Many many pain Part II

The Little India Riot really took Dr Og by surprise. Like I always emphasize, Dr Og is apolitical and this blog is not to kpkb about anything. But you see, working in a hospital, you tend to have met all kinds of people. From the migrant workers to the atas-nose-in-the-air Singaporean towkay who is too cheap to forsake his right to subsidised care.

One phenomenon about migrant workers is their pain threshold. This is something very important to understand as they may have clinical implications. (Disclaimer: As I am a fake doctor writing a humour blog, please don't quote this as scientific evidence. All facts presented in this blog are fake.)

The thing is that different races of migrant workers react to pain very differently. Our Thambis from India have the lowest pain threshold while the Thai migrant workers are on the other side of the pain threshold spectrum. The Chinese workers probably fall somewhere in between.

For the Indian worker, during palpation of the abdomen for suspected appendicitis, he grimaces and screams, "Mmmmmany mmmmany painnnnn.... ah mahhhhhhh". Only that my hands are still in the air and I haven't even touched you can... (And Dr Og is not a practitioner of Qi Gong or any form of martial arts capable of transferring energy through air.)

For the Thai worker, during palpation of the abdomen for suspected appendicitis, I am pressing hard on the right iliac fossa, I see the worker face turn green and is sweating away BUT he tells me, "No pain". CT abdomen then shows a ruptured appendix!

If the doctor is not careful or unaware of these cultural differences, unnecessary operations may take place or necessary operations may be delayed! In any case, all cases must be seen promptly and all evaluated carefully regardless.

So it came as a surprise, the Little India Riot. I always had this impression that our Indian migrant workers were timid gentle people with low threshold for pain. I dare not imagine if the riot had involved migrant workers from other races.