Well, the removal wasn't so bad. I eat a little more carefully, but the chipmunk swelling went down after a couple of hours and I rested a lot. It doesn't hurt so much that I need narcotics (I took 1 and a half pills before switching to regular over-the-counter painkillers) and I am immensely grateful for that. The narcotics are a little scary. I've overheard a conversation between a couple people that save their painkillers and pop them at other times when it wasn't prescribed and it shocked me how cavalier they were treating the medication. Yet others were so excited to get vicodin so they could pretend to be like multiple t.v. show characters addicted to the stuff. I thought that college-students would be above such emulation tactics, but I underestimate the power of television.
I don't want to be addicted to some medication because a famous t.v. character is, or that it makes me "feel so good" when I don't need it.
The doctor warned me that there are a lot of patients who call in because they still have pain at the end of the vicodin. A prescription of 20 pills should last approximately 3 1/3 days if you are taking them every 4 hours. A dark part of me wondered how many people were faking pain for more pills.
I am aware that I was blessed and others may not be as lucky as I was and that I need to be more generous of spirit.
A small part is also pain resistance. When I got a wisdom tooth pulled, the pain didn't feel too bad and I got over it pretty quickly. Although, it was one tooth that was just pulled and then stitched in about five minutes, so maybe I have no real basis for comparison...Props to you for noticing the 'new valium' trend though!
ReplyDeleteMake sure to throw them away and not flush them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, a lot of people love to do things just because they know it is wrong but technically not illegal, or for jail time anyway.
I was in a gas station paying for a non functioning pay at the pump, and another customer was smoking in the store. He was getting such a kick out of it because he claimed the manager didn't care because he smoked too.
I'm glad you're avoiding hard core drugs, even if the doctors prescribe them.