Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Just Shaking My Head

One of our frequent fliers with a host of chronic, pain related and narcotic-seeking complaints came by with her 30 year old son.  His complaint today was back pain, shoulder pain, leg pain, leg numbness, knee pain, neck pain (from no trauma that he could recall), and dental pain.  Really.  Sonny has apparently not been able to work since he was 18, had no insurance, no job, no doctor, and nobody to grease the wheels of government sponsored care due to his inability to work.  And that, my friends, is the real reason for his ER visit; per mom, "He needs to have this documented and fill out forms or whatever and get him serviced (her words, not mine). Somebody has to do something for him!"

With all of these chronic pain issues and his 10/10 pain, he is on no meds.  Takes no pain meds, not even ibuprofen or Tylenol.  I took a look at his old record to see if his past visits were as numerous as I suspected.  I was pretty shocked that he had NOT ONE ER visit since 2006 for a sore throat.

Well, well, well.  Interesting.

The Talker spent a good long time with Ma and Sonny.  They left with a prescription for Tramadol and the social worker's card.  What was the story?

As I suspected, Sonny couldn't seem to hold a job, although he has had plenty.  In fact he had worked today at the Happy Mart pumping gas.

"So what was that bit about not being able to work in 12 years?", I asked.

"Well, it's not that he hasn't been ABLE to work, but other issues have precluded his ability to WORK WELL", answered the Talker.

"Like what?"

"Oh, sleeping late and not getting to work on time because he was out late with his friends.  Just not feeling like working.  Not liking to work on weekends. Being hungover.  You know, all the usual issues the rest of us struggle with".

Um, yeah.