Abstract
A new type of pain
Never covered in a lecture
Not neuropathic, visceral, post-procedural, cancer, phantom pains,
But existential.
She didn’t want pain meds
And she had her reasons -
We didn’t push.
What she wanted was to talk
To be heard
For us to be silent and stop
Asking her every second
If she’d moved bowels, vomited, slept…
What she wanted was to talk.
What other medication is there for pain of the soul?
Recommended Citation
Waddell, Kian
(2025)
"Existential Pain,"
The Medicine Forum: Vol. 26, Article 41.
Available at:
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/tmf/vol26/iss1/41
