> "After my surgery, I had to pay 25€ for the taxi ride home"
I'll take that over the multi-million US-american hospital bill, any time.
After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
21–30 of 421 posts
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#22I always get in a arguments with my EU acquaintances over pain management topics. The idea that is a "good" to suffer with pain instead of taking pain killers is abhorrent to me.
There are definitely some people who view it as a kind of ascetic and/or natural-living thing where it's actively "good" not to take painkillers. But I don't think that's how most of the medical profession in Europe thinks of it. For doctors it's more of a pure risk/benefit type of thing, where how likely a doctor is to recommend or prescribe painkillers relates to both the type/severity of pain and the risk of the painkillers (e.g. ibuprofen is safer than vicodin, so there's a much lower bar for using it).
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#23I always get in a arguments with my EU acquaintances over pain management topics. The idea that is a "good" to suffer with pain instead of taking pain killers is abhorrent to me.
It's one thing to suffer with pain needlessly, it's another if the treatment of pain could have long term harmful effects, e.g., addition to opioids.
I had impacted wisdom teeth and needed dental surgery. The dentist gave me a couple of codeines to take home but I never took them. The day after the local anesthesia wore off was miserable, but it became easily manageable after that. I found a lot of times the fear of the pain was worse than the pain itself.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#24I always get in a arguments with my EU acquaintances over pain management topics. The idea that is a "good" to suffer with pain instead of taking pain killers is abhorrent to me.
To offer the other perspective (though I guess you get that from your EU friends) - as one of those 'pain is a signal' people; I tend to avoid painkillers because when pain is tolerable, I'd rather use it as a guide for what is helping and what is delaying the recovery. Say you have a muscle spasm or something; isn't it better to feel exactly at which point it activates, so you can slowly stretch it out? A headache - well I behave differently when it is alleviated by reading a book, then when talking a walk outside makes it better, than when actually I'm just hungry and after eating a meal it goes away.
I don't know how I'd identify and distinguish those scenarios if I took painkillers every time.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#25"I took two ibuprofens that first day. In hindsight, I didn’t need them, but I felt like I should take something" I have noticed the need to "take something" with a lot of American friends when they have problem. It's almost like a reflex.
My wife fusses at me when I mention I've had a headache for the past X hours and I haven't taken anything for it...
Same for me. When I take something during a headache it doesn't change anything, and most of the time I'll even throw up in the next 30min if I take something. So I just try to sleep.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#26I had jaw surgery recently... while I wouldn't describe it as incredibly "painful", particularly since everything was numb (they have to slice through nerves for this procedure), it was really uncomfortable and stressful for a couple of days afterwards. I wasn't at all ashamed to take percocet after the surgery. Could I have lived without them? Sure. Did they turn me into an instant addict? Of course not. This story…
Yeah, I question the idea that it's beneficial to experience pain - why should I? Especially if it's going to cost me days of my life that I could do something with. Maybe not go out, but at least be able to catch up on some of the more passive content... seems like a needless waste of life.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#27"I took two ibuprofens that first day. In hindsight, I didn’t need them, but I felt like I should take something" I have noticed the need to "take something" with a lot of American friends when they have problem. It's almost like a reflex.
This make me think: Could this behaviour be influenced by US-american pharma corporations being allowed to run (TV-)ads on prescription medications ?
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#28Hi, I read your article and many of your experiences are - sadly - the normal behaviour with pain and pain killers in Germany. In the south of Germany even more than up in the north (from my experiences). But there is hope... I would recommand that you search for a new doctor - in the best case a young doctor fresh out of the university. The reason is simple. Pain management have only recently become a major topic in…
> younger doctors understand more and more that pain means stress and stress make sick and is a negative influence to the healing process
I hope you are wrong because I would hate so see anythign resembling the painkiller addiction wave in the US here in Germany. The doctor in the text is correct in saying that pain can be an important guide for your own healing process. Otherwise, you can easily overwork/overexert yourself which damages the healing process
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#29"I took two ibuprofens that first day. In hindsight, I didn’t need them, but I felt like I should take something" I have noticed the need to "take something" with a lot of American friends when they have problem. It's almost like a reflex.
This make me think: Could this behaviour be influenced by US-american pharma corporations being allowed to run (TV-)ads on prescription medications ?
I think it has more to do with how readily available medication is in the US (Supermarket).
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#30"I took two ibuprofens that first day. In hindsight, I didn’t need them, but I felt like I should take something" I have noticed the need to "take something" with a lot of American friends when they have problem. It's almost like a reflex.
This make me think: Could this behaviour be influenced by US-american pharma corporations being allowed to run (TV-)ads on prescription medications ?
I think so.