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After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
51–60 of 421 posts
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#52I 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 p…
In addition, the things the doctors said was exactly right: pain can be a hugely important signal, especially when you're healing. It tells you of you're overexerting yourself, it tells you what you need to do to heal properly, it tells you when you're getting better. Dulling pain has a significant cost.
I don't think people should suffer pain "needlessly" either, but pain has a purpose. Long-term health consequences (whether they are risk of addiction, or a worse healing process) has to be part of the calculus when making decisions about pain management.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#53I'm going to be very honest, the author comes across as entitled and someone that buys every medicine ad that comes out of tv
Take what's prescribed and if there's an issue do complain (or a previously known issue, not "I think just Ibuprofen won't work")
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
Ibuprofen and the like are also available from the supermarket in most of Europe. Codeine and the like are not, as they're prescription only but it's not a big trip to go to a pharmacy anywhere.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#55"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.
I've notice this too. But it was a more general mindset: "If I have a health disturbance, I need a _dedicated_ solution.". The _dedicated_ word is important. It can't be a _generic_ solution (like walking, sleeping, change my eating for few days, etc.) so they too "the thing" and don't change anything like if the problem would be solved by this. As an European, it was so weird for me.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#56> "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.
You mean, $30,000 to $40,000, the median cost in the US, nearly all of which would be covered by insurance. No sense in fabricating magical numbers, like a multi-million dollar bill, everyone knows the flaws in the US system as is.
It costs about 1/3 to 1/2 as much in Germany, paid for by other tax payers.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#57"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.
Got shoulder surgery recently. I enjoyed taking hydrocodone even though I could prbly have gone without it. Made recovery that much more enjoyable, it was fun while it lasted :D.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#58There was a study at Mass General Hospital studying if pre-surgery carb loading reduced the need for post-op narcotics. (Not sure what the outcome was.)
Might be this study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16919107 "Pre-operative oral carbohydrate loading in colorectal surgery" "[...] leads to a significantly reduced postoperative hospital stay, and a trend towards earlier return of gut function when compared with fasting or supplementary water."
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#59I appreciate that this article tells a story and let's the reader think about the meaning and impact, coming to their own conclusion.
It's almost like the author is mocking American media for spoon feeding opinions.
Re: After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea
#60I 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.
The psychology of pain is complex. “Pain” doesn't imply “suffer”. For example (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/32309...):
”There was no dependable relation between the extent of a pathological wound and the pain experienced. No significant difference was found between the pain of sudden injury and that of chronic illness. The intensity of suffering is largely determined by what the pain means to the patient.”
On that front, I think there’s a large cultural difference between Americans and Europeans.