Two Pharmacists

Well more fun from the VA. My RSD, and now Diabetic Pain Syndrome in my feet is getting worse, the pain is sometimes all consuming. Now I have two pharmacists with different ideas. The VA can not repair my implanted neuro-stim due to my A1C being too high for surgery, so no pain relief there, been 'off' since Nov 2011, and they, the VA pharmacists keep trying to give me Hydrocodone or Oxycodone. Now my oldest daughter who is also a pharmacist for Rite-Aid in NY is all upset that the VA is giving me 10/650 Hydrocodone seeing that the carrier is basically Tylenol. She states that Jack and Coke for pain will do less damage to my liver than the 10/650 hydro's, so drink up there Dad.
So here is the dilemma, who do I go with the VA, or Daughter, and my answer is who yells at me more....Daughter...so I go with here 'recommendation' so I don't get yelled at as much. I got bottles of hydro that I return to the VA, and my primary care Doc thinks I am 'fighting' the system which I am. Saw the elephant once before, don't care to go that route again.

This getting old 'inhales deeply' and is going to get worse, but I will soldier on.

stratoaxe wrote: I think a second PhD opinion outside of the VA system is your best bet. The VA is a notorious pill dispenser, I know watching my dad how many "hopeless" conditions he has that the VA refuses to treat and simply medicate. The military medical system, at least in the Air Force, is essentially the same way.  I stayed on the meds for my back because when I tried to cut back on them I had an AF doctor say that doing so would indicate that I wasn't serious about getting better and would reflect negatively in my upcoming medical retirement board.*  When I was retired, the VA wanted to continue everything.  However, since I could no longer be blackmailed with the threat of retirement, I discontinued pain meds entirely. That said, I think the VA is reflective of the military way-quick fix and back to work.  Agreed. I think it makes vets like my dad more comfortable than lengthy discussions of possible outcomes. Disagreed.  This is institutional to the VA and reflects both their association with the military and the fact that quite a few providers are ex-military.  The upshot is the VA tends to have some of the same mentality that the military medical system does:  that is, that they can tell patients how it will be with no push back.  (And when you do push back the reactions run from astounded to downright testy.) My dad has hydro bottles stacked like legos in his medicine drawer (thank god I'm allergic ) *The board of course based my medical retirement on the fact that since I was still on pain meds I wasn't getting better.  (It'd be funny if it wasn't true or had happened to someone other than me.)