I went through open heart surgery two years ago April and opioid over-prescription was already a concern. After discharge I received a six day script for the lowest dose of fentanyl and a month of Lyrica. I have a freakishly high pain tolerance so I managed to 'stretch' the fentanyl patches out to nearly one month (each patch lasted roughly three days). Hindsight being what it is - I obviously made it through. Being down in it though, it was far far less than pleasant. Especially that I was supposed to be active and all the usual recovery stuff. It was a bit of no joke as far as pain load goes. I didn't expect to be completely pain free as that isn't life as far as I am concerned, it would have been nice to have taken a little bit more of the edge off. Round the pain off some.