Craig R. DuBois, M.D.
The Pain Evaluation & Treatment Center
7307 Creekbluff Drive
Austin, TX 78750
512-346-6969
http://www.paineval.net/our_physicians.nxg
Transcript: Never give up!
When patients come in, unfortunately they are a little overwhelmed by the office and the other doctor. Sometimes they don’t ask the questions that they want to ask. I try and tell them to become more of an advocate for yourself and really take a role in your own care.
The other thing that I try to get them to recognize is take care of your self. Some people don’t understand how to do that. They’ll listen to what we say and they’ll do what we say but they won’t really do the things they should be doing for themselves. Maybe it is diet. Maybe its exercise. Maybe it is decreasing the stress. Changing work. Nobody wants to change work. But you have to recognize what stress, what affects your life adversely because guess what? If it is painful in your brain, it’s painful in your pain. Stress worsens pain.
I always try and give an example. If you take and scratch yourself and don’t even notice it in the yard, you go hey how did I do that, it’s a big nasty cut. If I took a razor blade and did that same cut while you were watching it, you would think it was bloody murder, terrible. Same depth of cut, same degree of injury. Stress versus trying to find a way around it.
The other thing I try and get people to recognize is this don’t give up concept. A lot of people can’t quite process that right. There’s one analogy that I think really makes it come to roost. I see it particularly with Moms. Women who have this. They are so good at denying their own needs. They are so good at saying I don’t need more. I’m doing OK. I said if your child was lost, would you ever stop looking? No. You never stop looking at that child, is he it. Ten years, twenty years goes by. You never stop looking or finding it. You have to have that same vigorous, rigorous mentality that I’ll never stop looking for what can make this better.