The easiest way to explain this is to think of a burglar alarm on the empty home next to yours. Just after midnight, it goes off. You call the local cops and a cruiser comes by. The alarm is still blasting out sound at 5 a.m. and your sleep is destroyed. You leave the noise behind you when you go off to work. At least you can get away from it. Now think about pain. It’s useful when it first sounds the alarm. But, later, after you and the doctors have done all that reasonably can be done, it still hurts. This makes pain a separate disease or disorder justifying separate treatment. So what happens now? When you were admitted to the hospital, you were allocated to a consultant specialist. This physician is responsible not just for the treatment of the original cause of the pain, but for all the follow-ups. It’s at this point you hit a problem. Many doctors are a bit prickly. If you complain you are still in pain this is taken as a criticism of their treatment. Your doctor complains he or she did everything by the book. You should be better already. After a bad-tempered exchange, you get more powerful painkillers. If that fails to work, you get increasingly powerful drugs.
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