NUMB WITH CONVERSATION

The conversational approach to fixating and holding the patient's attention can be very useful in traumatic situations. There was an automobile accident in Portland, Oregon, and a man skidded on his face on a gravel road for about thirty feet. A gravel dirt road. He was brought into the hospital as an emergency case. One of the members of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis - we will call him Dan - who does a great deal of plastic surgery and oral surgery was on emergency call that night. He went in and found that the man was conscious and suffering a great deal of pain. Those of you who know Dan know what a marvelous talker he is. He has a steady stream of words, of humor, of interest, of information, a tremendous wealth of knowledge and humor. Dan said: ‘You really filled your face full of gravel and you know what kind of a job that makes for me. I've got to take tweezers and pick out every confounded little granule of sand and dirt and I am really going to have a job and I've really got to mop up that face and get half the hide off it and you have been suffering pain and you want some help out of it and you really ought to get some kind of pain relief and the sooner you start feeling less pain the better and I don't know what you ought to do while you're waiting for the nurse to bring something to inject in your arm but you really ought to listen to me while I am talking to you and explaining to you that I have to do certain things about your face. You know there is a gash here, that must have been a pretty sharp stone that cut that one, but here is a short one and here is a bad bruise and I really ought to mop it off with alcohol. It will hurt at first a little, but after it is done a few times the sting will deaden the tip of the nerves that are exposed and you stop feeling the sting of the alcohol, and did you ever try to make a violin? You know you can make violins out of myrtle wood, you can make them out of spruce wood. Did you ever try making one out of oak?’. Dan had won a national award for the best tone violin that he himself built out of myrtle wood, and Dan kept up his steady stream. Now and then he discussed the tremendous difficulty of really mopping up that face and putting in the stitches and wondering when the nurse would get around to the hypodermic. All the while, behind him, the nurse was passing Dan the right sort of instrument, the right sort of suture, the right sort of swab, and so on. Dan just kept up that steady stream and the patient said: ‘You are awfully gabby, aren't you?’. Dan said, 'You haven't heard me at my best I can talk with a still greater rate of speed just give me a chance and I'll really get into high.’ Then Dan started getting into high. ‘You know I think fast too and did you ever hear anybody sing the Bumble Bee? I'd better hum it to you. So Dan hummed the Bumble Bee and finally he said, You know that is about all. The patient said, What do you mean about all? Dan said: ‘Here's a mirror, take a look.’ The patient looked and he said: ‘When did you put in those sutures? When did you clean my face? When did I get an injection? I thought you were just talking to me, just getting ready.’ Dan said: ‘I've been working hard for over a couple of hours, about two and a half hours.’ The patient said: ‘You didn't. You've been talking about five or ten minutes.’ Dan said: ‘No, take a look, count those stitches if you want to, and how does your face feel?’ The patient said: ‘My face is numb.’
NUMB WITH CONVERSATION