Ha you would think. The person at work helping my fiance move a 300 lb generator dropped his end, which fell on my fiance's knee and bent it backwards. Then an arrogant doctor removed too much of his meniscus for his age and cut into a nerve he wasn't supposed to (we were told this by his new orthopedist, who was amazing). So not only does my fiance have his knee bones basically grinding together with no cushion on the outside, he also has debilitating nerve pain and the good parts of his bad knee and all of his other knee are getting worn down faster. He'll never be able to walk without a cane or custom knee brace.

Does he get pain meds? Not regularly. He gets them once every other month, and that's because his mom and I asked for them for him. His pain doesn't go away on the off months and sometimes he'd rather die from the pain, but hey at least he doesn't have a chance of becoming addicted! /s his quality of life is garbage and he can't do half of what he used to or wants to do, but that's ok, apparently. And guess what? The nerve pain medication he is on is now being scrutinized more, so he'll be lucky to get that in a few years too.

The situation with pain medication in this country is fucking abysmal. People in pain should not be suffering because doctors are too afraid of the DEA to hand out medication that vastly improves patients' quality of life.