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by JanSt 2488 days ago
American experience with painkillers in Germany after surgery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfTMRrJrM7Y&t=7m31s

2 comments

Top comment on that video sums things up really well:

> Yeah, pain has a purpose. It stops you from doing stuff your body isn't ready yet. So making it bearable, but still tangibly is making you able to do stuff (like this video), but stops you from running down the road and injuring yourself again / lengthening the time to recovery. (Yeah, I'm a fan of that approach)

Also, this isn't just how it works in Germany - this applies to most non-US countries I'd say.

Insightful and true.

In America it's practically taboo to tell someone they don't need a thing and the tolerance for any discomfort is extremely low.

As it should be in my opinion - admittedly colored by own experiences and phobias. Hospitalization is a leading cause of PTSD. That "discomfort" can leave people pretty traumatized and messed -all because of other's puritan desires.

If you washed someone's wounds in salt water when there were alternatives it would be rightfully regarded as sadism - why the tolerance for unnecessary pain and suffering otherwise?

There is a middle ground between proper pain management and handing out scripts of Vicodin for take-home for the slightest reason.