My brother in law is a doctor and he blames Joint Commission and their regs and demands on hospitals and doctors to declare war on patient pain. In the last couple of times I was in the hospital the first words they asked me is are you in pain and what is the level of pain 1-10 scale.
I had hemorrhoid surgery last year and there was some major pain and I was prescribed an opioid. I took as prescribed the following day and part of another day and then went to Tylenol with some discomfort but it was easily manageable with ice packs and after another day or two I was sore but fine. But they wanted to make sure I had no pain if possible.
That being said I have had friends who have gone to the local ER with sudden stomach or back pains and the local ER doctor only wanted to prescribe opioids and send them home. One lady friend of mine went to the ER for continuing back pain which she had never had before and she was in her 50’s and the doctor ran no test, did no x-rays, just wanted to write a script for pain meds and send her home. She finally yelled at him. “I am not some pill head looking for a hit, my back has hurt me for two weeks and isn’t getting better I want to know what is wrong with me. Either run some test and try and figure out why this is happening or get out of my room and send me a real doctor!”
She ended up leaving the ER and tore the script up and threw it at the doctor and said I won’t be back here to you quacks and went to a bigger city hospital and found out she had slipped a disc. Easily detectable but not when you are just trying to clear an ER out.
Opioids for hemorrhoid surgery sounds terrible! They make me constipated. I avoid them like the plague.