Screw the Pain Medication: Difference between revisions

Someone is hurt pretty bad, yet still conscious. They need medical help, likely need surgery. They're getting ready for a major operation, but they order the doctor not to use pain killers, let alone anesthesia. Sure, they know they're in serious pain and need to be treated - but for these folks, whatevere the reasons [[Major Injury Underreaction|pain isn't much of a problem]], to the point that they may outright say, '''"Screw the Pain Medication!"'''

This trope is often used to show one of many things: the patient is a badass [[Made of Iron]]; they simply [[Feel No Pain|don't feel any pain]]; or, in some cases, pain killers are in short supply, and they want them saved for someone who really needs them. It's often seen when a character engages in [[Self-Stitching]], where such medication is either rare or not present. This is can go [[Up To Eleven]] if it's a [[Life or Limb Decision]].

* In the [[Real Person Fic]] ''[[Just Taken]]'', [[Spice Girls|Melanie]] strictly requests that she isn't given pain medication after she was severely injured in a fight, which included getting ran over by a car. She even woke up during the middle of emergency surgery, which she just [[Shrug Take| shrugs it off]]. Of course, this request was later declined when she finds herself in a different hospital, who gives the medication by force. Melanie complains that the medication was making her even worse, wanting to vomit at one point. However, considering one of the reasons for admission against her will was due to her eating disorder, she wasn't able to do so.

* ''[[Tank Girl]]'': Kesslee is badly injured, resulting in the loss of his arm and face, but he orders his doctor not to give him painkillers

* In ''[[The Wolverine]]'', Logan skips pain killers to perform open-heart surgery and remove a parasite that was compromising his [[Healing Factor]].

* ''[[Cast Away]]'' had Chuck removing a bad tooth with an ice skate and rock without any medication.

* ''The Cardinal of the Kremlin'': after getting shot, a state trooper notifies his superiors about his shooters and the hostages. He declines to form any medication for pain to go through it.

* In ''[[Saga of the Forgotten Warrior]]'', Lok's Protectors of the Law can draw on the Heart of the Mountain to increase their strength, speed, stamina, senses, healing, ''or'' pain tolerance, but have to split how they use its power at one time (thus one using it on strength and speed will be slower than if they exclusively focused on speed and weaker than if they used it to increase just their strength). On a few occasions Protectors are shown using the Heart's power ''exclusively'' to heal without using it to dull their pain so they can focus entirely on healing, either to heal sooner, or to survive ''very'' serious injuries. Additionally Ashok, the main character, receives a few injuries he ''could'' use the Heart's power to dull the pain of as well as heal, but since he knows the Heart's power, while vast, is ultimately finite across all users (so it will ''eventually'' run out some day) he refuses to waste its power dulling pain.

* This is true of Barry Allen in the [[CW]] series ''[[The Flash (2014)|The Flash]]''. Thanks to the effect his [[Super Speed]] has on his metabolism, pain meds wouldn't work for him anyway.

* ''[[Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance]]'': The cyborg warrior Raiden is impaled by a sword during his fight against {{spoiler|Monsoon}}, and he asks his [[Mission Control|support team]] over radio to "turn off his pain inhibitors". This rush of pain proves beneficial: {{spoiler|it triggers [[Super Mode|Ripper Mode]] for the duration of the fight, as well as allowing it to be used in short bursts from that point on}}.

* A joke circulating during the late 1960s and the 1970s (and still occasionaly seen today) invokes this trope: A yogi goes to his dentist to get his teeth worked on. When offered Novocaine, he declines, saying, "I [[w:Transcendental Meditation |transcend dental medication]]".

* According to ''I'll Take Your Questions Now'', a 2021 tell-all book by former [[Donald Trump|Trump]] White House staffer Stephanie Grisham, the then-President refused to be sedated while undergoing a colonoscopy, because he did not at any time want to let go of the power of the Presidency.