[frank ballenger]

I have to tell you it was something on the radio. I told the truth about what I heard.

I did not say I thoroughly investigated the background, veracity and common practice statistics. For whatever reason the hospital policy was to protect themselves from some kind of complaint or lawsuit, possibly. (Or the person I heard on the news feature was wrong.)

Hospitals my wife and sister-in-law were in last year do the opposite: No you don’t need opioids, see how you do with Motrin,Advil, etc. Larger dosages but still NSAIDS.

The feature had people’s experiences with surprise addictions and then this guy who said he was supposed to take the amount for that discharge day, and then he could use the Rx if he was in severe pain. They may have had many people bothering them soon after discharge. Who knows.

Another was a family MD who stopped freely giving opioids but used to because doctors had been accused of having minimal educational training in pain reduction (that’s when the scale of 1-10 for “how much pain are you in now?” was getting under way. They were said to be perceived as insensitive to listening to a patient in pain. Now he doesn’t give unless absolutely necessary for short time.

If it’s like “don’t believe everything you read in the papers” replaced by “don’t believe what you hear on the radio news stories” then I’m sorry to have mentioned it.

The “repeating mindlessly” remark does apply to me a lot.

I’ll try not to repeat rumor and gossip style stories but then how will I fit in on the internet?

[ifinnegan]

To me ibuprofrin is a wonder drug.

I can see why some people in greater pain might need an opioid.

[Hot Tabasco]

Your statement is true. I have three physicians in my family, an Oncologist, a thorasic surgeon and an emergency room doctor at the local VA hospital. Each one of them echo what you heard, doctors are NOT recommending opioids like they did in the past (there are exceptions of course) and are indeed recommending the non addictive pain killers as an alternative.

Due to my active sports life, Celebrex was the miracle drug for me since it took away all the aches and pains I was suffering. It's not an addictive drug but rather an NSAID that does have certain side effects which I started experiencing after taking it for several years.

I was taking Ibuprofen for a number years like a vitamin and it ultimately caught up with me. It screwed up my stomach.

So my doctor recommended Tylenol acetaminophen which works pretty good but at least it doesn't interfere with my stomach.

I think what we are witnessing is a classic example of the MSM focusing on the medical community, blaming them for the opioid epidemic when the reality is that only a small number of that group are responsible for the prescription problem..............cue "we need government intervention and only Obamacare can fix it".