Working in a university setting we get a lot of patients who are uninsured and also frequently drug seekers. I'm not stereotyping here, but the two characteristics often occur together.
At any rate, the range of excuses used to explain how a 30-day supply of narcotics disappeared in seven days is quite broad. But this one certainly stood out the other day. In the post-operative period for eye surgery, we really don't even give out much pain medications. There are only a few surgeries which warrant good pain medications, and an open globe is one of them. One of these patients walked into the clinic, appearing to be perfectly well (aside from the obvious eye injury status post repair) and not in any pain at all. In the clinic room, it was a parent (not even then twenty-year-old patient) who first brought up the recent loss of pain medications.
It wasn't the typical "Oh, I've been in so much pain I've taken it already," or the, "No, doctor, I wasn't given the prescription when I left the recovery room." It was, "We had some company the other night who stole the pain medication."
"Well," I said to the patient, "you look to be doing well anyway."
"Oh, no, she's in a lot of pain," says Mom.
"I wasn't talking to you." I turn back to the patient.
"Oh, yes, I'm in too much pain," the patient said with the flattest face ever.
I couldn't help but give her two more days of pain medications and then refuse to see her on the return visit - she (her mom) would be someone else's problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment