Help me . . .help you

While I said I wanted to "serve the undeserved" in my personal statement to medical school and residency, in my 3rd year, I can't help to be a little jaded. I am getting tired of people asking for Darvocet, Vicodin, Handicap stickers/tags, food stamp forms, and Valium FOR NO VIABLE REASON.

The other day, a woman who I saw for the 2nd time said she wanted to be sent to a specialist for osteoarthritis to her knee. She had already been sent to the physical therapist and said all medications didn't help. I told her the definitive treatment by a specialist would be knee surgery or a steroid shot, but she vehemently was against both. I then asked her if she was performing her exercises daily. She said yes, but when I asked her to describe them, she couldn't. I then told her, besides the physical therapy, she could also try to lose weight since her BMI was ~40. She totally disagreed with me that weight could play a factor in her knee pain. She did not want to try water aerobics or any other form of exercise and DEFINITELY didn't want to even TRY or ENTERTAIN the idea of losing weight. AND FINALLY, she hands me a sheet for me to sign to allow her to get a handicap tag.

I tell her I will send her to physical therapy for a "functional capacity" test to assess what she can and can't do i.e. to show which ways she is disabled. She tells me," Oh, I'm not disabled, I just want the tag." DUHHHHHHH! I tell her,"Well, the top of this sheet says "Disability" on it, because, most people who have these tags are disabled." I was very frank.

And then I had the patient who wanted Valium because when someone taps her on the shoulder unexpectedly, she gets jumpy. Hmmmm. . . I don't think giving a habit forming sedative will help you out with that.

These type of "give me" patients are not few and far between. I see at least one every 3 days asking for controlled substances just because s/he tried their mother's, brother's, friend's pills and "they worked." Then they want this and that, and to give them a excuse from work for not just the day of the clinic visit, but also yesterday and the day before that.

moochers.