Hacking at 0300

I usually don't blog about medical stuff here, but Allie Brosh's comments about the Wong-Baker pain scale are perfectly on-target. The Joint Commission accredits health care organizations and comes up with intrusive, well-intended but largely pointless standards that the rest of us have to uphold. A sort of "unfounded mandate." One of these is the requirement that we document pain levels in every patient on a scale of one to ten. For pediatric patients, we have this "FACES" scale that starts from a big smile and doesn't even get to a frown until number six. I like Allie's much better.

And her comment about not eating red food when you're sick is absolutely right. Never give your kid red popsicles when they've got a stomach bug; you'll just rush into the ER worried that they're throwing up blood.