Just a Little Pinch

With diagnoses, come treatment plans

With informed consent, comes expectations

Do we prepare for the worst at the risk of propagating anxiety?

Do we sugar coat, empower with “you can do its”?

How do I, yielding the needle, prepare you to receive it?

A little pinch coming, big bee sting

As we prepare for local anesthetic infiltration

This next medication can burn a bit, some say

It may feel kind of spicy, hot rays of sunshine in your IV

As the propofol bolus drifts away consciousness

Life after an organ transplant, esophagectomy, or tracheostomy

Can we ever really prepare a patient for the unknown yet to come?

Their pain level, their adverse drug effects, their course

We do our best to comfort, to treat, to heal

And perhaps, most importantly to inform and prepare

If this will be just a little pinch, or something more