Faking pain for drugs bad

I recently read an article on Page A12 of March 27 about Lortab abusers. I have been (very) slowly reading the series on drug abuse/addiction and how rampant it is in our state.

I am homebound and have need of home-care assistants every day, and this takes all of my time. That and multiple sclerosis and asthma attacks. You see, I have legitimate reasons for this needed care and for the medicines I take, and I do not enjoy it.

I was in a serious car accident that put me in a wheelchair. Then I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I have been diagnosed with arthritis, and I have serious heart problems (partly due to the asthma medicines). I also have many allergies and asthma.

I thoroughly resent anyone faking pain to get painkiller medicine! How you can fake pain from an alleged appendicitis is beyond me. I have a number of friends who had this sort of pain and the surgeon simply removed their appendix. This can only be done once that I know of.

I do know that doctors are so very busy that it is just easier to give the patient a prescription for what they ask than to thoroughly investigate, and I think that this is wrong, too. It just boggles my mind how things like this go on unchecked.

Darla Petersen

Salt Lake City