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Date Posted: 18:20:14 10/16/03 Thu
Author: SM78
Subject: Rush's LIES

Rush said: ""I first started taking prescription painkillers some years ago when my doctor prescribed them to treat post surgical pain following spinal surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was unsuccessful and I continued to have severe pain in my lower back and also in my neck due to herniated discs. I am still experiencing that pain. Rather than opt for additional surgery for these conditions, I chose to treat the pain with prescribed medication. This medication turned out to be highly addictive.

There are several lies in Rush's statement. I say this because I too have had spinal surgery, specifically, a cervical diskectomy of C5-C6/C6-C7 with fusion and plating.
My surgery was not fully successful. I too live on pain medicine. But I see my doctor once a month and have a signed contract that allows him to test my blood whenever he wants, allows him to look at all of my medical and pharmacy records whenever he wants, and legally obligates me to turn myself in for treatment if my drug use exceeds his exact rules. If I do not turn myself in, my doctor has in his posssession my signed permission to call the police and have me arrested. That is the stanadard in California for personal accountability in pain management for a patient who receieves hydrocodone, Oxycontin, and other opiates.

Rush, on the other hand, lies. The lies in Rush's statement are these:

1. Rush is not addicted to prescription painkillers. Instead, he is addicted to painkillers that have been obtained illegally. Rush is thus addicted to illegal drugs. He plays with the word "prescription" to obscure his criminal acts in obtaining illegal drugs.

2. Rush "opted" not to have more surgery. I can emphathize because a spinal surgery is hell. However, Rush chose the route of illegally self-medicating. Rush chooses to say he is addicted and does not amplify: I self-medicated using illegally obtained drugs. This is not surprising as he is at the center of a criminal probe and anything he says can and will be used against him in a court of law. Rush's statement was thus a balancing act between his fifth amendment rights and trying to be "honest" with his listeners, which he was not.

3. Rush embeds an "either-or" in his confession. Either surgery or drugs. That is a lie. There are many non-drug alternatives to surgery. Jerry Lewis is famous for advocating an implanted electrical device that blocks pain and reduces the need for drugs. Rush could have tried this device.

4. Rush seems to imply that he needed more and more drugs to obtain pain relief. I suggest that he needed more and more drugs to maintain the euphoric feeling given by opiates. I am on a maintenance dose of opiates and I never feel a buzz -- but I do get pain relief because the opiates slow the transmission of pain. Rush is being dishonest in his statement and knows it. He is preying on the public's ignorance of opiates and pain management. As he does with so many things, Rush's lie is in his oversimplification and generalities.

5. Rush could have also used Neurontin, a non-opiate anti-seizure drug that scrambles pain signals in the brain. It works very well. Rush could have also used an anti-depressant. Because pain and depression share the same neural pathways, anti-depressants can be effective in reducing pain. Doctors do not understand the exact mechanisms of Neurontin or anti-depressants in reducing pain, but both work. Rush also could have used anti-inflammatories. Rush could have also used a combination of many drugs as I have to sometimes.

6. Rush could have opted for a less invasive laser micro-diskectomy.

7. Acupuncture, chiropractic, yoga, ice, heat, and other methods to reduce pain are also available.

8. Biofeedback is effective in pain reduction. Did Rush try it?

9. Stress can amplify pain. Rush could have tried an anti-anxiety drug such as Xanax to see if it would reduce pain. Xanax has an anti-inflammatory component as well.

8. Rush could have used a Tens unit on a daily basis.

9. Rush could have had epidural injections.

10. Rush could have had trigger-point injections.

I have no doubt that Rush has physical pain, but he has probably exagerrated his pain for effect, for truly if he were in as great of pain as he implies, he would have had to go on disability and could not have maintained the heavy radio, writing, television, travel, and even sports commentator schedule that he has had carried for many years. People with such overwhelming pain sufficient to require such massive doses of painkillers are cripples and Rush is not a cripple. Citing his pain is a typical junkie's attempt for sympathy.

Rush's attorneys will perhaps argue that he "self-medicated." They will spin his felony junkie behavior so that, despite Rush's protestations to the contrary, Rush will be a victim. Worse, as Ann Coulter has done, Rush's supporters will spin him as a heroic figure who battled for truth despite great physical pain and his personal demons.

At some point, Rush quit listening to his doctors, abandoned his many pain treatment options, and opted to zone out with opiates. No one can blame an addict in the sense that drugs are incredibly addicting. However, one can blame someone like Rush who knew better and who had the money for any medical treatment he wanted.

Rush is an immense hypocrite who exhibits that most basic junkie behavior of all: He lies. Even in his admission of addiction, Rush has lied.

Moreover, Rush, like all junkies, stole to support his habit. While he paid for his drugs, he stole from his advertisers in that he represented himself as a paragon of virtue when in fact he was a drug felon and a junkie. He also stole the trust of his gullible listeners who believed in him. Rush is the ultimate junkie and should be, as he himself put it, "sent up."

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