A Postoperative Patient Who Has Undergone Extensive Bowel Surgery Moves

A postoperative patient who has undergone extensive bowel surgery moves as little as possible and does not use the incentive spirometer unless specifically reminded. The patient rates the pain severity as an 8 on a 10-point scale but tells the nurse, "I can tough it out." In encouraging the patient to use pain medication, the best explanation by the nurse is that

A) very few patients become addicted to opioids when using them for acute pain control.
B) there is little need to worry about side effects because these problems decrease over time.
C) there are many pain medications and if one drug is ineffective, other drugs may be tried.
D) unrelieved pain can be harmful due to the effect on respiratory function and activity level.

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