I always thought the advil story was overexaggerated copium.
Prince admitted to spending at least $15k a year on nubain/opiates alone. Took shots every 2-3 hours on average. In his own words (recreational use aside) it obviously helped him tremendously with his joints.
Im not a doctor, so I have zero understanding of the clinical intricacies of chronic pain management in opiate addicts -- specifically, symptomatic pain reduction in patients with a built-up tolerance to opioid painkillers -- but did Thomas really need 32×200mg ibuprophen + celecoxib everyday on top of his undisclosed heavy opiate use as he claimed in mid-2000s BB magazines ?
Prince should've been throwing up blood with a perforated stomach abusing NSAIDs for so long whithout proton pump inhibitors.
In 2012, while he was still recovering at the hospital from his transplant, the docs did a biopsy of the fresh graft and when the results came back, Prince was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Again, Im no nephrologist, so I wonder whether it was an innate or acquired disease.
The new kidney only lasted about 2,5 years.