Apart from a daily pill that my endocrinologist has prescribed to improve long-term bone health, I’ve been medication free for about 10 years. The exceptions are usually related to orthopedic surgery.
The last one of those was three years ago, when a spontaneous fracture resulted in a major reconstruction of my left femur involving bone grafting and a lot of metal. Of the prescription drugs, the one I was most eager to stop, was an opioid that was terrific in managing pain.
All this was happening at the same time the public was realizing the full-blown proportions of the opioid epidemic. If it weren’t for its highly publicized addictive potential, I wouldn’t have been as quick to stop using it.
Deep down, none of us really wants to depend on a foreign substance to manage our life. But when it effectively helps us feel better, the deciding factors are not so easy to sort out. Imagine when the opposite is true—when a medication makes us feel unpleasant, but its long-term benefits are still to be determined. This says nothing of the financial drain on one’s budget.
These are decisions facing many people living with a disability, temporary or long-term. We hope the array of perspectives in this issue provides an appreciation for the role of medication in everyday life and its potential impact on us as people of faith.
This Editor's Note is from Breaking Barriers, Winter 2020.
