Gimme a Mallet

I've chosen my specialty because of its simplicity. I don't battle windmills trying to get people to eat less, exercise more, stop smoking, or take their medications. I rarely have to struggle with strange complaints, bizarre symptoms, or elusive diagnoses. No one hardly ever shows up in my office dying of anything. In my specialty we take care of people because something's broke. It's either broken or broke in the sense it isn't working the way it should.

Unfortunately, after working this way for the past twenty-some years I have gotten to a point where I frequently take the same simple approach to many things in life: If it's broke, fix it. Give me a mallet, give me a saw, a drill, a screw.

The other day I saw a patient in his mid 40's or so. He was a fit appearing man, well muscled in the manner of a laborer but not bulky in the manner of a body builder. He had a muscle strain that, after a bit of discussion, we could trace back to his tossing firewood using just one hand. His condition is one I see frequently and offers no mystery as to what it is. Getting it to resolve can be more problematic and usually requires a modification in the person's activities. Naturally, I asked him what he did for a living. His answer was enough to make me visibly react: "I don't. I'm on disability for fibromyalgia and some kind of chronic pain."

For all the discussion these days among bureaucrats and citizens around the topic of the unsustainable financial burden of entitlement programs, the raging epidemic of disability claims absolutely kills me. Of all the people I see that are supported by public dollars owing to their being "disabled"-- their income, their healthcare, their children-- I would guess at least 4 out of 5 could be doing some type of useful work for at least some part of the day.  In fact, based on that condition, I would guess it's more like 95% of those I see are able to contribute.

It's not about making someone pay. It's not about disdain for public assistance. It's about fairness. It's also about also ensuring every member of our society remains connected to the whole in a manner that is more than just dependence.

Someone give me a mallet. I gotta fix this.