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Baltimore, MD ( Ivanhoe Newswire)-- Critical drugs are coming up short all over our country. Doctors are being forced to put patients on treatments that don’t work as well as potentially life-saving drugs.

"The pain was overwhelming," Carole Nelson Pond, told Ivanhoe. “I had to go to 12 pharmacies."

Every time Carole walks into a pharmacy, she knows she might not get the medicine she needs.

She takes 30 milligrams of oxycodone every six hours to manage the intense pain caused by spinal stenosis.

"If I don’t have the medication my body will go into withdrawal," Carole said.

Oxycodone and other controlled substances like the ADHD drug Adderall are becoming harder to find because of fears patients will abuse them.

Meanwhile, there’s a much bigger problem nationwide; Short supplies of more than 260 drugs.

Pharmacist Bona Benjamin says patients are paying the price.

"It is very stressful to deal with a diagnosis of cancer, but imagine adding on top of that the fact that the drug you need to treat your disease is not available," said Benjamin.

Last year alone, more than 500,000 cancer patients were told they were not going to get the treatment they needed.

Experts say with planning, patients might be able to avoid problems due to shortages of their medications. Talk with your doctor about the current state of your prescriptions and discuss what other treatment options are available if they are affected by shortages.