Rolling around in the big opiate ball

He says, “You’re the doctor, Dr. B.“

I hate him for giving up. But I’ve given him the script.

He has pain which doesn’t let him rest—in his right testicle, for 30 years.

He is Mr. Dabney. A big black guy. A recovered alcoholic.

“What should I do, doc?” he asks. He wants them to take the testicle off. Maybe the nerve, too, since another doctor told him that’s where the pain is.

I have told him over and over again that chopping off his ball won’t make his pain go away. In my head I call it his ball. To him I call it his testicle. And then, maybe I think we should take his testicle off. To show him it wouldn’t work. That the pain would be worse. Then I’d be right.

More in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.