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Monday, January 5, 2009

Pain

One time, a few days ago, there was this twenty-something young woman who had a motorcycle accident and needed some stitches. I was on duty at the ER that afternoon, and when I checked her, I saw that it was a deep wound, full thickness, some subcutaneous fat already coming out.

She told me that she had lost her balance on the bike, and gotten those injuries. When she saw that she was bleeding at the knee, she doused it promptly with mineral oil.

I resisted the urge to laugh. It’s a pet peeve of mine sometimes, when I hear people talk about things like these. Instead of cleaning the wound out, they do many, (some are downright silly) things to it. There were those that try to douse it with alcohol (ouch!), stuff it with leaves and other “healing” twigs, or just plainly scratch up some banana fiber to put on it as a poultice.

And they say it so matter of factly that I am almost tempted to give them some credit for it.

So, I told her that she didn’t need to worry and that I was going to fix it up and stitch it. And so I did. I took care to make it as painless as possible and very carefully infiltrated it with local anesthetic, as was expected. When I was about to start and to clean it with saline and peroxide, she started crying out in sobs. Worried, I asked, “Is it very painful?” “No,” she said, “it just feels funny.”

Gee thanks.

The people outside waiting for her to be done probably thought I was butchering her. Tsk tsk

2 comments:

  1. wow. You ARE a doctor.

    It makes me sometimes want to be one. But my training will make me a really bad doctor. (I think I don't want the responsibility).

    Kumusta? Will you be in Dumaguete in April? Maybe magkita ta sa DSHS graduation? ;-)

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  2. i couldn't help being a little sarcastic back there...sometimes people can get annoying with their beliefs and what-not, but you really can't hold it against them. you can just shut your mouth when you have a retort in the brew...and instead, take a deep breath and calmly tell what they should really do.

    everyday. :-p

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