Japanese culture and pain medication don't mix.  After my surgery, I learned that pain medication needs to be taken early on when pain is first being experienced.  It's illustrated by this graph:

If you take your medication at point A, it can work while the pain level is still minimal, thus lowering the pain.

Now if you've been raised by an overseas-born Japanese parent, you know the concept of gaman.  Gaman is the Japanese word meaning to tolerate, to grin and bear it.  So when pain strikes, you gaman.  You bear it until the pain is overwhelmingly popping your eyeballs out of your head.  I suspect that other cultures have a similar concept.  The gaman model looks like this:

As you can see, the problem with the gaman approach to pain management is that it simply doesn't work.  On this second graph, Point A is shown to be later on the time continuum.  This means that you've said to yourself, "Oh, I can handle it.  It probably won't get worse than this.  When I gave birth, the pain was ten times worse.  I think I can last through the next spasm." 

But now, because of all the macho (and feminino) BS, you've given the pain a chance to spike and further escalate.  At this point in the trajectory, the pain is now out of control, unmanageable and cannot be alleviated without a larger shot of alcohol or a stronger hammer to your hard head. 

The moral of the story:  Gaman?  Oh, heck no!  Sometimes the doctor knows best when he prescribes those things!  When it gets to 5 (click), get PJ his pills!