Last Monday evening, I had an accident with an angle grinder in my garage. The cutoff disc went through my leather glove and bit deep into the middle finger of my left hand. After deciding against gluing the cut back together, I drove myself to urgent care and received five stitches.
Did I need any painkillers, the doctor asked? I declined; my finger was pumped full of lidocaine at the time.
In the middle of the night, the lidocaine wore off, and while the finger hadn't hurt in the immediate aftermath of the injury, it certainly hurt then. After tossing and turning for about an hour, I decided to get up and try to find something to take.
The only analgesic I had in the house was an expired tiny bottle of ibuprofen. I needed about five minutes of digging before I found even that.
I simply don't use painkillers very often. I might take ibuprofen once or twice a year. I can't remember the last time I took anything other than ibuprofen, not even acetaminophen, not even when I twisted my knee.
I'm not sure if I have a higher tolerance of pain than other people or if other people like to self-medicate when the least bit of pain rears its head. Or, perhaps, I've simply been lucky enough not to have much pain.
Well it's a bit tough to do actual work when there's pain that keeps distracting you. In the article the author talks about just needing to rest... But many of us don't really have the luxury of taking multiple days to rest. At least when you're on painkillers you can still do white collar work, albeit at reduced capacity. Without painkillers though, all your mental capacity would be going towards managing the pain.
This may be another geographic difference - In Germany, unless you are self-employed, if you get a dr's note saying you should rest employers aren't allowed to ask you to come to work. And the amount of sick-leave is unlimited.
Side note: They can't even ask WHAT exactly you have that prevents you from working. Important detail in case you have something that could be stigmatising or somehow discriminated against.
It's cheating you out of needed rest. Without painkillers you are be forced to rest and prevented from making matters worse. The concept of pain has an important function. Here's a story of a family that doesn't feel it:
Last Monday evening, I had an accident with an angle grinder in my garage. The cutoff disc went through my leather glove and bit deep into the middle finger of my left hand. After deciding against gluing the cut back together, I drove myself to urgent care and received five stitches.
Did I need any painkillers, the doctor asked? I declined; my finger was pumped full of lidocaine at the time.
In the middle of the night, the lidocaine wore off, and while the finger hadn't hurt in the immediate aftermath of the injury, it certainly hurt then. After tossing and turning for about an hour, I decided to get up and try to find something to take.
The only analgesic I had in the house was an expired tiny bottle of ibuprofen. I needed about five minutes of digging before I found even that.
I simply don't use painkillers very often. I might take ibuprofen once or twice a year. I can't remember the last time I took anything other than ibuprofen, not even acetaminophen, not even when I twisted my knee.
I'm not sure if I have a higher tolerance of pain than other people or if other people like to self-medicate when the least bit of pain rears its head. Or, perhaps, I've simply been lucky enough not to have much pain.