There are always weird traditions in families. In my father's family--at least three members of it--when they were ready to die, whether they were healthy or ill just said, "Well, I think tomorrow I'll be dead." They just did that. So to interrupt the conscious control was considered very wrong. My mother's brother felt the same way. He didn't want any sort of pain medication that would interfere at all with his awareness or thought processes. On my father's side, we are hypersensitive to a lot of the pain medications, even aspirin. But like for me, even to take Novocain, which is pain killer used in the dentist office, most people can function after they've had a treatment like that, I'm out for like a couple of days.