One of the commenters pinned part of the problem down: as opposed to countries like Spain, where opioids are given in hospitals, Americans are left to essential

One of the commenters pinned part of the problem down: as opposed to countries like Spain, where opioids are given in hospitals, Americans are left to essentially self-medicate. A Tale of Two Surgeries: A good friend and I had exactly the same type of benign tumors removed, within a year of each other, around 2006-7. Her surgery was outpatient, and she was sent home an hour after the procedure with 30 doses of Vicodin, which even back then she shied away from taking more than a few doses of. The whole thing cost over $6,000, most of which her insurance picked up, but she was still on the hook for about $1,000. She joked that she could have covered a lot of that by selling off the unused Vicodin. She didn't. My surgery was outpatient, but my surgeon told me that she might decide to have me stay overnight for observation. I passed out when I saw the normal amount of blood, so she had me stay. I received paracetamol (Tylenol) and Tramadol (weak prescription opioid), given to me by the nurse. I went home the next day, fearing the bill for an emergency overnight. I took home a week's worth of Tramadol and instructions to write down when I took it to show my doctor who I had a follow-up with in a few days. I shouldn't have worried: the whole thing was 1400 EUR, which my US-based insurance company paid with surprising alacrity. My friend was a grad student at UW Seattle, treated in their system, and I was a US Army IT contractor, working in Germany, treated at a small city's hospital.