KOGO News has been following a San Diego woman who needs more opioids than allowed, after suffering a nerve damaging impairment after getting an epidural.The procedure left her with what she describes as burning oil going down her spine. She has scar tissue strangling her pain generating nerves in her spinal column. It's a condition called Adhesive Arachnoiditis, which many doctors aren't even familiar with.
Trini Yeager was being treated with the right amount of drugs until the CDC guidelines changed in 2016.
She has been a fierce advocate on her own, with help from her former pain specialist, Dr. Forrest Tennant, who ended up closing his doors and retiring after being so restricted he can no longer prescribe what patients need, and from PHD Red Lawhern is a pain advocate, who is in touch with hundreds of thousands of pain patients in on line forums every day, including on Facebook.
After being in and out of the emergency room several times over the past three weeks, Lawhern says she has finally been granted access thru work of her primary care doctor.
He also says the CDC shouldn't be in charge of the opioid guidelines and is fearful the people appointed to review the guidelines for potential change, could be some of the same people who contributed to the guidelines in the first place.
He reported the update on Yeager in the National Pain Report .
Find out what he says about the guidelines and the CDC in our latest interview below.
How The Opioid Crisis Is Killing People Who Need More Opioids Than Allowed
By Marilyn Hyder