Nice work Silentrun. It seems like pain med abuse/addiction is a massive problem that has snowballed in the US. Glad you were able to get something to help instead of those. I had a couple of procedures a few years back and told the doc I didn't want any prescription pain meds either. Ibuprofen and ice and rest did the trick just fine.
The AV wants you to think there's a magic pill that will just make it go away, but in the end the pain is only temporary and there's way too many possible ramifications to taking the meds. Look at how long people have to taper off of some of the pain meds after they get used to them...months.