Ouch
Putting the pieces of pain together can’t be done by just asking, “Where does it hurt?”
I have always been somewhat accident-prone. Each time I tripped and fell as a child brought the same routine. I would sit on the edge of the tub in my parents’ bathroom with a bleeding knee and a tear-streaked face as my mom or dad got out the Band-Aids, Neosporin, and the despised hydrogen peroxide (it stung too much when it fizzed). I would point to the scrape and roll up my sleeve to reveal any other “boo-boos.” I would leave their bathroom with my lacerations clean, my face dry of tears, and feeling okay, albeit a little achy.
Nearly fifteen later, as a sophomore in college, I shadowed Dr. X every Wednesday afternoon for the practicum component of a semester-long course on Medical Professionalism. In Dr. X’s office, many patients would come in with a laundry list of pain, soreness, discomfort, and hurt. The question “Where does it hurt?” seemed insufficient to understanding their pain fully. The patient may have struggled to push back on Dr. X’s hand with their face. They sometimes found it difficult to answer inquiries such as, “When did the pain start?” or, “Is it radiating?” All of these are pieces of the understanding required to provide adequate and appropriate treatment. Doing so demands the asking the patient multiple pointed questions while also testing them physically. This understanding appeared to be elusive and difficult to acquire for three main reasons: time, creativity, and trust.
Time
During my Wednesdays with Dr. X, I often noticed a tension between the care patients want and the realities of care in our current healthcare system. Patients would often try to show her pictures of their grandchildren or a recent vacation. Sometimes, they, an aging parent, wanted her to explain over the phone what was wrong with them to a concerned child who could not make the appointment. She always obliged as best she could but the system in which she provided care made it difficult. Dr. X was known in her practice for seeing roughly half as many patients as her fellow physicians. She often mentioned to me how difficult it was to accommodate these seemingly irrelevant components of a patient visit when they were often what made the patient most comfortable and most inclined to tell their story.
The doctor’s visit with the patient can only last so long, for other patients need care too, and there are only so many hours in the day. Thus, even when the “right” questions are being asked, patients may not have the opportunity to fully translate their feelings, aches, and pains into words with context (a mosaic of experiences, emotions, environment, and everything in between). As a result, it is challenging to gain a strong understanding of what they are experiencing and subsequently make a suggestion about how to treat their condition(s).
Creativity
I often noted Dr. X’s inventiveness on our Wednesdays together, inspired by her ability to ask questions that led her closer to a diagnostic truth regarding the patient’s experiences. Sometimes people are insecure about their diets, how much they exercise, how often they take a prescribed medicine, and other areas of their lives in which they are not perfectly compliant with doctors’ orders. Thus, we are less likely to offer responses to a provider’s question that allow them to help us, for we are trying to protect ourselves without even realizing it.
This reminds me of visits to the dentist. When the hygienist asks if I’ve been flossing as she scrapes and polishes my teeth, I know that I have to be honest because she has the proof right in front of her. But we all often lie, feeling sheepish for not doing what was asked of us.
Sometimes a matter-of-fact question like, “Do you go to the gym regularly?” is sufficient for a useful answer that guides the doctor to a diagnosis. However, sometimes it seems more appropriate and productive to ask, “What is your daily schedule?” This gives the patient a chance to tell the doctor what they want, be it that the entirety of their exercise regimen consists of walking to work, or that they stop at Chick-fil-A on their way home for dinner. Although this question may not have appeared at the start to have a direct correlation with healthy eating/regular exercise, it may make the patient more comfortable and allow for a more organic conversation. When Doctor X asks more flexible and open questions, this allows for more creative and varied responses that are generally more constructive toward devising a care plan.
Trust
Meeting a patient where they are in a non-judging, kind, and sensible manner, they are much more likely to open up and let the provider know what hurts and how they feel. I trusted my parents to clean my wounds after a fall off my bike and bandage me all up, pointing them to the areas in need of a little love. Similarly, I observed Dr. X’s patients explain pain “at a level eight” that keeps them up at night with a trust that she will take their words and turn them into a diagnosis and treatment that gives them relief.
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Although all patients are different, everyone expects individualized care from their doctor and are usually hoping to be healed. Time, creativity, and trust are crucial pillars that support how the provider meets their patient’s needs by putting their symptomatic puzzle together into a diagnosis.
When I was a little girl, I expected my parents to take my skinned knee and clean it up so that I was good as new. With Dr. X’s patients, their complicated aches and pains require more than just a Band-Aid, but she does have the power to offer them solace. I hope one day to be able to provide antidotes for my patients’ pain, and will strive to ask questions that allow me to do so.
Hannah Todd is a rising senior at Rice University, where she is majoring in Spanish and Policy Studies with a minor in Medical Humanities. Additionally, she is concurrently pursuing her Master's in Public Health at the University of Texas and ultimately plans to attend medical school, which would allow her to integrate personal, academic, and professional experience into care for and policy regarding children with medical complexity.