Hi Bob,
We can agree to disagree. I had the exact same cancer as Dan and it WAS "terribly bad" painful. I had radiation burns on both sides of my tongue so bad I couldn't talk for weeks (and this was with IMRT). I had to use morphine for breakthrough pain just to swallow water! The throat is about 16 sq. inches. You can't dump 5-7000 rads into it without some difficulties.

Since opioids are federally controlled narcotic, I believe that state regulations are preempted by federal law. The doctors are accountable for what they prescribe and must fill out record forms accordingly with their state ID number for tracking purposes so that their prescription powers are not abused. Hospices have no trouble getting adequate pain management for in home care so I don't believe it makes any difference whether you are in or out patient (unless you're getting IV pain management of course).

Any regulation to withhold adequate pain management from patients would be inhumane and barbaric.

From MD Andersons Pain Management web site:

http://www.mdanderson.org/topics/paincontrol/

"Doctors also know what basic science research is proving: pain is very real and ignoring it can interfere with healing. It is no longer advisable for a patient to take as little medicine as possible and to try to get off the