# Was my pain managed properly? (gallbladder surgery years ago) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-my-pain-managed-properly-gallbladder-surgery-years-ago/656628 "2013-04-24T23:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-my-pain-managed-properly-gallbladder-surgery-years-ago/656628/21 "2013-04-25T22:45:06Z")
Back in 1983, I got ibuprofen before the surgery. There may have been something in the IV after, but I kind of doubt it. On the second night, the nurse came around and asked if I wanted the pain pill or the pain shot to help me sleep. I asked if I had to have either, because I hadn’t had any problem the night before. She didn’t believe me at first, but checked my charts. It had been missed. And since it hadn’t been a problem the night before, she just let me go back to sleep. So, yeah, things get missed sometimes. Post-surgery hurt, but not nearly as much as a solid gallstone attack had. No one ever identified what was in either the pill or the shot, so I don’t know what I missed. This was a County hospital, so they may have been a little more stingy with the pain meds. I was the only patient on the ward not there for something drug or alchohol related. For awhile I thought that the woman who had been shot in the belly was another exception, but found out that she and her boyfriend had been drunk at the time of the argument. The nurses liked me. I didn’t ask for pain meds or complain at them. And if they told me to do something, I did it, even if it hurt. I was surprised that it took that little to be the good patient. ---
**Author:** ![Doggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@Doggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doggo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-my-pain-managed-properly-gallbladder-surgery-years-ago/656628/22 "2013-04-27T12:21:15Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Pain assessment is also one of my early and repeated questions. > > OTOH, I had a scalp laceration sutured in the ER in’79 without even a local, OTOH, the whole '90s ‘research’ that opiates won’t addict you if you really need them has been debunked and the pedulum is swinging back from indescriminate use (thank the maker). > > [Emergency Medicine News](http://journals.lww.com/em-news/Fulltext/2013/03000/Toxicology_Rounds__The_Dark_Truth_Behind_Pain_as.9.aspx) > > Highlights: > The number of overdose deaths from prescription opioids in the United States has more than tripled in the past decade, > > The authors concluded that their paper offered “suggestive evidence that opioid medications can be safely and effectively prescribed to selected patients with relatively little risk of producing the maladaptive behaviors which define opioid abuse.” > Reading that paper today, I am amazed at just how poor the science behind it was. > It is now generally accepted, even by former evangelists such as Dr. Portenoy, that the risk of addiction in patients prescribed opiates for chronic pain is substantial. > OP, I would happily have given you morphine for your gallbadder pain. Depending on how many stitches you needed, the pain of lignocaine can be worse than the pain of suturing. I speak from experience. The vast majority of patients in hospital will never take enough morhine to become addicted. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-my-pain-managed-properly-gallbladder-surgery-years-ago/656628/23 "2013-04-27T18:50:15Z")
> [@Doggo](#): > > Depending on how many stitches you needed, the pain of lignocaine can be worse than the pain of suturing. I speak from experience. > > The vast majority of patients in hospital will never take enough morhine to become addicted. I’ve gone both ways, this time was much worse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-my-pain-managed-properly-gallbladder-surgery-years-ago/656628.md?page=1)