I have a patient who is a liar. He is telling me a story to get pain medications. I don't have any proof he is a liar. He has no incriminating evidence that I can find. There is no labwork that I can do to prove his pain one way or the other. Without evidence, I am inclined to give him the pain meds. I am willing to play this game. All he must do is play the game with me.
Instead, the staff catch him with secret pain meds not prescribed by me, and eating meals from the cafeteria when he swears that he can't keep anything down. All he has to do is play along, and even that, he can't do.
And that is the sad fact about addicts. He has me beat, and still, he cannot stop himself from ruining it.
2 comments:
We get patients like that in our clinic ALL THE TIME. They throw a fit until they get narcotics and then, not an hour later, we get a call from the pharmacy here at the hospital stating that they're trying to fill a narcotics Rx from us, their PCP and their Pain Management doctor all at the same time. Come on, man! You think they're NOT going to check out something like that?
True addicts will screw themselves every time.
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