After breaking her femur and getting a staph infection, the actress resisted taking painkillers because she wanted to “understand what’s pain and what’s additional injury.”
Brooke Shields suffered a fractured femur in a January accident that required multiple surgeries to repair. She subsequently developed a staph infection, which was “excruciating”ly painful. Despite this, the actress purposefully stayed away from prescribed drugs while recuperating.
Shields, 55, claims that she has never taken anything stronger than over-the-counter medications like Tylenol out of fear that she might become addicted to narcotics like OxyContin or Vicodin.
She said, “I didn’t want to leave the hospital with no pain, return home, and think I was dying because the pain was so bad.” when speaking at The Marie Claire Power Trip: Off the Grid event. They claim that I said, “I’d rather be in excruciating pain in the hospital.”
Shields also wanted to be sure that she could distinguish between her current pain and any additional pain that might develop as she recovered.
“When you start to feel pain, you think you’ve been hurt again, even though you may not be as broken as you think,” the patient said. “I wanted to get used to it and understand the difference between pain and additional injury.”
She continues, “I wanted to know what kind of agony it was because when you leave and return home and sense sorrow, you become afraid. I wanted to at least acknowledge that anguish by saying, “Oh, I remember when that was there.” You don’t really feel like a victim, though.
The mother of two, who questioned, “What over-the-counter drug can I take at the most significant safe dosage? “, nonetheless, found it challenging to persuade the medical team. I queried. I’m not carrying a prescription, either. Everybody wants to give you Oxy.”
Shields claims that the abuse of strong painkillers is “part of the whole opioid pandemic” that is harming people all throughout the country.
She is quite explicit in saying that her choice to abstain from opiate use “is not about being a hero.”
The underlying message is something along the lines of, “Listen, and then do everything you can to not feel it without having to turn to something that could be much more harmful.” Ice, physical therapy, stretching, Advil, and Tylenol are available options. If she had trouble sleeping at night, she added, “I would also take a Tylenol PM.”
Shields has advanced significantly in the months following the accident. Although she has “come a long way,” she still experiences “a lot of bone pain,” and she was shocked by how much her muscles had shrunk.
“Since there is no impact, I may perform a SoulCycle. I appreciate being able to do Pilates. After that, my trainer focuses primarily on the physical therapy component of the whole process, which she claims involves working the muscles surrounding my knees, which is the problem. Since muscles support my joints and ligaments, weight training was specifically created to strengthen them and prevent harm. I have gained a lot of knowledge.
