Pain Clinic Rotation RJH Nov 9th-20th
Week 2
This week has been very busy. I interviewed two more patients on Monday and Tuesday and have been working on their write-ups. One patient is suffering from multiple kinds of pain (back, pelvic, neuropathic) and needs a longer acting medication with less sedation. The other patient has severe neuropathic leg pain and an abdominal problem not yet diagnosed. This stomach problem requires symptomatic therapy. Finally, I have tried to finish up my literature review of disease modifying agents in polychondritis and summarize the weak evidence I found. In addition, I had the opportunity to spend a day in the H1N1 Flu Clinic mixing the vaccine!
Week 1
During my first week at the pain clinic I helped to write up two pain consults and was involved in one follow up interview. In one of the pain consults I learned about a disease I had not heard about before, polychondritis. This disease is very interesting as it affects the ears, nose, bronchi, valves in the heart and the body. In the second consult I researched how to help a patient with diabetic neuropathy. I also attended a patient question and answer session. This session was very interesting as I was able to see how many patients suffer from the stigma of “using narcotics”. Most of these patients have had years of chronic pain and are still trying to avoid taking pain medications because of their fear of becoming addicted or having others perceive them as addicted. This class teaches the patients about addiction (drug seeking) versus requiring additional narcotic for pain control (tolerance). The patients are also taught how pain medications work and the most effective way to dose them (regularly).
