I live in the U.S., first off.
I was prescribed a narcotic following a minor surgery. I’m not going to say what kind of surgery that was and please don’t ask. I’ll just go ahead and say that the prescription was for hydrocodone/acetaminophen 5-35. I’m worried about having been prescribed this because I know there’s a state-wide electronic system used to monitor all prescriptions—accessible by all doctors, pharmacies, etc. anywhere else in my state—and I know that system is used to flag people for prescription drug abuse. I also know that medications like this are highly frowned upon by the healthcare system itself and even more so by the authorities. I assume it’s entirely possible that I look suspicious according to that system now.
I’ve only taken a three pills so far, out of ten total. If I take the other seven back to the pharmacy to have them destroyed, they’ll make a record of that, I would imagine.
What I mean is that I could just stop taking them now but never tell anyone that, and anyone looking at my medical history in the future would see that I picked up ten pills from the pharmacy, and that’s all they would see, and so I took the entire script as far as they know; whereas if I take the other seven back, and they make another entry in their records about that, that’s in effect like plus ten and then minus seven, and that way I would theoretically have three pills counted against my medical history instead of ten; right?
I could be way overanalyzing this, but frankly, I’m already terrified to take another one anyway. I honestly don’t like how they make me feel, which is good, but it would be just my luck that I’d take one more pill and start liking it immediately. I know what happens to people who end up liking this stuff, and how easy it is to end up liking it; I’ve seen it. It’s also that I’m still relatively young, and my health’s already bad enough at this point as it is, that I already know they’ll eventually put me in the ground with at least one major surgery, and I don’t want to have to get through that with ibuprofen because I’ve already blown it.
A lot of people here saying you’re over thinking things, but as a chronic pain patient, I know exactly how suspicious and damn right shitty some healthcare professionals can be, and how horrible, and guilty, they can make you feel for something completely innocent because they’ve been drilled about “pill seekers” or whatever (but were never drilled anywhere near as hard about prescribing responsibly, only profitably) and don’t care enough to actually look at why you’re taking them.
I do agree with most of the comments that being flagged by anyone is probably not something that should be concerning you at all, you are prescribed the meds by a doctor, and especially after a procedure that has painful recovery, no one will think twice about it.
But it is so fucking important for people to see the kind of impact that clamping down on patients (the stress, panic, anxiety, fear, guilt despite having done nothing wrong, and so on) instead of the doctors doing the irresponsible prescribing.
I hope you manage to calm your concerns, and feel better soon.