You wander in day and night, most of you walking on your own, in no apparent acute distress. You register and wait, telling everyone in the busy waiting area that you MUST be seen immediately, "because you hurt so badly." You take up valuable space in busy trauma and emergency medicine departments complaining of terrible pain in your abdomen, and you tell us you must get pain meds for the pain.
One a pain assessment scale of 1-10, virtually all of you cite between an 8 and a ten. But you aren't perspiring, crying, vomiting, bloated, or acting like you are acutely ill.
Many of you refuse to have x-rays, scans and other diagnostic studies because you say "all those tests have been done a million times and they are always negative" but you demand pain medication!! You tell us you have adhesions but adhesions are nothing more than layers of scarring that have no nerve endings. How can this cause pain?
I am told "I need 100 mg of Demerol, IM " by someone who refuses to allow us to examine them, and when we refuse to give you narcotics you become upset.
What do you want from us? If every drug addict walked into my ER and did what many of you do, they'd be booted out by Security but for some reason, you feel we are treating you unfairly??
Maybe instead of asking for pain medication, you might benefit from talking to a therapist who can help you deal with your "pain"?
If we do an MRI or flat plate and see something suspicious., of course you'll be treated aggressively, and receive sympathy and medication. Otherwise, please understand, we are not a narcotic dispensing department for everyone with indigestion or cramps.