3 ms·

No kidding. Years ago I had a collapsed lung and surgery to repair it, and they sent me home with some kind of opioid. I took one and felt great for about a hal

by davidw 6y ago

No kidding. Years ago I had a collapsed lung and surgery to repair it, and they sent me home with some kind of opioid. I took one and felt great for about a half an hour. Then the room started spinning and I spent about 4 hours trying not to puke, which would have been really painful with a bunch of stitches in the side of my abdomen. Once that passed, I threw the rest of those things away and just took some tylenol and tried to just move carefully to avoid pain.

moron4hire 6y ago
This is my same reaction to opiates. After telling my doctors I didn't want anything opiate-related for anything. I had a year and a half of really bad colds and strep that was probably at-that-point undiagnosed asthma, and the docs kept giving me codeine syrup. After getting ignored for so long, I switched to telling them I'm allergic to opiates. Now it's in my records and now it doesn't come up anymore.
kelnos 6y ago
This highlights something I think more people should do: be as careful as possible while healing, and accept the fact of enduring some amount of pain. Sure, there are people with chronic pain problems, and extreme acute pain that probably calls for the big guns, but the fact that you were able to deal with it using tylenol and some self-care is IMO a good thing. A bunch of years ago I broke two ribs, and decided not to go see a doctor, after a doctor friend told me they wouldn't be able to do anything about it, aside from prescribing pain medication and telling me to try not to move much (with the caveat that if at any point I started to have trouble breathing, I must call 911 and get myself to the ER). It wasn't a particularly fun 6-8 weeks of healing, and I took the max recommended dose of OTC ibuprofen many of the days, but I got through it. Would it have been nicer to have zero pain? Sure. But I don't think the addiction risks of something like an opiate would have been worth it, and the healing process serves as a reminder to me to take better care of my body. (Just to be clear, because I'm sure someone will put words in my mouth otherwise: no, I don't think this "grin and bear it" method works for all situations! When it's possible and reasonable to get by with minimal pain medication, I think people are better off. But I think many people -- aided and abetted by overzealous prescription-writing by some doctors -- go too far in trying to remove all pain, to their detriment.)

by davidw 6y ago

moron4hire 6y ago

This is my same reaction to opiates. After telling my doctors I didn't want anything opiate-related for anything. I had a year and a half of really bad colds and strep that was probably at-that-point undiagnosed asthma, and the docs kept giving me codeine syrup. After getting ignored for so long, I switched to telling them I'm allergic to opiates. Now it's in my records and now it doesn't come up anymore.

kelnos 6y ago

This highlights something I think more people should do: be as careful as possible while healing, and accept the fact of enduring some amount of pain. Sure, there are people with chronic pain problems, and extreme acute pain that probably calls for the big guns, but the fact that you were able to deal with it using tylenol and some self-care is IMO a good thing. A bunch of years ago I broke two ribs, and decided not to go see a doctor, after a doctor friend told me they wouldn't be able to do anything about it, aside from prescribing pain medication and telling me to try not to move much (with the caveat that if at any point I started to have trouble breathing, I must call 911 and get myself to the ER). It wasn't a particularly fun 6-8 weeks of healing, and I took the max recommended dose of OTC ibuprofen many of the days, but I got through it. Would it have been nicer to have zero pain? Sure. But I don't think the addiction risks of something like an opiate would have been worth it, and the healing process serves as a reminder to me to take better care of my body. (Just to be clear, because I'm sure someone will put words in my mouth otherwise: no, I don't think this "grin and bear it" method works for all situations! When it's possible and reasonable to get by with minimal pain medication, I think people are better off. But I think many people -- aided and abetted by overzealous prescription-writing by some doctors -- go too far in trying to remove all pain, to their detriment.)