Working at the Doc's...
I work in a pain managment clinic. We do interventional pain management, basically what that means is we don't just dope people up on medication. The doctor and nurses do lots of different procedures, one of the big things we do is pumps. People who are in horrific pain can be approved to get a Intrathecal Morphine Pumps. It's a pump that is implanted into a patient and it delivers a constant flow of morphine so they are relieved of an excurciating level of pain. It's hard to look at the patient when they check in sometimes because you can see the pain clearly across their faces. I see that almost every day and it is sad but it doesn't really drag me down a whole lot because I only see them for a few minutes and I remind myself they are going back to the Doc who's going to help. Well, yesterday I was splitting charts (when a chart gets to big we split it into two) and I had to sort through the paperwork in one patient's chart. When you first come to the doctor's office you fill out the normall paperwork with lots of questions that all doctors have. Ours has a outline of a body, both the front and the back. The patient is supposed to make a mark where they have pain with a coodinating letter (A for aching, X for Sharp etc) on the place where you feel that pain on your body. I don't usually fully see what's on a page when I'm splitting, all I'm looking for is a date to tell me how old the piece of paper is so I can put it in it's corresponding chart. While working on this chart however my eyes could not miss the outline of the figure and the patient's responses to it. This person had almost no white space, he was in pain everywhere on his body except for his shins, then he circled the body and said A for Aches...it really hit me then how much pain these people REALLY are in. Can you imagine going through everday in that much pain? I complain about aches and pains every now and again and now I have a whole new thought pattern on what things I should actually complain about. Even when my wrist hurt a ton I know I was never at 10, or hell can I even say i was at a 7-8 on a normal basis? No. I'm blessed for having a 6 at the worst, We're all blessed for not going through life with pain controlling us. It's saddening...and the worst part sometimes there is nothing you can do but dope somebody up to get them out of misery. That's when the pain really wins.