We put EMLA on them, send them back to the waiting room or a hallway bed, and let them wait for 30 minutes until they're numb.
I am a patient with a scalp lac who joined your forum just to reply to some of the insensitive responses to a valid question. I am a lifelong insomniac who needs prescribed meds to sleep. When I need to use the restroom in the middle of the night, I often am very close to sleepwalking when I make my way down the hall (past the stairs) to the bathroom. I often don't fully awaken. Last week, in this semi-coherent state, I fell down the stairs on my way back to bed. I didn't wake up until I hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs. My sleeping meds leave me uncoordinated and less than clear-headed. I was not drunk. I was under the influence of prescribed medication for a medical condition. My local ER (part of an Ivy League Medical School hospital) did not offer me the option of any kind of numbing agent even though each and every one of the 5 staples put in my scalp caused such excruciating pain that I screamed aloud with each one. Now I wonder if I was deemed "not worthy" of pain management by of one of the student doctors that have posted here. I have no complaints if the doctors treating me were under the (mistaken) impression that I wouldn't need it and were following what they perceived to be proper medical procedure. What I do object to is the idea of some holier-than-thou med students playing God with patients' pain management. There's a Hippocratic Oath for a reason. Do no harm means all patients. Not just the ones who are sober. (Even prescribed meds can cause a state similar to drunkeness.) I'm not a wimp. I've sustained various sports and job-related injuries over the years. In my career as an animal handler I've taken my share of hard knocks. I kept working after a one-ton draft horse stepped on my foot. Yet nothing I've experienced before or since can compare to just 1 of those staples going into my head. I was too out of it from both my medication and the pain (I had shoulder and hand contusions so painful that x-rays were taken to rule out fractures ) that I didn't question the fact that nobody offered to numb my scalp before staples. Frankly, until they started stapling, my head didn't really hurt. It just felt like I'd bumped my head. I came across this forum while trying to find information on getting my staples removed. I was seeking information to try to find out if their removal would be as painful as getting them put in. Instead, I found this site. For all of you who are serious in this inquiry, give your patients the choice. Don't deny pain relief to those who might need it.
Like x 1,000
Like x 1,000Also, insomnia.... I can't believe how many of my cohort complain to me about insomnia and ask "the doctor" to do something about it.
Try this:
Gasp! Manual labor ! No; that's ... unconstitutional, or whatever.
When I get out of work and drive home... if there's sun, I know that I owe myself a 3-mile run to stay in shape. I get mad when I can't "get my run in". I pass the hell out within 10-20 breaths after my head hits that cool, cool pillow.
I (honest to God) had a friend complain to me the other day about insomnia. I know that his day consists of his morning donut, then desksitting and clicking for 2 hours. Then, this is followed by a fast-food lunch and griping about whatever. Complaining is hungry work, after all. After his afternoon session of paper-shuffling and collating, interrupted by twitter and dicking-around, he goes home to sit on the couch and eat (something terrible) before more complaining and the bedtime routine of whatever.
Hey; millenials: Go chop some wood. Go on a run. Go do something. Your daily exercise can't be "I beat Mega Man 4" again (great game).
Go and BE ... Mega Man.
You won't need a sleep aid.
