After Surgery in Germany, I Wanted Vicodin, Not Herbal Tea

Post by ce4 » Sun, Jan 28, 2018, 7:45 PM UTC

jdavis703 wrote: post #93

teuobk wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Story time! Last Monday evening, I had an accident with an angle grinder in my garage. The cutoff disc went through my leather glove and bit deep into the middle finger of my left hand. After deciding against gluing the cut back together, I drove myself to urgent care and received five stitches. Did I need any painkillers, the doctor asked? I declined; my finger was pumped full of lidocaine at the time. In th…

Well it's a bit tough to do actual work when there's pain that keeps distracting you. In the article the author talks about just needing to rest... But many of us don't really have the luxury of taking multiple days to rest. At least when you're on painkillers you can still do white collar work, albeit at reduced capacity. Without painkillers though, all your mental capacity would be going towards managing the pain.

Post by dpflan » Sun, Jan 28, 2018, 7:48 PM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #136

dpflan wrote: post #67

This passage feels like it is premise of the article; the author eventually comes to terms with her tea-sipping and resting as recovery, and this doctor explains the reasoning behind the medical decision-making which is very clear (and mindful/thoughtful) I think. “To paraphrase him [German anesthesiologist], he said: ‘Pain is a part of life. We cannot eliminate it nor do we want to. The pain will guide you. You will…

I wonder if that doctor has ever had major surgery himself and been told not to use painkillers? Even if that is the case, pain seems to vary greatly in how it affects people. I would be very hesitant to tell someone that they should just let the pain "guide" them, because I have no idea what it is like for them.

Post by zython » Sun, Jan 28, 2018, 7:49 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #56

zython wrote: post #21

> "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.

Post by smueller1234 » Sun, Jan 28, 2018, 7:52 PM UTC

ido wrote: post #128

jdavis703 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's a bit tough to do actual work when there's pain that keeps distracting you. In the article the author talks about just needing to rest... But many of us don't really have the luxury of taking multiple days to rest. At least when you're on painkillers you can still do white collar work, albeit at reduced capacity. Without painkillers though, all your mental capacity would be going towards managing the pain.

This may be another geographic difference - In Germany, unless you are self-employed, if you get a dr's note saying you should rest employers aren't allowed to ask you to come to work. And the amount of sick-leave is unlimited.

Post by germanier » Sun, Jan 28, 2018, 8:00 PM UTC

lispm wrote: post #142

ams6110 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are splitting hairs. "people/companies who pay into the German universal health insurance system" are effectively being taxed, whatever the wording is.

No, they are insurance membership contributions in Germany. The contributions are specifically used to finance the health system, here the specific health insurer. Taxes generally are not paid for a person, but for things and values, etc.. Taxes are also not bound to a specific purpose, but are going into the general budget of the country/state/town. Taxes and insurance fees are different finance models. In Germany t…