Why do doctors not seem to give a fuck about pain? Is this just an American doctor thing, or is it universal?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨andros_rex@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I was denied sedation/effective pain meds before a procedure pretty recently. Despite the fact that I spent the entire time literally screaming in pain, they dismissed it as “anxiety” and did nothing to help.

I also received very little when I first came into the hospital - as my body was flooding with literal shit and I was fucking dying. They let me writhe and roll around for hours before they mercifully knocked me out for my operation.

I’m traumatized to the point where watching movies where people experiencing pain is upsetting. I was watching fucking Avatar the Last Airbender and wincing every time someone got punched or kicked.

I also go back to getting my IUD put in - again, another extremely painful procedure that is “not supposed to hurt” so there is no option for sedation or effective pain meds.

It feels like asking for pain meds gets you labeled as a drug seeker/addict too. I made the mistake of mentioning that I smoke weed (because I knew the anesthesiologist needs to know that) and it feels like it was instantly assumed that I’d be a pill popper too.

And I have extremely high pain tolerance. I’ve literally had people whip me until they’ve drawn blood. I’ve worked a fast food shift with a second degree (even a bit of third degree) burn going down the majority of my arm. I’m not a wuss, I know how to breathe in ways that help, I know how to go to a mind palace, but Christ, when you start digging around in someone’s guts with sharp objects, that’s not really something you can meditate away!

Is it training? Is it the fact that becoming a doctor in the U.S. requires the kind of upper middle class upbringing that doesn’t tend to help people develop empathy?

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neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
We’re in the throes of a few crisis in the US:

a professional backlash against the over-prescription of opiates that were advertised as “non-addictive” which was actually a lie,

the monster the above crisis created: a domestic population of drug addicts who are either seeking drugs themselves or looking to non-addicts to acquire them,

constriction within the health insurance marketplace, demanding more and more justification for care and drug access,

an entire political system that’s in the pocket of said industry who are incentivized to manufacture a world that maximizes health care spending while minimizing actual health care delivered.
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- thethrilloftime69@feddit.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Doctor here. This is exactly it. The system created a bunch of addicts on a lie and then punishes everyone else for the mistake of lying about how addictive opiates are
  
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  - andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If I give them back the leftover oxy from what they sent home with me, would that help in getting any potential “drug seeker” notes removed?
    
    I don’t even get how I’d abuse the stuff. It just makes me sleepy. Like - marijuana is fun because it makes food taste good and helps me think more creatively. Opioids take away intense pain just enough for me to sleep it off. I ended up throwing away most of a bottle of Percocet after I got my top surgery because I’d rather have a little breakthrough pain on Tylenol and be cogent than sleep 18 hours a day.
    
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  - Venator@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    but if you’re in a hospital getting a procedure surely the probability of addiction is much lower…
    
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- BiggestPiggest@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Studies have also shown that female pain is ignored far more than male. I think this shows just how much men don’t trust women.
  
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- Buddahriffic@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Also, some doctors look for signs of low pain tolerance rather than just pain. So the ability to maintain composure despite pain can be taken as a sign that there isn’t any pain.
  
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phdepressed@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You’re female which is a detriment to appropriate medical care, being non-white is also a detriment to care. As others note there are also various systematic and medical reasons a doctor may not prescribe or use pain-relievers especially prior to understanding the problem.

I will say you need a new ob/gyn as there are recent updates that make pain relief a standard for iud insertion.

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- Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  My mother literally had a gynaecologist just tell her that they’re putting her under general anesthesia for a surgery where other clinics won’t because “we don’t believe in torturing our patients”.
  
  Thank you to that clinic. We need so many more of those in the world.
  
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- RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  NGL as a white guy I just have to ask nicely for the good drugs and they give me opioides, granted it’s for kidney stones and it’s the most pain I’ve ever experienced, but honestly it sounds better than whatever OP was going through.
  
  I do think I present with classic pain symptoms, I litterally can’t form sentences, which might help.
  
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  - phdepressed@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Kidney stones are known as one of the most painful things, and knowing the problem means the pain is no longer important for diagnosis.
    
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SuiXi3D@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You're female. No, doctors don't care. Ask my wife about how many different doctors she had to see before someone finally took an X-Ray of her back and found out one of her vertebrae is basically crumbling away.

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- s38b35M5@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I believe John Oliver covered this exact phenomenon in this video: youtu.be/TATSAHJKRd8
  
  tl;dw Doctors assume women exaggerate pain compared to men (the opposite is true), in addition to ethnic (we’re all the same race, so I don’t use that term anymore) biases also discussed in the video.
  
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  - Nouvellalia@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I really appreciate you citing a white man for this. No one believes it otherwise.
    
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  - TheMadCodger@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Which is why women get hysterectomies, to remove the hysterical bits.
    
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A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I can see from you talking about IUDs that you are a woman.

Which I believe answers your question, especially if you happen to be a non-white woman.

Doctors, Even female doctors, even female doctors of color, are incredibly dismissive of pain in women, and frequently hand wave it away as the woman being hysterical, over reacting, anxiety, etc etc.

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Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I can just tell you that it’s not universal: several doctors I’ve seen and know are very cautious when it comes to pain - both from own experience (“we will go strong with the pain killers for the best two days to prevent stress reaction from the body”) to others (“we need to get the chronic pain under control fast, otherwise there’s the risk of phantom pain developing even after we’ve tackled the issues”) (not verbatim quotes of course but the gists).

It might not even be US generic but a regional or age thing in the doctors you’ve met - remember that usually everyone one of us has only a very limited insight into the whole medical industry.

I’m similar to you in terms of pain tolerance and I’ve walked away from a doctor who talked shit about pain in patients - but I’ve head way better experiences before so that didn’t feel like I’m being stuck with this one medical “professional”.

Wishing you the best of luck though! It’s absolutely terrible when people don’t take you seriously, especially if it’s their job to help you :(

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- kubica@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  All my life what I've heard is that pain is only useful as a warning of a problem. After that the pain is something that must be minified.
  
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  - Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes and it’s a personal benchmark of mine for a doctor how they talk about pain - because this is by now such well studied that I don’t understand how people like OP described are still allowed to do what they’re doing.
    
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Apytele@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m going to mostly focus on the more legitimate answers since you already seem to know some of this was possibly / probably oversight / neglect and that they should have given you more.

a) the big one is pressure from regulatory agencies to prescribe less narcotics. Some of this is legitimate; a lot of the opiate crisis was started by pharma companies lying about how habit forming their medications are and intentionally encouraging dependency to sell more, but a lot of it is also just straight up puritanical and part of efforts to disrupt minority communities that are more affected by illicit drug use. In the end though, there’s little individual prescribers can do about it.

b) There’s legit specific medical reasons sometimes. If you had a bowel obstruction opiates are actually specifically contraindicated since they’re the medications MOST likely to cause constipation. Now if surgical intervention was the best option it might make sense to give them anyway, but there may have been some waffling on what the best option was and they couldn’t un-give you the meds if they did decide to have you pass it with medication / enemas instead of surgery. And bowel surgeries have a huuuge possibility of sepsis and having to have vital organs removed so that’s not a decision to make lightly.

c) there’s huge pressure in institutional environments to do ANYTHING to prevent falls. In addition to getting stingy with sedatives that might make you dizzy there’s also pressure to have 1:1 care where people watch the patient in the bathroom and we used to even restrain old people to keep them from falling (although thank goodness that’s finally falling out of favor). To get rid of that we’d have to accept that sometimes people just fall and crack their head open and die and that’s life but we’re just not there yet as a society. In the US everything needs to be someone’s fault and if the doctor prescribes a sedating med and I give it and you fall, it’s partially considered my and the doctor’s fault. If we do ALL the environmental AND don’t give sedating meds, it’s considered less our fault.

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AnAmericanPotato@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My experience, also in the US, has been the opposite: I get prescribed addictive painkillers “just in case”.

Last time I had surgery, they told me to take ibuprofen for pain, and they also gave me a prescription for vicodin if the pain was too great. I live in an area with a significant opioid abuse problem, and they’re handing it out like candy. They didn’t tell me “call back if it’s severe” or anything like that, they just gave me the prescription. I stuck with the ibuprofen, and realistically I could have done without even that.

I suspect your experience is largely due to sexism. I’ve heard so many stories like this, where doctors don’t even think of taking women seriously.

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- justaman123@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You must be one of the Real People™ if you make above a certain amount of money or you have certain professions or if your family has a certain amount of money then you are considered a real human. Importantly you must also be male and cisgenderrd and heterosexual, though enough money can counteract these effects.
  
  The reason that most humans are not considered Real People™ is because it’s the only way for folks nearer the top of the pyramid of social hierarchy to justify their existence. Poor folks and people who don’t have professional careers must be less than those at the top and the ones at the top must have special criteria that means every judgement they make must be better.
  
  I used to be on disability and when I went in to see healthcare professionals I was basically treated like dirt and was never believed about anything I said. Then I went to law schools and suddenly everything I said mattered. It’s wild how much differently folks treat you when they think you are Real People™
  
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AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The side effects of medication can interfere with diagnosis and treatment

Pain can be a useful diagnostic indicator itself

They see people in pain all the time, so it doesn’t seem like an exceptional state to them

People with low pain tolerance are overrepresented in the population of people seeking medical care, so experience biases medical providers to assume that as a factor
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yesman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There was a nurse in a fertility clinic who was an addict and replaced the fentanyl drip with saline in her clinic. Multiple women experienced agony during the procedure for extracting eggs. That procedure was to insert a huge syringe into the vagina, through the vagina wall, into the ovaries to suck up some eggs.

Many women experienced this with no pain medication at all and their complaints, even their screams were dismissed. Needless to say, when the addict nurse was discovered, they felt pretty silly.

Doctors have incredible tolerance for the suffering of women.

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SarahFromOz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Its because of crackdowns after the opioid epidemic years ago. Doctors were handing out oxycontin because the manufacturers marketed it as being non addictive. Apparently medical professionals actually believed this.

If you want something dont mention illicit drug use. But it probably won’t make any difference

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mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I am sorry to inform you good sir or madam that you have taken part in what is known as malpractice. You should contact a lawyer immediately and change your health care provider if you are able to do so in whatever region you are located.

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RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Probably just thanks to insurance companies yet again

Doctors don’t get to make their own decisions anymore, they’re paid more like car mechanics and get a “job rate”.

Change a tire? It’s billed at $28 bucks. Doesn’t matter if it takes you 10 minutes or an hour. Air and balancing is included. Anything extra you don’t get paid for.

Gotta put in an IUD? You get $500 for the job, included is one shot of pain meds, the IUD, and one set of sterile equipment. Pain meds not working so great on this patient? Insurance doesn’t pay for extra, outpatient center doesn’t get paid for it or has to fight insurance for it.

Same for novocaine in dental work.

Insurance is terrible.

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- fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The fact that insurance companies are allowed to deny claims on the grounds and on medically necessary against doctor’s orders without being required to pay for second opinion from a doctor is insane. They are literally a core operating part of the medical system and it’s the most dysfunctional part
  
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- andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I actually don’t have insurance so it probably wasn’t a factor.
  
  I am super fucked lol.
  
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DagwoodIII@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Junkies know everything about getting meds.

A doctor would rather have someone in discomfort than deal with being investigated for over prescribing.

I heard a talk by a doctor who specialized in end of life hospice care.

New interns at the facility are averse to giving out pain meds to people who are literally dying because that’s what they were taught.

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- RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  Junkies know everything about getting meds.
  
  Seems like an easy to fix problem: safe consumption sites
  
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  - DagwoodIII@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Not all junkies are homeless.
    
    Plenty of high earners get addicted to pills of one sort or another.
    
    Michael Jackson died after being shot up by his private MD.
    
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  - ZERONOVABLOSSOM@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That only works if you have a plan in place for these people’s futures like mental/physical healthcare, affordable housing, and stable careers.
    
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trashcroissant@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This is marginally related but in case anyone else doesn’t know: dental procedures are not supposed to hurt.

I grew up terrified of dentists and ended up not going for nearly 10 years because of the fear/pain. I finally gave in when a tooth broke in half. The dentist I went to gave me the regular amount of numbing stuff and about 5 mins in saw in my face how much pain I was in and from then on she always gave me extra. I just have a high tolerance for the stuff and had never been receiving enough.

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- Wataba@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  About half my teeth are now hollow stumps, i finally decided I’d look into getting treatment in spite of being scared off by stories of $50,000 replacement operations without anaesthetic. (Australia btw).
  
  Thanks for the reassurance.
  
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- polariscap@lemmy.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Word. I teared up out of happiness after a dental hygienist (who I currently see) offered me numbing gel for my gums during a cleaning (even let me choose the flavor) in a totally non-judgmental way. I was in my late thirties and I didn’t know any dentists would be willing to offer that sort of stuff to adults.
  
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Highlow@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Completely normal. I had hemorrhoid surgery and got 3 fucking pills. Recovery was supposed to be 1 week. It was more 4 months.

I live with constant back pain and fall all the time. They tell me to take ibuprofen. Which does fuck all.

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abbadon420@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Wtf? No this is not normal. My wife even gets pain meds for the Dental Hygienist, because she has a fear for the dentist or anything dentist related. I think it is absolutely unnecessary, but maybe she has hyper sensutive teeth or something. I’m not a doctor. Anyways, the pain meds help her, so she gets them, regardless of whether it is just phychological or not.

I think you’re just suffering from the ridiculousness that calls itself the US healthcare system.

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Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The classic case of:

We just discovered a new thing with a specific use, let’s sell it to EVERYBODY!

Turns out that the new thing is bad for people who don’t fit a specific use case, so in order to prevent the wrong people from getting it, we must stop offering it to the people that DO need it.

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RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
As others have said, it’s a backlash against the pill mills, we have overcorrected.

I get migraines occasionally, and have Imitrex shots for them. I love that drug because it is not at all druggy - it leaves me clear headed with no migraine, there is a nauseating unpleasant rush when administered, then it’s just like walking back in time, headache fades to nothing.

But a handful of times (like literally 6 times in 30 years) I get status migraine. Imitrex does not avail me, 4 days no food no water I will puke even a spoonful of water.

I used to be able to go to the doctor and get some shots with some opiate and fenergan. They would do one, I would still be puking and crying, they would come back every 20 minutes or so and do another until I was so far away from the pain it wasn’t bothering me. Then I could sleep and it worked every time, even though it did not work by killing the pain immediately (painkillers don’t work for migraine) the high plus sleep always worked. Maybe $50 -$100 total cost.

But the last two times I got this, the doctor couldn’t do that, it was outlawed. They sent me to the emergency room. Cold IV in a cold room, some advil stuff that doesn’t work, then send me home still hurting, can’t sleep, headache 2 more days but I don’t die from dehydration. $1,600 for a worse result.

I understand why they say the opiates don’t work for migraine, they don’t directly kill the pain. But the previous protocol worked, and with electronic health records, can they not tell this is a very infrequent event for me? I don’t even like downers. I just want the headache to break and that was the only protocol that ever worked.

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- thesohoriots@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  To add to the backlash portion: doctors are monitored for what rxs and how many they write for controlled substances. Pharmacies are monitored for how many controlled substances they dole out. Some rural pharmacies will refuse to take on new patients with pain meds (ex: you have a recently-diagnosed cancer patient who lived in the middle of nowhere all their life, and they can’t get morphine because their local pharmacy refuses to take on another scheduled rx). Pain management typically dictates you get a few days at a time and have to be reassessed before you can get another rx, so that means throwing another one on to the pile for the doctor and pharmacy, which means more liability.
  
  Source: spouse worked ambulatory trying to coordinate with bumfuck nowhere pharmacies to get cancer patients their meds.
  
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WhiteRabbit@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Too many doctors getting in trouble for the general over-prescription of opiates

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Meatwagon@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I got surgically sterilized because the pain from that was less than what an IUD would have been.

The only pain I felt was for the initial IV stick. After that it was nothing.

I will refuse any painful procedure that doesn’t have adequate pain relief. I don’t care if I die.

Medicine keeps getting away with this shit because women just accept it. Endometrial biopsy? Only if I’m completely out. If not I guess I’ll enjoy my hospice drugs while I’m dying.

IUD? Lol I just cut my shit out instead.

I’m too fed up to live through this shit anymore. I have no kids IDGAF.

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- andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Part of why my condition got so bad to begin with was because I’ve had so many bad experiences with doctors that I didn’t go to the hospital until I started feeling unbearable pain. I spent a full two weeks with an infected abscess just getting worse and worse because I figured that whatever it was would be blown off if I went to the hospital - because that happens any time I’ve ever gone to an ER.
  
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- andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I need to get my IUD replaced (it’s been 10+ years) and I’m terrified. I don’t have insurance, so my best option is Planned Parenthood, who told me that it was “just a little pinch.”
  
  I’ve been fucked with knives and wartenberg wheels (abusive BDSM relationship). That shit was not “a little pinch.” I filled up a diaper with blood afterwords.
  
  It’s to the point where I avoid seeing doctors, unless it’s the nurse practitioner who does my hormones - he’s the only doctor I’ve felt listened to me.
  
  They’re so damn condescending too - I’ve taught biology and chemistry - I can understand a real explanation of what’s happening and want one!
  
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  - Meatwagon@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’ve stopped seeing doctors in person for the same reason. I only do virtual appointments.
    
    Can you do any alternative to the IUD after it’s removed? I’ve never considered one and did any other alternative I could. I have endometriosis so did birth control then hormone blockers when those stopped working. I had my tubes removed for birth control. At some point I’ll have my ovaries removed if the hormone blockers stop working. I’d rather just throw everything out than have to do an IUD. Medicaid had covered the sterilization entirely.
    
    I’m sorry you’re dealing with this.
    
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Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Unfortunately this absolutely happens, both by doctors and nurses.
My mother experienced something similar at the hospital when she had an examination for a disc herniation.
She was told not whine so much about it despite it was extremely painful for her to move. After they had the results, and it turned out she had a HUGE one, they all suddenly changed completely, because they could se on the images how bad it really was.
They thought she had 2, but when she was operated, it turned out to be only one that was so big it looked like 2 on the imaging.

Some doctors and nurses are assholes, that don’t respect their patients, and don’t believe when they have pains.

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marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Is it training?

Yes. As you may or may not remember, the Sackler family spent billions on and made hundreds of billions off of getting the American south addicted to opiates over the 1990s and early 2000s. Every single doctor and hospital involved was sued by their former patients. There are still billboards up in some southern states advertising law firms that specialize in suing doctors over developed addictions.

So any doctor that graduated in the last 16 years has had one specific thing drilled into their head: Do. Not. Treat. Pain.

Because you will be sued if your patient is an addict or becomes an addict.

Is it the fact that becoming a doctor in the U.S. requires the kind of upper middle class upbringing that doesn’t tend to help people develop empathy?

This has always affected doctors in the US, but the medical profession is a calling regardless. If you want money there are so many better pathways, leaving exactly three reasons people become doctors:

They want control over life and death

They want the prestige of the title for themselves or their family

3: They have an uncontrollable natural urge to try to help others.

So 2/3rds of doctors are not going to fight their training and just try to prescribe pain meds as little as possible.

Of the remain 1/3rd of doctors or so, the ones that genuinely love helping others and want to deliver the best possible care, one bad experience with addicts can permanently change their attitude, and they may get hundreds of experiences per shift if they happen to do their residency in an ER inside any American city.

On top of all of this is the inherent gender and racial biases in medicine, and American medicine in general. Women’s pain is taken less seriously. It was in medical textbooks world wide until the 2020s that black people felt less pain and were genetically more prone to addiction. There was a literal course in every MA, RN, LVN, MD, etc course about “how different races feel and express pain.”

So if you want pain relief, you better have both the vital stats showing you are experiencing pain (which is awful for chronic pain sufferers who no longer have high BP/High pulse from their pain), and you better be a white man with a conservative lifestyle/look (because we know the gays are more likely to pop pills[This is literally in medical textbooks]), you better get lucky that you have a doctor willing to prescribe pain management, and even if you qualify at that point you better not ever ask for pain meds, period, regardless of your situation. As it only takes one single nurse or doctor to put drug seeking behavior on your chart to ruin your chances at ever receiving pain management ever again.
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- andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  As a trans guy, I got about 50/50 “she” versus “he” despite being a fat balding bearded guy. I’m guessing that factored into it too.
  
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- dreamy@quokk.au ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  (because we know the gays are more likely to pop pills[This is literally in medical textbooks])
  
  What medical textbook is this in?
  
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  - marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Every one broaching the topic in any possible way.
    
    Here’s Johns Hopkins, one of the leading voices in American Medicine, saying gay men tend to use crystal meth. Here’s a meta study referenced in at least 30 textbooks(I stopped counting the books in the cited by section) saying all ‘sexual minorities’ are much more likely to have substance abuse issues, but bixsexual women are the most likely to be long term addicts. Here’s a more up to date article saying Trans people are by far the most likely to be long term addicts. That last one is only in one textbook but is directly cited in two organization’s drug policies.
    
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- TheTechnician27@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  So 2/3rds of doctors are not going to fight their training and just try to prescribe pain meds as little as possible.
  
  Ah, yes, truly how math works. “I will break all doctors down into three arbitrary, mutually exclusive categories and then decide that they’re evenly distributed.”
  
  How you wrote this and thought “Yup, sounds right” is beyond me.
  
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  - marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I see you’re still stalking me and you still haven’t learned anything about hyperbole for argumentative purposes. No, for my ASD friends I do not literally mean, “2/3rds here’s quantifiable evidence of something no one has ever quantified because doctors are allegedly heroes (if you’re a straight white male) and here are my mathematical sources and proofs for this very minor and entirely immaterial point of this particular argument.”
    
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MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My most recent experience in the UK is that they’re fairly generous with painkillers. I was in an orthopedic ward - broken hips, ruptured tendons, that kind of thing. We all got oxycodone and paracetamol (plus laxatives to ward off the consequent constipation). I enjoyed the oxy but didn’t become an addict.

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CaptnKarisma@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think its a liability thing, people get hooked on painkillers, they don’t want to be held responsible for prescribing it. Not sure how regulated certain drugs are, but probably a mix. Not sure why they would hold for certain ops they deem not bad enough. No great answer for this one, could be the system just sucks or there is no really great fix for it.

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exupulosion@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
They just expect you to choke on some ibuprofen or paracetamol, same for most of the western Europe tbf, even if care is way more affordable

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daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
They probably get a ton of drug addicts asking for narcotics. And probably had made a lot of involuntary drug addicts over prescribing narcotics.

Some drugs are quite dangerous and it should be understood why doctors are wary of just prescribing it so easily.

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- LodeMike@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Weed
  
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Nouvellalia@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s because you’re a woman. It’s double bad if you are also a woc. We are nowhere near close to even beginning to fix this. It’s systemic, and no one in power in the medical field gives a shit. Because only women and POC suffer from this.

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ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Don’t know man but the doctors here be like “just take a paracetamol”.

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ieatpwns@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The doctors care. The shareholders dont

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Strider@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I can only tell you it’s not like this in Germany but still dependant on doctors.

On one side you have those that know that pain can get chronic if untreated and they will employ countermeasures. No sense in needless pain.

On the other hand you have some bad doctors that are unaware and unempathic and can not relate to the illnesses they even treat. There you might have issues then.

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