The Collision of Two Worlds of Time

My daughter recently went through a medical procedure, which could have gone from routine all the way into major abdominal surgery. Her surgery was supposed to start at 10 a.m. and her husband was going to call me with the results as soon as she was out. By 12 o’clock, I had not heard from him or anybody (she lives on the other side of the country). I was getting extremely nervous and worried because I knew that the longer the surgery was the more chance it was going to be major operation with higher risk and much longer convalescence. Then I remembered my experience as a doctor in hospitals through the years.

People come in the front door on a time schedule. Their days are booked up minute-to-minute hour-to-hour and everybody has to be somewhere at certain times. However, disease comes in the back door without any sense of time. The disease and accidnets come day and night at any time and the nature of the disease has no respect of time whatsoever. The physicians treating these diseases also come in the back door of the hospitals. They as well do not have any control over time. Once an operation starts, that operation could last 30 minutes or it could last 6 hours depending on what the disease is and the extent of the probelm in that patient. This, of course, leads to very long days, delayed starts, and tension for the families.

The patient and the family being on a minute-to-minute hour-to-hour schedule do not understand this tension. They get very anxious. They start asking questions and it always seems that the worse case scenario comes to the forefront of their thoughts.

I see that with my pain patients that I treat in my practice. Everybody seems to be on a schedule and wants this pain taken care of as quick as possible so they can resume their busy lives. Sometimes people respond to my treatment very quickly and the patients get on with their lives. However, sometimes the pain takes a lot longer to respond to the treatment and sometimes we have to give other treatments to address other causes of the pain. This is when the tension builds for the patient. They come in very anxious, very demanding, and with high anxiety and often times a sense of hopelessness believing that there is no way we can resolve this pain. I reassure them that we will keep doing things until we do have resolution of her pain or at least understand what is causing their pain, so we can know how to manage it.

When 2 worlds in different times collide, that is what creates the tension both in the hospital and in the doctor’s office. Medicine is an art and a science. It takes both to accomplish its goals.

Ronald S. Prehn, D.D.S.
Diplomate of the American Board of Orofacial Pain
Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine