As we come to the end of a 35-minute clinic visit...
"So, anything else I should know about? Any discomfort, pain, etc.?"
"Well, I have this chest pain sometimes. When I'm walking. Or in bed. Sometimes when I'm moving around and sometimes when I'm still."
"Um, I think we probably want to look into this a little..."
"No, no, no, it's a good kind of pain."
"What do you mean?"
"It feels like a release, like something is freeing itself in my body, like something is really working hard to do something useful."
"Like your heart is having trouble pumping blood through your organs?"
"Maybe. But it's good to feel it working."
"No, it's not. I want to at least run some tests..."
"No, no, I like this pain. I'm okay with it."
"I think it's good that you're not worried, but I want to order some tests just to make sure."
"Will the tests hurt?"
"No, they shouldn't."
"Oh, I like it when the tests hurt. Makes me feel like they're important."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Heh. I guess that's what comes of all those 'feel the burn' workout videos - some people grow to assume that if a muscle (including the heart muscle) is in pain when it's working, that means it's 'really' working.
ReplyDeleteI laughed untill I cryed. I don't want to believe this conversation could happen, but I heard exchanges between a doc and a patient in minor surgery about how there might be spiders in the cyst that was being excised. And not jokingly.
ReplyDelete