Seriously looking into driving but have a few questions, mostly medical

I know your anti seizure meds are used for nerve pain but are frowned against by most company's because they don't know any better. I'm not sure if those meds are on the list or not. I'm guessing your talking about Neurontin or Trileptal?

 

Nice username. Trying hard to be funny?

 

Yeah I didn't even notice the username that's definitely not cool

 

Im going to let that user name slide this once. Maybe the Mods will give you a special hand with that problem because I think many will be upset.

Its not a problem because you apologized and it's over and done with.

I am or was a former pain management patient dealing with bone losses and a variety of other specific problems too much to describe in a simple post essentially I am medically retired from trucking particularly after I went blind in 2009 and surgery saved my life fixing that. (I took up shooting as a defiant rebellion against blindness)

Anyhow...

I watched Arkansas evolve from what was once a place for Texas, LA, Alabama to go to for pain mills with cash in hand buy enormous amounts of narcotics and return home. The last few years since 2010 saw many changes at the State level, most particular a establishment of a control list known as the State Pharmacy Board listing where all pills dispensed to pain patients by name and correct information by about 65 doctors in this state that write such prescriptions. This is to combat a addiction abuse problem that is equal to meth scourage in my state.

When the pain mills went away a few years ago, all the people were heavily addicted and turned to illegal drugs. And that is that.

I myself is clean and can tell you that your spinal problems will impact your ability to do trucking things. Your pickup truck is fairly comfortable. But lumping 48000 pounds of butter touching every small case off the floor to the dock 60 feet away onto pallets is not good for your back.

Or raising the landing gear of a loaded trailer that fell down into the mud. That will kill your ability to drive 600 miles today. You might do it now, endure it today but tomorrow it's going to be on fire and nothing you can do about it but lay there.

Today's trucks on the other hand have gotten really nice. That airride is something. automatics too. This one time I will dispense with the joys of manual transmission. You don't need that aggravation.

Your medical problems in the spine and the history you described pretty much ruins a successful DOT exam and probably will trigger constant DOT random drug tests. Remember some medicines are turned into morphine metobilite in your blood by the liver.

And just recently the DOT intends to add pain medicine schedule two through 4 to the list of substances tested by drug testing really soon if not right now.

There IS something to be said for grit, gumption, moxie, hell on wheels never say fail etc etc etc etc. But it's going to break you down until you quit.

I know this for myself. I talk a big talk when it comes to running from say Yakima WA to Boston in the worst of winter storms and get there in 5 days on time. That is not the problem. But if I tried that today, my body will simply reject my efforts and I will require a few days bed rest to purge the built up inflammation which is my worst enemy. The work is not the problem. But the body WILL become a BIG problem unable to do any more work after a trip like that. Dispatch will not tolerate that truck sitting on it's fat butt doing nothing, earning no money etc while I get rid of the ow. There is no point. I am medically retired for a reason. That is that.

I hope these thoughts help you a little bit.

 

It's not up to the trucking companies which medications disqualify you; they have to follow FMCSA regulations. Try go get off of any that are disqualifying before a DOT physical, because once you list it on the physical form, you're stuck with it. Don't go with a company that does hair follicle drug tests either, because even though you no longer use certain medications, they will still show up in hair and disqualify you.
@Mark Kling can point you in the right direction as to which are disqualifying.

 

Hair follicle test are pretty good, the human hair retains the drug in detectable levels about 9 months in my specific case. I would want to wait 18 months since last dose of anything that I take before I feel confident to take on a trucking company that does hair tests.

They are actually talking about drug detection at the DNA cellular level for the future tests, it is my thinking from some of the articles within the narcotic community online that whatever you have done to your body for a certain period of time will eventually be read as one reads a book from the library stored in your own DNA or within certain cells.

 

Why should he change his name and why should it be a "problem"?