take it for pain, it was just enough to do the job and it gave me that little euphoric effect on top, but after about 6 months I found my brain asking for more and more, since I don't have an addictive personality I said no-no but the nagging got bad and physical effects started to kick in when I didn't take the next dose soon enough... I decided I had to get myself off them, one of the worst weeks or two I have ever experienced... I have never had withdrawals like that from other opioid painkillers, but tramadol was vicious... Annoying as it did a wonderful job at taking the edge off my pain and I loved the little euphoric effect it gave me, it kept me off the couch and doing things, but never again for me...

 

[jaders]

Absolutely!!! Makes me so angry. My hometown is a mess (as many others) from pain pills so my docs are BOTH saying that they fear they could get in trouble for prescribing too long. One mentioned me going to pain clinic but someone told me half the docs won’t give out meds there, only injections which made me worse like 15 years ago! It’s awful. I have friend with cancer who gets a VERY SMALL amount pain meds & doesn’t have long to live & his doc is giving him the PATHETIC BARE Minimum nice way to live out your days in pain….its ridiculous. They force people to risk their lives just to live a decent one pain free. They used to send you in years ago every 3 months and made killing money wise off these meds and now just “cut u off” when u do nothing wrong….whats ridiculous is this same doc wants to prescribe me 3 mg of klonopin (which I think is a lot) for ptsd/anxiety etc. I feel benzo is 10 times worse than weak pain pills & makes me a forgetful zombie who prob should not even be driving when taken :/ they’re strong for little me lol! But yea Jaders something needs to be done, but I don’t know what. We can write letters (which I did couple years ago along w/ others on here who advised me to) but it clearly did nothing. I’d love to tell this doctor exactly what I think but then he’d prob call pharmacy & have me black balled from anything controlled etc….ive heard of docs & pharma doing that. I may try pain clinic route as my route is becoming soo expensive….plus the risk & anxiety is causes thx for caring for those of us needing pain meds when not ur thing!! My fam & friends just don’t seem to get it it sucks bad lol I want to be out enjoying my days w/ kid & not hurting & miserable to make them happy. Pain/ depression makes u irritable too & I hate that

3 mg of klonopin IS a lot, imho. I get a small amount from my PCP if I want and they're only the .5 mg which is plenty for me as well. Crazy, because you are absolutely right - benzos are harder to get off of than opioids from most people's account. And despite feeling like death in WD's from painkillers, you aren't really at risk of dying, like you can be with benzos that can cause deadly seizures.

The whole thing makes absolutely no sense. The CDC came back and even said they did NOT intend for everyone to be thrown off their meds or even tapered against their will. But the whole thing has caught fire that still isn't put out. I doubt pain meds will ever be widespread prescribed adequately again, but I do think they might become less vilified eventually. Maybe when the powers that be realize that reasonable people are purchasing this necessary for quality of life drug on the net which is so obviously more dangerous - maybe they'll realize that some folks (most) can use opiates responsibly despite the rampant fentanyl issue which is a whole different ballgame, again mho...

Stick around and get what you need. It's extremely liberating and that alone can make the stress and pain caused by not having adequate meds, lower dramatically..

 

[Lins8888]

Everyone has always been so nice & helpful here. Not only do I find great suggestions to get thru this nightmare, the encouragement makes me feel much better & less alone. Sometimes I feel like the only one w/ my issues. Nice talking to people more like me & not being judged I just hope doctors will one day again care more about their patients than people abusing etc. or the powers to be will not harass docs for prescribing. I guess u just have to find the right doc. Crazy world lately

 

[jaders]

Everyone has always been so nice & helpful here. Not only do I find great suggestions to get thru this nightmare, the encouragement makes me feel much better & less alone. Sometimes I feel like the only one w/ my issues. Nice talking to people more like me & not being judged I just hope doctors will one day again care more about their patients than people abusing etc. or the powers to be will not harass docs for prescribing. I guess u just have to find the right doc. Crazy world lately

Older doctors seem to be less bought in to the opiates are bad craze, imho. Unfortunately when you find a good older pcp then after a few years they retire on you…