Ok, I get it. Tiger Woods is a fuck wad but in this case the real fuck wads are the doctors and the drug companies. Tiger has had 4 failed back surgeries and in the US failed back surgeries are the rule not the exception. Maiming patients for profit is what American medical treatment is all about. People complain that chiropractors are famous for keeping people coming back but in truth American spine surgeons are the criminals guilty of that.
After, Tiger's 4th failed surgery, doctors placed him on a deadly cocktail of drugs. One of those drugs was an anti-inflammatory COX 2 drug called Etoricoxib which is a generic for Arcoxia, Turox and several other brand names. Turox has a lot of side effects including feeling dizzy and drowsy with a warning to not drive or operate machinery until you know how you are affected. The problem with that is, when you are fucked up on drugs you can't tell if you are fucked up or not. Nobody should be prescribed a COX 2 inhibitor when there are natural remedies that are safe and more effective that the pharmaceutical poisons.
Tiger was also taking Vicodin for the pain of his 4 failed surgeries. Like many other Americans, Tiger Woods is a victim of the greedy, criminal, deadly and brutal American medical industry.
Timeline: Look back at Tiger Woods' injuries | Golf Channel
Here are six things to know about spinal fusions and prescription medication.
Woods recently underwent, called spinal fusion. Woods had the surgery in April “to alleviate ongoing pain in his back and leg,” according to his website. (This was his fourth back surgery.)
1. Spinal fusions are increasingly common
Hundreds of thousands of Americans undergo this popular procedure every year to relieve back pain. Many receive prescription opioids afterwards. From 1998 to 2008, the number of spinal fusion surgeries more than doubled, from 174,223 to 413,171, according to a paper published in the journal Spine.
2. Many people become dependent on pain relievers after back surgery
Doctors are worried about the rising rate of opioid prescriptions for surgery-related lower back pain. The surgery is intended to relieve pain, but it’s also often associated with pain of its own.
In a paper published this year in Spine, researchers found that about 20 percent of patients who underwent lumbar fusion surgery continued to take opioids two years after the surgery.
“There is widespread concern about long-term opioid dependence among patients who undergo spinal fusion surgery,” researchers wrote. “Moreover, the efficacy of long-term opioid use for low back pain following spinal fusion surgery is widely debated.”
3. The surgery is often done when it’s not needed
There is a growing controversy about whether spinal fusions are necessary all of the time. Without knowing more about Woods’s medical conditions, it’s impossible to even ask that question of his surgery in particular.
Scientific studies have found that spinal fusion might not work any better than other, non-surgical interventions.
And in 2013 the Washington Post reviewed patient records in Florida, identifying thousands of cases of spinal surgeries being conducted in cases that experts might deem unnecessary.
4. As an alternative to surgery, opioids aren’t much better
The American College of Physicians’s guidelines on back pain, published in April, warned against using opioids to treat back pain — in part because there’s little evidence showing they work well, and in part because of their dangerous side effects.
“Opioids should be the last treatment option considered and should be considered only in patients for whom other therapies have failed because they are associated with substantial harms,” the group wrote, referring to patients with chronic low-back pain.
5. Doctors get paid big bucks to do these surgeries
The Washington Post noted that surgeons may be incentivized to perform costly fusion procedures when cheaper, simpler ones may suffice — because then the surgeon will be able to charge more. Spinal fusion can bring in $6,000, while a cheaper “decompression” surgery might only net $1,000.
6. But spinal fusion may not help people in the long run
If back surgery doesn’t help you get back to living a normal life, then what’s the point? A team of Ohio researchers tackled this question in a 2011 Spine paper in which they examined individuals who were injured at work. The findings did not bode well for the surgery.
“This procedure is offered to improve pain and function, yet objective outcomes showed increased permanent disability, poor [return-to-work] status, and higher doses of opioids,” the authors wrote.
