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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (11858)	10/11/2003 3:11:06 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793723

Hi M, great post, Up until about 4 years ago I lived with chronic pain in my back. Some days it was a mild annoyance, and other days I was practically crippled and could hardly walk. Doctors kept saying it was muscle spasms and I should rest until the pain went away. For years I went through the ordeal of heightened pain, followed by rest, pain medication, and semi-normal living until the next spasm hit. Strangely, most of the time I thought my pain condition was similar to what everyone else was going through when they said their back hurt. One day my right leg went completely numb. So I had an MRI done and my L4-L5 disk was discovered ruptured. Who knows how long it was like that. I went in for surgery immediately and had a partial laminectomy. After 6 months of stiffness, my back was just about completely free of pain. An occasional massage keeps me feeling fine today. Before I went in for surgery I scoured the net looking for data on this thing called a partial laminectomy. And I came to the conclusion it had about a 70% chance of success. I was one of the lucky ones. After partial laminectomy is discounted, things get pretty ugly in regard to back surgery choices. What's my point? I remember going through periods where I popped 800 milligrams of motrin quite often. Never really thought much about it. I was in pain, it was prescribed by a doctor, so why the heck not. I also remember storing up Naldecene and taking it when a particularly bad spasm hit. Back to Rush... Seems to me if you're a guy like Rush Limbaugh you have choices the average person does not have. First of all, if you're in chronic pain, why couldn't he get a doctor to prescribe long term prescription coverage. In addition, he could have hired a full-time Massage Therapist, Acupuncturist, chiropractor, build a perfect worldpool bath, or consult with the formost back experts in the world. My point is, he had choices. What I speculate happened is he let his ego get the better of him. He didn't want to appear weak and need these people to assist his daily living so he began taking pills instead. As his body became used to increasing doses, he upped the ante believing he was too strong a person to ever get addicted. Then it happened, he became addicted and lost his good judgement in the need for these drugs. It's sad, but it happens to a lot of decent people. I hope now he seeks the kind of back therapy help he needs, outside the venue of drugs. I believe they are available to a person with the resources of Rush Limbaugh. My two cents...