What was the worst physical pain you've ever felt in your life?

Oh your wife has some letters? Cool. So do I. MSc. PhD. And in 4 months I'll be an MD. I've spent the last 4 years with MD's. Today I spent all day in a cancer clinic where we prescribed everything from dilaudid to morphine. Last month I was in the ER where Tylenol 3's were handed out regularly. The month before that I was in a geriatric center where about half the people were on some combination of opioid and NSAID. The month before that I was in a family clinic where we'd get 1-2 patients per day with chronic opioid use, and another few with gabapentin addictions or benzo dependencies. I know chronic pain doctors who try their best to wean people off of gigantic hydrocodone usages. I've seen a lot of medication usage.

So I can speak with someone authority when I say you're full of shit and claim doctors don't care about people's pain. We care a fuckton. But we're also in charge of an incredibly dangerous resource, and we're not going to dispense it unless you aren't able to function properly without it. And many times, patients become accustomed to their dosages and we have to increasingly prescribe more for them to get the same effect. And then they end up with respiratory depression and asphyxiating on their own vomit, and whoops I guess their pain isn't such a big deal anymore.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent