[5796]

Limbaugh said he became addicted to painkillers after surgery.

Limbaugh says he's going into rehab for addiction
Rush Limbaugh announced on his radio program today that he was addicted to pain medication and that he was checking himself into a treatment center immediately. The conservative radio talk show host said he first became addicted to painkillers "some years ago," following unsuccessful spinal surgery.

FULL STORY

• Limbaugh's statement

here's the link:

http://www.cnn.com/

I'm not sure what to say. I don't care for his attitude or his politics. Having said that, "I don't wish addiction on anyone."

I think it is worth pointing out that he has the means to get his butt to a treatment center and miss work and probably still get his whole annual salary while being out.

There are people who are also addicted to pills who don't have his means..and for them...well, he is far less compassionate than I am to him.

 

[Marlena]

I believe Vicodin and hydrocodone are the same drug.

While I have utterly no respect whatsoever for Rush's usual spewings, I must give him credit for at least facing up publicly to his habit (heh, once it was incontrovertably exposed for him) rather than, for example, saying that it was all a big set up or "smear campaign" (hm, where have we heard that one recently?) or the like.

Opiates are generally not reasonable for chronic pain control (unless it's also pain control for an illness that is terminal), precisely because of the addiction issue. These drugs, by the by, are INCREDIBLY cheap on the street. Ridiculously cheap. Someone's insurance paid for the drug, and then that someone goes and sells them on the street at a cut rate (but still pocketing a substantial profit) - or at least that's one method that's used.

Oxycontin, in particular, is a really big problem.

 

[Hilary Briss]

Let's all pray for an overdose...

 

[guestmama9906]

Quote:

Originally posted by Nursing Mother My question would be "so what" if someone becomes tolerant of the drug as long is there is no abuse and the persons pain is managed, allow the person the drug, but under careful supervision.

I just had to pop in and say that the reason you can't stay on these painkillers too long is that they cause kidney damage. My grandmother had been taking them for a few years and her kidneys are now functioning at 40 percent. Her doc had no idea she had been getting refills (how do people do that?? Pharmacists never give me more than I need!), stashing them away and using them constantly!

 

[5796]

Just for the record....

I've been thinking about Rush. Obviously.

anyway, can someone, maybe NM or someone else who might listen to him..can you please tell me what really is his deal?

Because his mean spiritness is so...meanspirited.

I guess I am a feminazi because I believe in equal pay for equal work. I never quite understood his meaness over that. Or why the Third Reich should be attached to me.

I'm also a "treehugger" because I do believe the toxins being spewed out are unconscionable and no I don't think Big Business has my best interest in mind with regards to enviroment.

Basically, from my perspective is that Rush's note to america is .... if you are a white man and you feel bad about yourself, it is not your fault it is THOSE people who are hurting you.

anyway, I saw this and it reminded me of a few things....

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/guillermo/

 

[dentente]

I have a dear friend who is hopelessly addicted to Vicodin for her chronic pain. The manufacturer's instructions say this drug should not be prescribed for longer than 3 months yet many people, like my friend, are forwarded onto chronic pain presciption refillers who basically ask "Are you still in pain" and then write the refill. 3 YEARS!!! How is that pain management? She is now weaning off them slowly using ever-shrinking dermal patches of the stuff but it's slow and it hurts her, both physically and emotionally to be so dependent. She has just been approved for Botox injections in the nerves of her neck where her chronic pain lives. This will hopefully shut down the pain and help her wean for real.

These drugs are not real solutions to chronic pain. Their over-prescription is immoral and damaging to countless lives, even that of his bloated Dittoness. No one should have to go through the fuzzy-headededness followed by raw need that is the opiate-addict's lot. My friend's marriage and her child have been so negatively impacted it's not even true.

I want to see new laws governing the dispensing and continued use of these drugs.

Never thought I say it but I feel for Rush, as much as I hate his politics. It must have been hard to make those statements on air. Maybe this will make him a nicer person. Miracles can happen, so I hear. His comments about the football player were odious at best.

Denny

 

[DaryLLL]

The article leaves out a couple things I saw on the evening news last night.

The maid claims he was forcing her to get him his drugs. One can only imagine how terrorized she was until she finally went to the police.

He may have lost his hearing as a result of the Oxycontin, which has hearing loss as a side effect. Even after going almost completely deaf, he contined to use.

He could have had more back surgery (too bad he didn't go to a chiorpractor?), but chose drugs instead.

He was taking 30 pills a day.

 

[PM]

I don't take them. I suffer instead. I would become addicted in a matter of days. If you haven't had this kind of pain you can't really judge. I've had months and months of chiropractic work and am just coming out of months and months of severe 24-hour pain.

Oh! And I took a mild NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) for 5 days. I am not supposed to because I have chronic gastritis - and a family history of stomach cancer - but I really couldn't take it anymore. I became tolerant within 3 days and would have needed to up the dose or find a stronger drug. I chose to continue the chiro work with no painkillers.

EDITED to add:
Just read DarylLLL's post. If that's true, the guy's just a nut! - which I already thought anyway.

 

[calgal007]

Note to Rush: Welcome to the Human Condition. You gave us the impression that the "mess" of humanity applied only to people you called names like "treehugger" etc. Addiction knows no class/political/economic/race/gender distinction.

 

[DaryLLL]

Parismaman, I also see a chiropractor after a couple yrs of chronic pain. Bad backs run in my family, and having and carrying 3 kids did me in. I went 3x/wk for 5 wks, 2x/wk for a few more, once a wk for a few more, then once a month. I had my sacral iliiac get sprained while under treatment (did too much lifting), lower lumbar and neck region out of whack.

My 15 yo dd has SEVERE menstrual cramps that are finally lessening after 3+ month of chiro. My 17 yo also has back/neck pain and started treatment 1 month ago, 3x/wk.

My dad, sister and nephew all have back, neck and hip pain. They do not go to chiro, I wish they would.

None of us are on Oxycontin.

 

[Potty Diva]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but this will be his thrid attempt at knocking his addiction.

My aunt is addicted to pain meds(I think I have posted about it before), and she is now in hopsice care after years of heavy addiction. It first started 20 some years ago after having TMJ(lock jaw?). It's been a down hill spiral from there.

The kicker is that even though her current husband wants a divorce he won't seek one, because he will get loads of money oncee she dies. He has affairs instead

Back to topic...

I really do believe Rush is a big fat idiot, but his addiction just may be some of the reason he is such a jerk. Ya never know.

 

[3boys4us]

T I know I sound hopelessly ignorant but I actually have some Vicodin in our house. I got a prescription after having gum surgery - and you want to know the embarrassing part? I took one and passed out and never finished taking the rest even though I was supposed to take one every 6 hrs. or so. I have no tolerance (I fall asleep after a glass of wine).

That said - my periodontist actually wanted to give a prescription for valium as well. These guys hand out prescriptions like candy.

I have no sympathy for Mr. Limbaugh. He's a moron and hopefulyl he will go away for a long time.

Quote:

Let's all pray for an overdose...

 

[DaryLLL]

I take arnica before and after dental work, give it to my kids too, who have to get their wisdom teeth dug out of their gums, and other teeth pulled for orthodonture. My dentist had never heard of it. When we take arnica we need no other drug.

 

[applejuice]

Two years ago, Rush announced that he was going deaf...

one of the side effects of vicodin use/abuse is irreversible deafness....

I always wondered about his reason for the deafness being a rare autoimmune response.

Anyway, has he been operating with one half of his brain tied behind his back and the other half ... on drugs.... at the old EIB?

I remember his razzing Mayor Berry, Senator Kennedy and many other officials about their drug abuse.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, I wonder how it feels?

He only came clean when he was forced to admit it.

How do you spell H-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e-(?)

 

[AnnMarie]

Marlena...

Quote:

Opiates are generally not reasonable for chronic pain control (unless it's also pain control for an illness that is terminal), precisely because of the addiction issue.

This isn't true. They should be used if necessary, but too many doctors are worried about the addiction issue. Addiction does NOT = abuse. There are many people with chronic pain that can't get the treatment they need because doctors fear getting into trouble for prescribing these meds and they fear the person getting addicted. It should be a quality of life issue. If you need these medications to be free of pain and to function somewhat normally, then you should have access to them. What's not reasonable is making people suffer because doctors don't want to prescribe the meds they need.

cicerosum...

Quote:

I just had to pop in and say that the reason you can't stay on these painkillers too long is that they cause kidney damage.

I've never read anything on kidney damage with Vicodin (Yes, hydrocodone is the same.), but it can cause liver damage because of the Tylenol in it. The NSAIDs can cause kidney damage (ibuprofen, Aleve, etc.).

Edited to add: I did a little more reading and found that kidney damage is due to the Tylenol in Vicodin.

dentente...

Quote:

How is that pain management?

How is it not? Is her pain under control? How would it be pain management to take them away? Then she will be in pain again. Given the choice to be dependant on pain medications or to be in pain every day of my life I'd pick the meds. I guess it's just impossible for people without chronic people to understand.

Quote:

These drugs are not real solutions to chronic pain.

Do you have a better solution?

Quote:

My friend's marriage and her child have been so negatively impacted it's not even true.

Why? Because of the negative effects of the drugs, or because her husband and family don't understand that she needs these drugs to function normally? If it's the drugs, then she's not on the right one. Her doctor should give her another that she can tolerate better.

Quote:

I want to see new laws governing the dispensing and continued use of these drugs.

Oh ya, that's just what chronic pain people need.

: Most people have trouble getting treated for their pain now, I could just imagine if the laws were even tighter.

Please people, do NOT judge those that suffer from chronic pain. You have NO idea what it's like to live with pain day in and day out unless you suffer from chronic pain yourself. These meds are needed by many and used by few because people (doctors included) don't understand chronic pain.

 

[applejuice]

RE: chronic pain management.

It is my understanding that a person can live for a long time on pure, pharmaceutical-grade morphine or a similar opiate. The patient may become a "legal" addict, but the quality of life is much imporved for the person who is suffering.

It is the acetametaphine and other additives in the drugs that cause major organ damage.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

The thing is--Rush is just a mean man. Not someone I would ever want to know in real life. Have you ever heard what he has had to say in the past about medical marijuana? That all of the providers should be lined up and shot, and then the crybaby users (try cancer victims and AIDs patients!) should be disposed of too, because they are leaches on our *society*. Nice, eh? And all the while he was abusing drugs ten times more potent?

I will never understand a person like him. He has no humanity. It makes no difference which side of the fence you stand on politically--being an unkind person is never a good thing.

 

[AnnMarie]

Quote:

Originally posted by LisainCalifornia The thing is--Rush is just a mean man. Not someone I would ever want to know in real life. Have you ever heard what he has had to say in the past about medical marijuana? That all of the providers should be lined up and shot, and then the crybaby users (try cancer victims and AIDs patients!) should be disposed of too, because they are leaches on our *society*. Nice, eh? And all the while he was abusing drugs ten times more potent? I will never understand a person like him. He has no humanity. It makes no difference which side of the fence you stand on politically--being an unkind person is never a good thing.

I don't know if you are replying in general, or to me.......

If your post was directed to me, then I agree with you, I can't stand the man. My post was about people with chronic pain in general, not him. He may be one, he may not. I don't know.

 

[dentente]

Quote:

Originally posted by AnnMarie Do you have a better solution? Why? Because of the negative effects of the drugs, or because her husband and family don't understand that she needs these drugs to function normally? If it's the drugs, then she's not on the right one. Her doctor should give her another that she can tolerate better. Oh ya, that's just what chronic pain people need. : Most people have trouble getting treated for their pain now, I could just imagine if the laws were even tighter. Please people, do NOT judge those that suffer from chronic pain. You have NO idea what it's like to live with pain day in and day out unless you suffer from chronic pain yourself. These meds are needed by many and used by few because people (doctors included) don't understand chronic pain.

Um. Did you miss the part where she is a zombie? Her pain is under control and her life is being controlled by the zombifying meds? The best solution she came across was the Botox injections into the now continously firing painful nerves. This option was not readily embraced by her insurance. They just wanted her to stay on the Vicodin. For life. It's damaged her hearing and her lungs (which were never great). She suffers from chronic Pnumonia. A side effect you may not be aware of. If the Botox can kill the pain without zombification, why would the insurance want anything different? Pharmaceutical special interests? I wonder...

Doctors are remiss in not exploring other options before going the chronic opiate use route. THEY are personally responsible for people suffering from using these methods to control pain. If your choices are horrible pain or being a zombie no one wants to hang out with don't you start to feel abit hopeless? My friend has contemplated killing herslef many times to escape it all. It's awful. What made you think I was judging her? She did not ask for any of this to happen. I'm sure Rush did not see what was coming when he took that first pill.

People in pain should be able to get relief. No argument there. But why is opiate use the first option and not the last?

Also, Dentists do hand this stuff out like candy. Those people should have their licenses taken from them. Pain from oral surgery is hardly chronic pain. There are so many other alternatives. It is so highly addictive and destructive. A life lived on them is not a real life. It is life permanently half-awake. What's sad is that the people on them think they act and sound just fine. They look like people who have had one too many. It's better than pain but not by much.

It's not a real solution for a young person without a terminal disease. I stand by that. It is the last resort. If I did not have someone very dear to me in my life suffering from chronic pain AND the drugs she has ended up on then I would not speak.

denny

 

[AnnMarie]

Quote:

Originally posted by DaryLLL None of us are on Oxycontin.

So that must mean that nobody needs it then right?

: Maybe you don't, but that doesn't mean others don't. Maybe you still have pain but buy into the addiction = abuse crap. Only you know. Just because all of you choose not to take pain medications doesn't mean that others that choose to take them are doing something bad or don't need them.