Wednesday, May 27, 2015

If I thought I could get away with it

The discussion in clinic today: pain.

One of my favorite topics, because

I didn't take this photo, obviously. I've never been to Vietnam.
is really friggin' difficult to reconcile with 

If it's got sensation, it probably hurts.
so clearly pain isn't as simple as the layman might believe.  I've learned enough about pain now that I feel comfortable saying I understand it, in the same way you might understand how eyes see or how ears hear.

But anyway. This isn't about pain. One of the tangents we went off on was how to talk to people about their pain.  Hugely useful.  One of the models we talked about dealt with classifying people according to various traits relevant to the best way to treat them, emotionally/motivationally/etc.  A point the clinician talking made which had everyone in the room nodding was: If the interaction goes poorly make sure you later go over what went wrong in your head -- establish where the disconnect was and approach that patient differently next time.

Which just makes me think that might not be what people do in every conversation.  Every interaction with a person deserves reflection, or how will you get better at interacting with people? I always considered myself an awkward youth. I still feel awkward much of the time - I still have to remind myself to look a waiter in the eye or I'll reflexively avoid even seeing their face.  But I know - through feedback from peers, instructors, and self-reflection - that in many circumstances I'm better at social interactions than my contemporaries.  I think the two are related.  Maybe other people are naturally good enough at dealing with fellow human beings that they're just coasting through their social interactions, never bothering to think about deliberate body language or mimicking vernacular or what smile is best to convey the idea "you're being a screw-up, and if you don't get your act together you'll never get better and I will discharge you without an ounce of guilt."

I've got this idea in my head that this whole "if you're not happy with something about yourself, improve it" thing started to develop in my adolescence. Maybe it was earlier, and I just didn't know it.



           Jack of all trades, master of none,
                       Certainly better than a master of one






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