'A Lot Of Pain': Woman Suffering From Chronic Pain Fears Access To Medication May Be Impacted

DENVER (CBS4)- While attention on fentanyl is relatively new, the opioid crisis has been the subject of new laws and regulations for years. With the focus currently on the counterfeit pills taking over the streets but those who rely on prescribed medication fear their access is going to be impacted.

For Carly Haynes, managing pain has been a lifelong, and daily struggle.

"I was diagnosed in 2015 with Chiari malformation, it's a brain malformation illness and so my brain is too big for my skull and it causes herniation into my spinal column," she said.

That's in addition to a disorder that slows her ability to heal.

"All of that combined has caused a lot of pain and it's pain that Tylenol and ibuprofen is just not going to fix. That's when I started trying to find pain management, just to live a daily life like a normal person would," Haynes said.

The only thing that worked was medication.

"I'm prescribed oxycodone at the lowest dose possible," she says.

But for her getting to that point has been equally as painful, given the strict requirements around dosing, risk assessment and monitoring patients that come with opioid treatment.

"The new CDC guidelines... doctors are afraid of prescribing medication, the judgment of addiction when you do have to see a new doctor, there's that judgment, you're just an addict... you're seeking medication," she said.

Robert Valuck, the Director of the Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention at the University of Colorado, helped implement Colorado-specific policies.

"We are trying to have this balance that we are striking, but it's very important that we preserve access to those with medical needs," he said.

He points to the development of the state's prescription drug monitoring program designed to do both by requiring doctors to check before providing an opioid.

"It's meant to identify someone who is drug-seeking, trying to doctor shop or pharmacy shop but also to reassure the doctor that oh, you're clearly not drug seeking because I'm the only person you're coming to."

Haynes worries that more requirements will only push more doctors away.

"That goes with everything I have seen, numerous stories where people can't get access to prescription pain meds and they turn to alcohol or they do go to the streets," she said.