I honestly don't care if someone is addicted to prescription painkillers if that's what it takes for them to function without pain.
This puritanical idea that we should not use or have access to medicines that work because "drugs bad" gets people killed across multiple types of care.
America is making people eat useless Tylenol and other NSAIDs by the handful until they get liver damage because god forbid we give them something potentially addictive THAT WORKS.
A couple of years back, I had major abdominal surgery to remove a tumour. The surgeon used robotic surgery but still needed to make a 125mm (5") incision to pull out the affected section of gut, cut out the part where the tumour had grown and suture the two cut ends together.
The op went well and in fact they had to remove a much shorter length of gut than the pre-op scans suggested they might.
After the op I was put on intravenous paracetamol/acetaminophen (Tylenol). Nothing that actually works just that useless shit! The op was on a friday morning, I was fine friday afternoon - up and about walking around. Saturday the same; likewise sunday morning then sunday afternoon suddenly the pain started by sunday evening it had gone through through the roof. I begged the surgeon for an effective painkiller and he reluctantly prescribed intravenous Tramadol. That worked!
Meanwhile the analysis of a set of blood samples had come back - and so did the surgeon - poste haste! My C reactive protein levels had gone throught he roof so he sent me down for a CT scan to see the the gut suturing was leaking - it wasn't. He stripped the dressings off the incisions and removed the butterfly tape that was holding the 125 mm incision closed. There was an impressive fountain of pus and blood and I thought - "shit MRSA, I'm a goner".
It wasn't, it was a strain of e.coli that was resistant to the antibiotic that they had used as an umbrella for the op but even that can be fatal.
After that when I said it hurt, he sat up up and took notice. He even put a month's supply of 50mg Tramadol capsules on my outpatient prescription when I left hospital. They are still in the bathroom cupboard untouched!
