Whenever I turn away for two seconds, doctors push bags of oxycodone pills into my hands. Today, N went to pick up my prescriptions and alongside the innocent iron supplement I wanted, ended up with a pile of oxy pills.
I kept telling the doctors I wasn’t in pain but they don’t quit until they get this stuff to you. I could start a small side business pushing the stuff to addicts.
And then we wonder why addiction to the vile thing is skyrocketing.
Medical hint: Save the bottle of oxycodone pills. Take them one at a time — VERY sparingly for the acute but transient abdominal surgery pain as necessary.
Then set them aside (if they gave you a large bottle, you should have plenty left over), and use the rest over a period of months on RARE occasions when you realize that an acute pain is starting that will grow to unbearable levels if you don’t stop it early (severe migraine or muscle-tension headache, for instance) .
DON’T use them when non-narcotic painkillers will work, and if you have any left after a year, flush them down the toilet.
(No snark here, just useful advice.)
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DON’T flush them down the toilet. You don’t need that shit leaking into ground water, and if you’re on city water, most places lack the advance filtration to filter those sorts of chemicals out. In the US, the DEA has drug take-back days and facilities so that medications can be disposed of properly (mostly in big cities). Many pharmacies also take back expired meds and will dispose of them properly. Barring all of those plans, you mix your drugs with something totally inedible (cat litter, coffee grounds, etc.), seal it a plastic bag or other container, and send it out with your regular garbage.
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It always amazes me how many painkillers they are willing to prescribe. It is hard to get other medication, they want to make sure you really need it, but they utterly push these painkillers. And yet, I am told that with people who are actually in pain, they are stingy.
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They have to keep the drugs companies in business, they are no doubt paid to push the stuff and yes it’s addictive. Can also cause constipation, which you don’t need post-partum and most importantly it gets into your milk. If you take it so does Klara! I bet the doctors didn’t tell you that, it’s even possible they don’t know. I’m often surprised how little some doctors know about the junk they prescribe.
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“They have to keep the drugs companies in business, they are no doubt paid to push the stuff”
Bullsticks. The drug companies don’t need any help staying in business, and every doctor has been unofficially bribed his/her entire practice by free bennies and legal gifts from the drug manufacturers.
When I graduated from medical school in 1970, the Eli Lilly Company gave every member of my graduating class a free genuine leather bag with our name and “M.D” engraved on it, and the bag contained a professional quality stethoscope, otoscope, and ophthalmoscope, and we were very happy to get all that equipment. (We were all broke!)
Trade secret: The real reason doctors prescribe so many painkillers after surgery or a dental procedure is because they’ve all had the experience where a patient says, “I don’t need them” (or “need very many”) — and then the patient calls the doctor back at night, or on the weekend, or when he/she’s busy with other patients, and demands an immediate prescription (or refill) of the medication because the patient underestimated the severity of the pain.
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I kept telling the doctors I wasn’t in pain but they don’t quit until they get this stuff to you. I could start a small side business pushing the stuff to addicts.
They don’t know anything about your tremendous pain tolerance and assume you might feel more pain later or are minimizing. That said, oxys are highly addictive so…
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I know, this is why I’m terrified of taking them. They are mind-altering and scary. Plus, there’s really not that much pain. I was walking 24 hours post-op. Of course, I was not walking very well but still.
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” I was not walking very well but still”
I thought you often didn’t walk very well, is this in comparison with your normal baseline or other people around you?
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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