I have kidney stones from time to time. NSAIDs + "deal with it" are an underappreciated pain approach - it's ok to be in pain. It's not OK to be in so much pain you're going to blind and writhing, but those are totally different things.

I had to take oxycodone + NSAIDs every 6 hours when I had my stone, but I had complications that required a stent and I did not react well to it. In fact, on both medications I was still in so much pain that it was barely manageable.

I can imagine a stone being less painful, I don’t think my experience represents the mean. It definitely makes me a bit shy of being anti-opioid, though. As miserable as they are, it would’ve been absolute torture without.

Unfortunately, there are a ton of incentives from insurance companies and Medicare for patients to be pain-free. Part of your hospital and surgeon's reimbursement is determined by their patient satisfaction score, and uncomfortable patients provide low scores so docs overprescribe and steer clear of uncomfortable topics like behavioral changes, etc;

https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Res...

Really, the problem is prescriptions that say ”take 2 pills every four hours” instead of ”take max 2 pills every four hours as needed for pain”

It can get worse than a bad satisfaction score. Look up "Saint Francis Health System shooting".