Stella and the Pain Pills

I noticed an interesting trend today while I was in triage: Within an hour I triaged 15 patients and subsequently I had given either acetaminophen or ibuprofen to 13 of them.

Among this group we had:
* 4 'slip and falls' on the ice: one arm, one ankle, one knee and one head - no obvious deformities, some mild swelling and a couple abrasions
* 3 headaches (not migraines, just regular headaches), one of which had started less than one hour prior to triage
* 1 'hammer to thumb'
* 2 lacerations
* 2 kids with fever & cough
* 1 infected toe

So what were the other two?
* 1 chest pain (This patient got ASA and a bed)

and

* a sweet 84 year old lady named Stella (No, not really. Duh!) who had a sore, swollen arm after slipping in the tub 2 days ago. She had taken her own ibuprofen at home and waited to see if it worked before coming in.

As I took care of Stella, I couldn't help but wonder why none of the other patients (all of whom had less serious concerns) had tried medicating themselves prior to presenting to Emerg??? Well, the 'slip and fall's I could excuse, since they were not at home when they got hurt, but the headaches? the infected toe? the lacerations and the hammer to thumb? They all came in because "It hurts!", and the kids with fever were brought in because their parents were worried that they looked so sick with the fever.

Could it be generational?

Stella grew up in a time when help was less readily available. You learned to be independent, to cope with some discomfort and to make do. In contrast my generation, the 30-40 something crowd, had all grown up with easier access to resources of all kinds. We seem not only to look for help more readily (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but to feel entitled to have all pain removed and all difficulties eliminated without any effort on our part (which is a bad thing).

Please don't mistake this post as complaining. It isn't. I definitely do not mind giving out appropriate analgesics in triage. Not only is it part of my job, but I actually enjoy being able to do something right away for the patients, so that they know I care, and that we are doing our best to make them comfortable. I just wondered why people were so reluctant to take ownership of their own care.

That is all.