Observations on pain
October 11th, 2009 -- Posted in friends, pain / disability, painkillers, people suck | Comments OffThe first set of observations are mostly related to my most recent visit to my family physician, a brisk and dismissive woman who seems to want to write you a prescription and send you on your way instead of helping you. Last fall she was the one who told me I was “carrying too much” and to just keep on going to work every day. I have yet to be able to walk again the way I could before doing that. And yet I’m forced to depend on her for help, still staggering out to the same doctor, hoping she might be able to accomplish something useful for once and not accidentally kill me in the process.
Observations:
* Just because doctors haven’t yet seen a direct physical cause for pain doesn’t mean the pain doesn’t exist and doesn’t mean there isn’t a cause that hasn’t been discovered. With so many ligaments and tendons and muscles and nerves, it’s ridiculous that some physicians chalk nerve pain up as “nothing” real quick. If someone is having sciatic pain sharp and shooting down their butt and leg, there is something physical at work there! It may not be a bulging or herniated disc, but it may be a muscle or anything else. Until the technology exists to see everything at work, I don’t think doctors should be able to say “Well it’s nothing”. If it’s just not something you have personally detected, that doesn’t meant it’s nothing.
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