Let the Limp Go
By profession, I'm a nurse. I have seen everything from labored childbirth to labored final breaths. There are three initial questions we ask a patient: "Where does it hurt?" "How long has this been going on?" and "What is your pain level?" This can agitate a patient, but triage is necessary. Triage is a process used to identify the urgency of treatment. A person with a cut that does not need stitches will have to wait to be seen if there is a person who has a severed a member. I can remember a patient who had broken his knee cap many years ago. After his injury, he went to see the surgeon. He was told about the kind of surgery that he would need and the details of the recovery. If you have ever had surgery, you know that that conversation can be a bit overwhelming. This man decided that he did not want to go through that difficult process. He said, "I'll just deal with it." As a result of his decision to forego the surgery, his kne