Having a hard time keeping up, but I want to read every post.

Happy, or at least peaceful, birthday, msbelle!

Allyson, we know you're not just attention-seeking. But you did an incredibly brave and difficult thing and you're carrying a huge burden, You actually deserve some loving attention. Let yourself have it, okay?

his guess was that 95% of those asking for pain meds were drug-seekers.

Yeah, my ER doc friend (I use the term "friend" loosely) said that, basically, if anyone comes in and *asks* for pain meds, they're labelled a drug-seeker, even if they have a legit injury. He said that the staff is trained to pretty much not believe anything a patient says.

It's not limited to ER staff, though; when I had my first root canal, the endodontist wasn't going to prescribe pain meds, and I straight up told him that he just spent 90 minutes digging around in my jaw, after I had had months of pain in that same jaw, and I'd rather have pain meds and not need to use them than need them but not have them (also, it was a Friday, so if I suddenly needed pain meds after the novocaine wore off, I'd be screwed until Monday).

He did wander away and then come back with an Rx for Tylenol 3. At a follow-up visit, the dentist (not the endodontist) said, "He gave you pain meds? What did you say to him to get him to do that?" But not in a surprised way; more in a "What lie did you tell to get narcotics?" way.

And I stopped going to that practice because of how badly they treated me, including suspecting me of being a drug-seeker for wanting painkillers after a painful procedure. Asses.

Burrell you sounded fine, love. We all need to give ourselves a break. This is home and safe. Everything is ok here.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.

If you were right with God, you wouldn't need pain drugs. Despite surgery or broken bones or gaping holes. Unbelieving heathen, you can just suffer.

Or something medically justified. They say.

I don't blame the ER doc's as much as her primary doctors who made going to the ER a necessity. Surely some sort of outpatient hospital visit once a week that was not the ER would have been reasonable. Similar to getting chemo or iron infusions.

I was sitting here feeling annoyed that some rando was IMing me, and it turned out she was doing me a favor and being nice. And then another coworker started torturing me with Ant-Man because he has been subjected to my "Ant-Man objectively is the worst" screed. And just a moment ago I discovered that a door I've never seen open before is a closet. Two closets. How have I been sitting here for over a year without knowing those were closets? I want to buy a Narnia poster and hang it in there to see who laughs when they open the closet door.

For the record, its not any easier to get pain meds in Belgium. I just had my tonsils out at the end of November (which let me tell you really truly sucks as an adult). I have a reasonable pain tolerance, but holy hell was there pain for about 2 weeks. Know what I got for pain? Paracetamol with codeine twice a day, with ibuprofen in between. It was ridiculous. Beforehand, I'd assumed I'd get reasonable pain meds, and worried the pain meds would make me too wonky to take care of my kid. Afterward, I worried my kid would be permanently scarred by watching me cry every time I had to force down some yogurt for 2 weeks. She may have been. She still mentions it every couple of days.

IIRC, her doctor contacted a couple of infusion centers and they basically said nope, no way, we're not doing narcotics infusions. It seems like he possibly knew the ER was a shit plan, but nobody else wanted to deal with the infusions at all.

When I got dental work done, I got enough stuff that I...could have made my small-business dreams come true. I still have it, because I don't take pills, and because drug customers really don't appreciate "Have a Nice Day!" receipts and such.

Thanks, JZ. I couldn't remember those details, but it just shouldn't be that way.