Ever since the Corona Virus Pandemic
his nurse at the VA has been conducting
phone interviews with him every two
months or so.
Home visits were not practical while the
spread of the disease was still a possibility.
The nurse began with his vital signs, tem-
perature, blood pressure, pulse rate and
the like.
Then she asked him to rate his pain level
from 1 to 10—10 being the most severe.
About 7 or 8, he answered. It varies de-
pending on the time of day, he explained.
It’s highest first thing in the morning and
then again later in the day. He figured
that the scale of rating pain numerically
was woefully inadequate.
Besides, people handle pain differently
was his thinking: Some could have their
arm lopped off, shrug their shoulders and
claim, oh really it isn’t all that bad; still
others would claim a splinter in the finger
hurt worse than hell.
There was nothing really to do about his
arthritic hip pain, except replacement or
pain medication. And he was going to have
none of that. No one was going to cut him
open. And having gone the pain killer route
before, he knew addiction was a far greater
problem.
When you needed to increase the medica-
tion to a point where it no longer worked,
and the doctor wouldn’t keep prescribing
more and more. Those withdrawals were
far worse that the original pain.
In affect, the home phone visits were
pretty much useless as well. Trying to
explain pain in words was basically
futile. And if he wasn’t left with other
remedies or procedures, what was the
use, anyway?
If the nurse was to see him in person,
the difficulty he had getting around
and the scowl of misery emblazoned
into his face, she could skip the 1 to
10 scale. They might even raise the
limit from 10 to 20 in his case, won-
dering how much more he could take?
Had it been anyone other than a medical
professional on the phone, his answer to
the question, how are you doing? would
likely be, Oh, I’m okay and getting by.
After all, in virtual vocal reality, it’s a
hell of a lot easier to lie over the phone.
-30-
Chris Hanch 5-3-2021
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