I had an ‘interesting’ patient today. A grown man who presented with a headache. He was sitting in the room with the lights on, watching TV, and his body was percolating that ‘I need a work excuse’ odor. After taking a history and performing an exam, I sardonically explained to him that a dose of anti-inflammatories would be best for his “emergency”. Happy that I had managed to finally disposition a patient without succumbing to administering narcotics, I turned on my heel to leave but my Spidey sense was tingling. Something wasn’t right. I turned back and confirmed what my brain was trying to tell me to look at. The grown man was clutching a teddy bear.
I was all too curious and simply had to ask.
“So, is that like a source of comfort for you?”
“Yeah, his name is Sebastian. I got to keep him in the divorce.”
Too stunned to say anything more, I mumbled a quick ‘cool’, and this time forced myself to leave.
There are certain people that should have dolls and stuffed animals. My 2-year-old daughter is one of those people. My 30-year-old patient is not.
