Managing pain is really important, having cancer is enough of a worry without having pain as well. But I have noticed that, while well intentioned, prescribing really strong painkillers seems to be the norm even if you may not need them. I was besieged with painkillers after my mastectomy - I squirrelled them away until the nurses gave up, I wasn’t in pain. Same after a surgical intervention to clear up an infection - boxes of painkillers I didn’t require. Even my dentist once gave me a prescription for Endone in case I had some tooth pain (never happened). I’m no stoic but I’m happy to use something less strong, if I am in pain, to see how that works before requesting bigger guns. Serious pain of course needs appropriate treatment but there does seem to be a pattern of rolling out the cannons before checking if lesser firepower might do the trick.
