Most of us have had moments of fear when we walk into a doctor’s office. It usually has little to do with the idea of getting a shot or going through the usual routine of a checkup. What really makes us nervous is a fundamental fear of the unknown. It’s not at all uncommon for someone to expect a diagnosis of a bad flu and instead discover that they have cancer. Or to complain about lethargy and discover that they’re suffering from heart failure.
These examples can go on and on. But the essential point is that we have a well justified fear of bad news when we go to the doctor. Nobody wants to suddenly discover that they have a terminal illness. And it’s not just concern over our own mortality which prompts these concerns. We’re also scared of severe illness due to concerns over our overall quality of life. It’s a justified concern too.
It’s just a fact of life that we’ll see an end to our journey one day. Finding out that we might not have as much time as we thought is certainly difficult. But it’s something most of us have prepared ourselves for as we’ve seen loved ones grow closer to their own end. What’s usually more difficult to face up to is an idea that we’ll stick around without any real ability to enjoy life. The idea of being alive but not really living our lives is undeniably scary.
However, it’s not something that we necessarily have to just accept. Fiction tends to portray these types of situations in the most dramatic way possible. We watch countless stories where severe illness essentially sends one into a hospice bed within days of diagnosis. But in reality even extremely tenacious ailments like cancer won’t necessarily work like that. Modern medicine might not always be able to cure a medical issue. But it almost always has ways of helping people find joy in their lives while suffering from it.
For example, consider someone who’s been diagnosed with cancer. She’s directed to a pain management clinic vancouver wa adjacent. She knows that her oncology and radiation appointments are there to actually fight the cancer. But she doesn’t know anything about pain management. But when she gets there she’ll usually have a wide range of options presented to her. And with every visit they’ll be able to review her symptoms to help her balance those treatment options.
The effect can be extremely dramatic for people whose conditions cause a lot of pain. Often times an ailment won’t directly cause loss of mobility or capacity to get out into the world. Instead the condition causes pain, which makes it difficult to get around. Pain management services directly work on mitigating those feelings. This means that even if the underlying condition remains unchanged, one can often still find a remarkable improvement in her quality of life. Our earlier example might have started out using a walker or wheelchair. But after working with pain management she might find herself able to walk without assistance. While that’s one example, it’s applicable to almost any condition which causes extreme pain.
