Level of Trust

With the summer oral surgery business in full swing,I'm caring for
a lot of kids and adolescents. Many times their care requires a
general anesthetic which requires an I.V. None of us, kids or
adults, like needles being poked in us and the word "shot" conjures
up all types of images! In 20 years of practice I have yet to have a
patient ask for a "long, slow root canal" as Bill Murray did in
Little Shop of Horrors!
But there is good news! We now have the kids (and some adults)
use a topical anesthetic cream an hour before their appointment and I
promise them that they will feel nothing when the I.V. goes in! I
can say this because I have seen it work so many times that I have
total faith in the cream's efficacy. But the kids must TRUST me in
this matter. They've never seen the cream work so they have to
believe that this big, old, gray-haired guy is telling them the
truth, that the I.V. won't hurt. That trust reaches the tipping
point when the kids return to the office for the procedure and we are
just getting ready to slip in the catheter. It is at that pivotal
juncture that their trust is exercised, the catheter goes in and they
have evidence that the cream did, indeed, work!
I found myself in a similar situation as the radiologist started
putting biopsy needles in my neck to check the nodule that had
developed in my thyroid. On one side of the lump was the carotid
artery (not a good place to put a needle!) and on the other side was
the trachea. So I had to TRUST this radiologist to do his job
perfectly and get the information we needed. Thankfully, the biopsy
result was benign! And I came away with a new appreciation for what
my patients experience when they approach the "point of no return",
when one must abandon self protection and embrace trust.