A Useful Bedside Test

[ACRN06]

sometimes as i'm interviewing a patient their eyes become big. they turn their heads, distracted, and cry out in pain. i sit still, unaffected, waiting for the episode to pass, as it eventually always does.

kidney stone pain? needles? setting a broken arm? no, these patient's suffer the torment of the automatic cuff inflating to check their blood pressure.

even though they might think otherwise, these people have low pain tolerance (lpt). this is useful information, as it immediately becomes far less likely that anything is seriously wrong.

note: while this test has excellent [color=#909d73]specificity for lpt, the clinican should recognize that the sensitivity is lacking.

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copied from ten out of ten 's hilarious blog

[mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I]

I love this MDs blog it is very funny, especially his what is warm, wet, and costs 10,000 to diagnose? entry.

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

I have a relatively low pain threshold. When I assess my blood pressure with one of these machines I can't help to think if it were around my neck I'd be choked to death.

[RN_in_SC]

I think it is hysterical when a patient freaks out about getting an IV and asks to be injected with "something to numb the area" before inserting the IV.

So you are afraid of needles and you want to be stuck TWICE?

Also, I was in triage and this girl with perfectly fine vitals, chatting it up with others, complained her headache was a 9/10.

When I tell people "0" is no pain at all and "10" is the worst pain they could ever possibly imagine, and they tell me "5" - I am much more sympathetic.

But that is just me, jaded.

[needsmore$]

I like when ED patients tell me thier pain is a 10/10. I ask them- Are you sure that it can't get any worse? When they so No--I ask them--so if I stomp on that sore foot you don't think I could hurt it any more?

Then they say--alright, it's a 9