Viewing that sea of hurt sitting in the Stroger Pain Clinic waiting room filled me with the same momentary anxiety as watching the "fire-tender starting to spread the coals across the 20 foot ember path I was about to walk across years ago( I think it's human nature to link our future fears with situations we have suffered through in the past).. It was the build up of preparation for the fire walking that stirred my apprehension to a peak, ratcheted even higher by having to pull my folding chair back even further from the edges of the coals that my friend Paul was raking out for us to walk barefoot on. My thought was, "If I have to move away from the coals now, what is it going to feel like when I'm standing on them." Followed by, "And what if I fall on the coals."
To make matters worse, the cherry-red fire bed was surrounded by a collar of gravel, so that when I took my shoes and socks off, my tender feet were not prepared for the shock of the sharp stones that I had to walk over just to get to my starting point in front of the embers I was about to so bravely traverse. But it turned out. Just like seeing 50 patients, 15 of them new, last Thursday.
What helped ease my jitters tremendously was watching my 4 interns, Greer, Mary, Misty and Erica apply new techniques. like scalp acupuncture and auricular therapy which they had learned over the last few weeks. Their confidence, and their skills are growing exponentially with each shift they serve They are also getting sharper with their diagnostic abilities, thanks to keener assessments based on their reading the patients pulse, viewing their tongue, and asking them pertinent questions in order to construct a proper Differential Diagnosis. These cases are much more acute, much more critical, and much more complicated then the ones they are used to seeing at the University Clinic. But then they too are learning to be fire walkers.
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