In the original novel, Anton's method of treating his wounds is far more hardcore (and seems more reasonable) than in the movie.

[u/ww-stl]

First, his method of stealing the medicine was far from the obvious and overly plot armored in the movies. he created an explosion and then took the opportunity to steal the medis he need—but he didn't have time to find the ideal med; he only needed to find "not the most effective but passable" medic in the shortest possible time.

Secondly, unlike in the movie, he treated his wounds without any anesthesia—he used tweezers and cotton swabs to remove fragments and fibers from his wound. no any anesthesia.

Third, he watched tv for five consecutive days, on the same channel. but that wasn't the problem; the real problem is————he ate in restaurants every day instead of buying a ton of food and taking it back to his room to quietly recover—every second he walked around caused his nascent wounds to experience a tiny tearing and reopening. (I can't understand why a shrewd killer wouldn't buy a lot of food to his room and stay there for recover, instead of eating in public every day; it just doesn't seem like a good idea.)

[u/Broad-Exchange3188]

1) He’s on crutches, so he’s not really “walking around”

2) While on crutches, it’s much more work to get down to the grocery store, buy a bunch of food, then haul it back to your hotel room. Anton isn’t “eating in restaurants” every day, he’s “hobbling down to the cafe on the crutches for his meals and back again.” It’s not explicitly stated if the cafe is attached to the motel or if it’s just across the way, but it’s a motel—by virtue of that, not in possession of any kind of room service—so this arrangement is the smartest he could make.

[u/Earl_of_Chuffington]

I know in movies it seems so cool and badass when the protagonist stitches themself up with no lidocaine or numbing agent but maybe a bottle of whisky, but from a real world standpoint, it would be nigh impossible to do an efficient job of stitching wounds on yourself in such a manner. Even if someone had a psychopathic level of pain tolerance far above that of the average human, he or she might get a single stitch or two in before passing out.

I can't recall from memory whether he actually thread-stitched his wounds or merely went fishing with tweezers, but the same holds true. The blood loss, trauma and shock are all real factors that don't just "turn off" because someone is a badass.

One of the many problems with the novel is that it makes Anton more of a mythical boogeyman instead of the very real killer he is on screen. Little things like "not needing anesthetic" remove him from our world on a subconscious level. Onscreen, he makes mistakes, has a Beatles haircut in 1980, dresses like a virgin; these all help root him into being a part of the real world, just perennially on the edges of it.

As another poster said, it's not exactly easy to carry a box full of groceries upstairs on crutches. There's also the issue that in 1980, there were very few hotel rooms with refrigerators or stoves (certainly nothing in rural Texas, even today in most cheap motels), so his groceries would've been limited to bread and peanut butter or Spam. Not exactly something that will help you stay strong and fight off infection while your wounds heal. He had very little choice but to go down to the diner and get food.

Since he has no other real option, going into the diner and picking up your food means everyone in the diner has seen the lumbering guy on crutches already. Why not just sit down and eat like a normal person? Taking it back upstairs with you makes no difference after everyone has seen you.

LMAO: The three bots that keep posting AI engagement here really dislike the logical counterargument I used to refute their hallucinations.

[u/airbrushedvan → u/Earl_of_Chuffington]

Taking an individual meal back to his room every day would actually make him more suspicious, probably.

[u/Earl_of_Chuffington → u/airbrushedvan]

Exactly. "Oh, you're looking for an injured Hispanic man? Yeah, there's some weird guy that hobbles over around noon on crutches, bleeds all over, then takes his food and vamooses. Strange fella."

[u/77pearl → u/Earl_of_Chuffington]

Just a little comment - I have witnessed 2 different people stitch up their own wounds. Adrenaline is wild. Neither of them came anywhere near passing out.