Mom walks into my bedroom, and says, "I'm not mad at you. I just want to know why you didn't tell the doctor you needed pain pills for the weekend. He wouldn't have left you without help."
"I'll call him on Tuesday," I respond.
"At least get him to give you some until you meet with the surgeon. He will understand."
I don't doubt my GP's good intentions. He arguably saved my life once when I was very sick from what Stanford called "being toxic." Whenever doctors use the word "toxic," it's generally implied that it's serious. My GP noticed the problem before anyone else, including the doctors at county mental health who had brought on this ailment because they were overprescribing me medications for my mood. He called me at home on a weekend to help me, and told my mother (who answered the phone) to take me immediately to the ER. However, as I was told by his office staff, my GP in general doesn't prescribe opioids.
With the huge backlash from the "opioid epidemic," most doctors are very much afraid to hand out pain killers. Despite the fact that I've never gone to medical school, I find this to be utter nonsense. Many doctors wrote in research articles and essays for the media that opioids do not improve life satisfaction over the long term. They often said there was no evidence of it. Well, guess what? I found a paper written by a graduate Ph.D. student who did her own research through interviewing chronic, noncancer pain patients and doing her own surveys--and she found not only her own work to support that opioids help even with years of use, but she also found research from other doctors who conclude that opioids increase well being over long term and can effectively manage pain.
So, I've been avoiding calling my GP because I find it to be humiliating. The assumption now is that you will become addicted, even though a small minority of people actually do so. He prescribed me 10 pills of what is essentially Vicodin (I'm used to stronger stuff), and it lasted me four days.
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