Woman says she is ‘judged' for being on medication for pain

A Mullingar woman has spoken out about chronic pain and the stigma attached to its management.

Gráinne McGeown was involved in workplace accident four years ago. Since then she has had two microdiscectomies, two spinal fusions, one revision fusion, and between wash-outs for several infections, around 10 operations in total.

“I was told I’d never work again. I was a store manager so I would have done 50 to 60 hours a week. To be sitting at home doing nothing to me is just not normal,” Gráinne said.

As a result, Gráinne is on strong medication daily – morphine – which has been prescribed by a pain specialist who reviews her meds monthly.

However, Gráinne wishes to highlight the discrimination she suffers, mostly at the hands of doctors, who she feels are dismissive of patients on strong medication for chronic pain.

Recently she suffered an allergic reaction to one of the medications, and on the advice of her GP she attended the Emergency Department (ED).

“I do rounds of injections into my spine for pain and I had just finished a round of that. I came out in an awful rash from head to toe, I had trouble breathing, so I spent a week in and out to my GP trying to get on top of it but after a week he sent me to the ED.”

Gráinne was admitted for the night, during the course of which she spoke to three doctors, who she says declined to treat her.

“The first doctor asked me about my medical history, and then he asked me was I single, was I living alone, and he told me he couldn’t believe I was on morphine every day.

“I was there to investigate the cause of my allergic symptoms, but all the doctors kept asking the same thing - was I single, was I living on my own.

“I was not there looking for painkillers, I was there to get to the bottom of what was causing the allergic reaction, but none of them wanted to treat me.

“Any time the steroids wore off my breathing was getting worse. About six hours later another doctor came in, he didn’t even say hello to me. He just asked if I was single and living alone, and he told me I was just stressed and walked out of the room.

“The following morning the third doctor came in and he told me again that this was just stress.

“I had a temperature, I was vomiting, I had a rash. I’m on steroids and antihistamines and after about six hours, when they wear off, I come out in a rash all over again and find it hard to breath, so I told him the name of the antibiotic and he asked me what I expected him to do about it!

“He pointed out again that I take morphine every day. He gave out to me then for being on morphine. I explained that I attend a pain specialist and that I take the minimum amount every day because this is a long term condition that I have.

“But because I’m on morphine all the time, the doctors automatically judge you.

“He told me that he’d let me stay that but after that I was out the door. I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t going to do any tests.

“I also told him I wasn’t looking for any pain medication only to get to the bottom of why I had a rash. He told me I couldn’t die from a sore throat.

“He also said to me you’re the one who took the injections, so basically it was my own fault. I eventually asked him to leave the room because he was so aggressive.”

Gráinne says because of the good relationship she has with her pharmacist, she was able to get a refill of an inhaler and steroids to get her through the weekend, until she could see her doctor again the following Monday.

“It’s more so the attitude of the doctors – the minute they see morphine, they think this one’s looking for drugs.

“I could have an infection in my spine but they weren’t doing anything to treat it or investigate it. So I left the hospital.

“I asked the nurse, and I’m not in any way saying it was the nurses fault because they are so good, but I asked her what me being single and living on my own had to do with my treatment.”

Gráinne is currently waiting on more surgery to fuse the bottom of her back, her SI joint and pelvis, that will hopefully alleviate some of her pain.

“My pain daily would be seven out of ten, even with the morphine. I am prescribed quite a high dose but I don’t take the full dose because I just wouldn’t be able to function.

“My dad comes down every day, he’s 79, he hoovers, he helps me with my shopping, he mows the lawn. I sleep downstairs on my sofa, sitting up, because it hurts too much to lie in the bed.

“I’ve numbness in my left leg all the time, I’ve pins and needles in my feet all the time, I can’t bend over. I’m waiting for surgery but there’s not very many in the country who can do it. I’ve two bulging discs at the moment and the metalwork is sitting on the bulging disks.

“What I’m trying to say is life is hard enough being in chronic pain all the time without having to be made feel bad for it.

“I saw an occupational therapist recently and she said I’d never work again and that was soul destroying because I’m far too young for that.

“Doctors should not be judging people, especially if they are on proper medication that has been prescribed by a specialist.”