Truthfulness is supreme!

In a pain management medical practice mutual trust must be established between patient and the physician. On occasion patients feel that their answering questions about past behavior honestly will exclude them from a physician’s care. In our practice it works just the opposite.

We at Health and Pain Management of Florida live by two mottos: the first is “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional”; the second is “today is the first day of the rest of your life”. I need to feel that I can trust the patient with medications that may potentially cause the loss of life. Of course any medication, including aspirin, can cause the loss of life, it is just the prescribed opioid medications that may do that quicker. And the patient must have complete trust in me because I am prescribing potent and potentially lethal forms of medications. So you can understand that this trust and confidence issue is one that runs from patient to physician and the physician to patient.

So please remember whatever the past, whatever the problems, tell your physician. A patient may have something in their past such as misdemeanor; a felony drug charge; a short or long prison confinement; etcetera tell the physician. Those problems may require the physician the monitor you more closely when you start medication but they should not keep the physician from treating your pain. Honesty is always the best policy! That is because when we as physicians find questionable activities in your past, via computer searches or previous medical records, instead of directly from you as our patient, we are less likely to be understanding and more likely to discharge you from our practice since the bond of trust has now been violated.

Thank you and remember “pain is inevitable; suffering is optional!”